Sometimes figuring out what to make for dinner can be a pain, especially when you’ve just returned from a weekend away or when you find yourself in a food rut. Today’s post touches on five different times ordering Blue Apron saved the day and helped us get deliciously fresh meals on the table that the whole family loved! Thank you to Blue Apron for sponsoring this post and offering the first 25 PBF readers who wish to try Blue Apron three FREE meals off their first order!
I’m not sure how things go in your house but when it comes to planning out our meals, the desire to take the time to meal plan ebbs and flows. I never really meal planned at all until Chase was born and now it’s something I do regularly otherwise dinner would look like frozen pizza and cereal more often than not!
But there have been a handful of other times outside of our normal day-to-day life when meal planning felt like a chore and I just wanted someone to handle the grocery shopping and recipe selection process for me. And that’s where Blue Apron came in and saved the day!
As I’m sure the long-time PBF readers know by now, we’ve been ordering Blue Apron in our house for years, ever since I first tried it at my friend Merri’s apartment in NYC and fell in love with the concept (and delicious udon noodle soup we made together)!
Now Blue Apron boxes appear on our doorstep whenever I am looking to feel inspired in the kitchen. Blue Apron delivers everything you need to create chef-designed recipes at home! Made with farm-fresh ingredients sourced from quality suppliers and artisans, the recipes feed two or four people (depending on the plan you select) and include a wide variety of cuisines and flavors. In the years I’ve been ordering Blue Apron, I’ve never made the same meal twice and love discovering new flavors and cooking techniques thanks to the detailed recipe cards that walk you through creating each meal with picture tutorials.
For today’s blog post, I thought it would be fun to chat a little bit about five times Blue Apron saved the day for us! I’ve ordered Blue Apron a handful of times for special occasions or to help me avoid the stress of shopping and meal planning and below you will find a short roundup of a couple of stand-out times seeing the Blue Apron box on our doorstep allowed me to exhale and not worry about dinner one bit!
5 Times Blue Apron Saved the Day
- When We Rented A House with Family on Vacation
Renting a big house with family or friends can be a great way to get away and plan a fun trip that also saves money since you don’t have to fork over a ton of cash to cover nightly hotel room stays. After Chase was born, we rented a cabin in the mountains with my family and when we talked about eating dinners at the cabin to save money and keep things close to home, I suggested ordering a couple of Blue Apron deliveries to bring with us so dinner planning would be done for us! Everyone loved the idea (my parents also regularly order Blue Apron) and we took turns making the meals for each other during our vacation so it felt like a special treat that everyone could contribute to and enjoy!
- When Guests Came to Visit
I love hosting people in our home and when our house is filled with the friends and family we love most, I am one happy camper! What does start to wear on me, however, is feeding everyone all the time, especially when we have visitors arriving constantly like we did in the months following Chase’s birth. And that’s where Blue Apron saved the day! I ordered the four-person family plan to have on hand when my mother-in-law and Les came to visit since we weren’t going out to eat with a newborn on our hands and I didn’t want to feel stressed about running out to the grocery store and figuring out meals everyone would love. Since I know they’re also big-time Blue Apron fans, I had a feeling ordering the family plan would be a hit and deliver fresh, high-quality and delicious meals to our doorstep, making meal planning during their visit a breeze!
- Right After We Returned Home from a Weekend Away
Returning home after a weekend away often means arriving home to an empty refrigerator and piles of laundry begging to be done. Well, when Ryan and I had plans to be away for a long weekend in the past, I ordered a Blue Apron to have delivered to our house before we left so everything we needed for a filling and fresh meal on the Sunday night we returned would be waiting at home for us! (Since Blue Apron delivers to our house on Thursdays, I had the chance to unpack and refrigerate everything before we left and knew the ingredients would likely still be fresh and tasty on Sunday evening.) It was SO nice not to have to think about dinner or rush out to the grocery store the minute we walked through the door from a weekend away from home.
- When We Needed a “Date Night In” Before We Found a Babysitter After Baby
Without family in the area, it took Ryan and me a long time to find a babysitter we loved and trusted to watch Chase. (We’re talking months and months… and months.) Neither of us minded curling up at home with our baby but we did start to brainstorm ways we could make our weekend evenings at home a little more special. Ordering Blue Apron deliveries was a great way for us to enjoy a “date night in” where we could make a recipe together and have it feel like an experience rather than a chore! Ryan and I both absolutely love the vegetarian Blue Apron meals (we’ve also found that the portions are usually larger) so ordering vegetarian Blue Apron deliveries on occasion after Chase was born gave us something to look forward to when we felt rather house-bound.
- When We Were In A Big-Time Food Rut
Food ruts are REAL and they are not fun at all. Sometimes Ryan and I just want to throw in the towel when it comes to making dinner for the family and eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cereal all week long. When we notice frozen pizzas and mac and cheese creeping up on the menu a little too frequently, ordering a new Blue Apron delivery is a great way to change things up and help me feel inspired in the kitchen again. I love the way Blue Apron has introduced me to many new spices and flavors and once I make a couple of their meals, I’m often reminded how much I really do enjoy making creative and delicious meals for our family.
Blue Apron PBF Reader Offer
For those who would like to try Blue Apron, the first 25 PBF readers who place their first order will receive three FREE meals! I hope you love Blue Apron as much as we do in our house!
Question of the Day
- Have you ever tried Blue Apron or another meal delivery service?
- What have been some of your favorite meals you’ve tried?
Ryan and I still talk about the stuffed shells recipe we made from our early Blue Apron days! I saved the recipe card and make it every so often when we want a hearty and delicious dinner, especially on a chilly fall or winter evening!
![\"Quantcast\"/](\"//pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-1e3-7hOJ_U8Bg.gif\")
Love the idea of a meal ready post travel! When I’m traveling I eat out quite a bit and always crave a healthy meal at home.
I hadn’t used Blue Apron in ages and then accidentally ordered it last week – I was annoyed at first because they weren’t necessarily recipes I would have chosen, but they were all three delicious! I love the idea to order it on vacation, we’re renting a house next month and I’m going to check if they deliver to that area, great idea!
It really was so helpful for us! If you know the delivery dates and when you’ll be at the house, you can have it shipped directly there which is even better so you’re not running out to the grocery store or packing a big cooler!
These meals look delicious! I haven’t tried Blue Apron, but we get our milk from Winder Farms, and they recently began offering meal service similar to Blue Apron. We’ve tried it a couple of times now and really like it, especially when we are in a meal rut.
~Christie
That’s so neat that you have a local option for something like this!!
I love blue apron! My favorite thing about them is really expanding my cooking skills that I can use even after I’ve made a meal. I now know how to make salmon burgers thanks to them! Yum!
oooh i’ve never received salmon burgers in one of my deliveries but that is RIGHT up my alley!
When you order Blue Apron, do the recipes have the amount of each ingredient you need so you can recreate the meal later on?
Yes!
Oo this would be a great solution for rental houses. Didnt think of that one! Ive never tried blue apron… I like cooking and sourcing my own ingredients, but I do think its fun to change it up. Wish I could just purchase meal by meal instead of a subscription.
I still have yet to try Blue Apron!
We used to get Blue Apron once a month, but I put the service on hold while we were moving/travelling these last few months. Maybe it’s time to activate my subscription again?
And I can definitely relate to you on the ‘food rut’ thing! Sometimes we can never decide what to eat because nothing sounds good!
I heard a joke one time that the hardest part of marriage is answering the question, “what do you want to eat?”
I love blue apron! I had never thought to order it to right before a long weekend, but I love the idea!
I have never tried Blue Apron, but I have really been wanting to. I need to order some meals in the near future, because Chris and I have definitely been in a food rut lately!
Such a good idea to bring it to a vacation rental! We’ve had Blue Apron a number of times and have been happy almost every time! It opened our eyes to foods we normally would not eat and have some new recipes in our rotation. We also learned that we do not like Kale; we tried it, but just not for us!
You mentioned in this post and a few others that it took you a while to find a babysitter that you trusted. Would you consider doing a post focusing on that and the process you went through to find someone? My husband and I are in a similar situation where we don’t have family around to help out and I would love your insight on how to go about finding a reliable person!
Yes, please!!!!
I use it as a way to get new inspiration when we’re in a dinner rut. It can be annoying eating the same thing all the time so its nice to have something expand your horizons!
The Blue Apron meal card that we revisit all the time is their Salmon Caesar Salad with homemade sourdough croutons! Except we always make about double the amount of croutons the recipe calls for…
https://www.blueapron.com/recipes/salmon-caesar-salad
Nick and I have been toying with the idea of a meal delivery service like Blue Apron. He does such a good job of meal planning, finding new and exciting recipes, getting all the highest-quality ingredients… but that is so much work! During the summer when he’s not teaching, it’s fun. During the school year, it can be a chore. I’m thinking reasons “Coming back from out of town” and “Getting out of a food rut” are also good selling points. Maybe we’ll bite the bullet soon!
I have used Blue Apron in the pas and while I did love the idea, it wasn’t really my jam. I actually just recently fell in love with Home Chef. The boxes are a little more cost effective and less labor intensive. I do love the immersive learning experience I get with each new recipe. It’s really cool when the first time I’ve ever tried something was when I cooked it myself!
I STILL haven’t tried Blue Apron! Someday we’re going to…it seems so convenient!
I never would think to use it with guests or when on vacation, what a great idea! I definitely love to use these sorts of things after coming back from a trip. It’s so nice to know dinners will be taken care of!
LOVE all of these ideas, I would have never thought to order Blue Apron when traveling or any other situation then date night!
Such a smart idea for ordering when you get back from vacation! We just got back from a 11 day trip & found ourselves in the grocery store at 1:30 am after a few flight delays, just to simply pick up eggs & fruit for the next day, before we could really meal plan do a full shopping trip!!