I was in a rut.

A huge, unhealthy, "I refuse to grocery shop again anytime soon with toddlers", mealtime rut.

So, in the quest to find a solution that works for our family, I reached out to friends and got a free week's trial (3 dinner meals for 2 people) of Blue Apron meals.

Here are my thoughts:

The process of signing up for Blue Apron was almost too easy. I was running out the door to a postpartum shift and had already wasted like 45 minutes reading every blog possible on what meal subscription service was going to work best for us. (There are an insane amount of options!!) By the time I had finally decided to go for it, it was 5 minutes until I had to leave. I picked three meals that looked interesting and different from our normal lineup and picked a delivery day I thought would work best. When I told my meat-and-potato-loving husband that I had signed up his first reaction was a hard eye roll. He thought that there was no way Blue Apron would be valuable to us for the price while having to still physically cook the meals. Our three meal choices were: Creamy Lumaca Rigata Pasta, Persian-Style Chicken & Crispy Rice and Crispy Catfish & Spicy Vegetable Curry.

Day One

Creamy Lumaca Rigata Pasta with Asparagus and Goat Cheese

By far the easiest of the meals, this was a hit. One thing I really liked about Blue Apron was that the estimated times to prep and cook were fairly accurate for me. (Even with two toddlers who demand A LOT of attention during prep/cooking.) This meal ended up being a creamy, flavorful dish that our kids devoured. I loved having fresh, healthy ingredients and veggies that we wouldn't normally buy to cook with.

The prep! I'm so surprised that shipped veggies look, feel and taste this fresh!

Hi asaparagus, you are delicious.

Adding ingredients! Pre-portioned ingredients make this part super fast.

This butter was incredibly creamy and delicious.

We are huge fans of pasta so we were excited at this point.

So visually appealing! Did I actually make this??!?

This mixed goat cheese was the bomb.

I'm pretty sure I forgot to take a picture of the complete final project because I was busy stuffing my face with this incredibly yummy food.

Day Two

Persian-Style Chicken and Crispy Rice with Summer Squash, Currants & Lemon Yogurt

This dish's flavor was so unique! We loved it! Once again, our toddlers were demanding during dinner time but we were able to get them involved in the cooking process. I loved cooking something as simple as rice in a new way (we baked it in the oven with olive oil at one point) and experiencing a new twist on a normal dinner staple.

Pre-prep set up! I liked that all the ingredients were in one place and it was easy to carry around the recipe guide and grab the items from their respective spots of the house.

I love how Blue Apron dishes are colorful and have exciting textures!

Baking half of the rice in olive oil!

At this point, our house smelled GOOD.

People, I actually made this!!!! I can't even believe it.

This was immediately before he devoured the whole plate in like 5 minutes.

Day Three

Crispy Catfish & Spicy Vegetable Curry with Charred Lime

This was the meal I was most worried about our family actually eating. To my surprise, my husband exclaimed, "THIS ONE IS MY FAVORITE, BY FAR!!!", shortly after eating the first few bites. I'm a pretty picker eater so I wasn't very excited about catfish but it was okay and didn't taste bad. The curry was delicious and though we didn't make it too spicy for the sake of the kiddos, it was still great.

The last meal, boooo!

I was impressed with the quality of the meats provided for every meal. Including this catfish!

YUMMMM

We didn't put a ton of curry in so it wouldn't be too spicy for toddlers. These were the toppings we ended up with!

Charred lime is delicious! #summertreat

The finished product!

I was surprised and excited that I could make something that looked so great!

Would I try Blue Apron again?

Yes, I plan on it!

I don't think, for my family, this is practical every week. It took us almost a full week to have enough time together to make all three meals. I would have been overwhelmed receiving fresh food and veggies had we signed up for the following week. Blue Apron makes it easy to skip weeks and look ahead at what meals will be coming next. I do like that the 2 person meal can fill my husband, me and our two toddlers. (And lets face it, they eat nearly as much as us on a good day.) The convenience of not having to shop around for really yummy, fresh ingredients was so nice. Sometimes my usual Pinterest recipes can get a little overboard with "weird" ingredients and I'm not really willing to search the grocery store on a great ingredient hunt with my toddlers in tow. Having pre-portioned amounts was super convenient, too. When I normally cook, I usually add extra spices and "flair" but with Blue Apron meals, we didn't need to and the pre-portioned amounts were perfect. If waste and extra trash is a concern for you, I feel like this meal subscription service could do better in this department. There wasn't an "excessive" amount but it is worth noting. I also loved how each recipe had high quality photos showing me exactly what steps I needed to complete. Some instructions were different than I had ever prepared that ingredient previously so having a photo of what I was supposed to do was very helpful.

Overall, I think Blue Apron and other services like HelloFresh or Home Chef are really changing the way that families cook. It allows you to get healthy, real food that may not be native to your region and is super, super tasty. This is perfect if you are in a meal rut or if you are in a season of your life where planning or time management is hard. I can't wait to prepare for a hectic week and sign up for another week of meals.

Taking stress off of our family, having extra time on the weekends where we don't need to grocery shop and spending no time deciding what meals we will eat makes this service most valuable to us. Will you be trying a meal subscription service in the future? Have you already? Tell us about your experience in the comments below!