Taco Tuesday is Great and All, But…

This post is sponsored by Blue Apron. If you’d like to give it a try, you can get your own first box with 3 free meals when you sign up here!

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Brandon does the cooking for us just about every night. He also does the grocery shopping. And he’s great at it!

Alas, I am no help at all when it comes to meal planning.

I wish I was someone who knew how to take some garlic, tomatoes, and whatever else and turn it into something new and inventive, but I’m not. Neither of us are. It’s easy to put things on autopilot when we’re busy and we cook the same meals over and over.

We love Blue Apron because it gets us out of our dinner rut, especially during busy times like the holiday season. Everything can be made in 40 minutes or less, each menu is between 500-800 calories per person, and you get all the fresh ingredients you need in exactly the right proportions. If you don’t need a week, skip it. (You can skip or cancel at any time.)

And ahem… New Year’s resolutions, anyone? More cooking at home. Healthier meals. Check and check.

Sometimes the recipes are for meals that are completely new to us, and sometimes they’re reminders to make something we’ve had before that sort of fell out of the rotation. Like a couple of weeks ago, one of our dinners was pork chops and yellow tomato sauce, with roasted potatoes and broccoli.

Broccoli is one of my favorites, but we had gotten into the habit of either eating it raw with a dip or steaming it. Why had we not been roasting our broccoli lately? It’s so easy to make, but so good!

The broccoli and potatoes were both supporting players to the main dish, the pork chops. Tasty! I think the tomatoes that went on top would be equally good on chicken (look at me, sort of experimenting). It was a new dish for our family, but nothing so out there that the kids would balk.

Speaking of the kids… We’re a family of 5, and we’ve gone with both types of plans (2-Person or Family Plan). I’m sure my kids’ appetites will increase as they get bigger, but for now we can get away with the 2-Person plan if Brandon and I each share a little of our portions, or the Family Plan which usually leaves us with leftovers.

You can see what’s coming up weeks in advance. Blue Apron is always adding new dishes to the menu every week, and you can choose any combination of recipes for each delivery. Instead of the old standby ‘Taco Tuesday’ (great but predictable), we might look forward to ‘spicy honey-lime chicken tostadas‘ or ‘mushroom & potato tacos with avocado & cara cara orange salad.’

See? We wouldn’t think to plan those dinners, but we would all sure want to eat them! Yum. The variety of recipes is what I love about Blue Apron the most.

p.s. Yes, the first 50 readers to take advantage of this offer will get 3 meals free in their first Blue Apron order! Just click here to visit Blue Apron.