Cooking Blue Apron Meals When You Can't Cook

Anyone who knows me knows that I don't cook and that my husband is responsible for all the delicious home cooked meals and ridiculously good baked treats made in our home. My role in the kitchen is usually to assist as needed and do the dishes. I believe my mother did her best, but for whatever reasons I lack the cooking gene. I want to want to cook, but I just don't. 

Prior to this year, it had been four years since we last used Blue Apron. It was never something that we would do on a regular basis, but it was nice to do it every now and then to change things up a little. During the early weeks of quarantine when grocery shopping was hit and miss we ended up doing Blue Apron three times. I was newly working at home, and feeling a lot less pressed for time in general because everything was shut down. It was fine. The meal portions were decent, and the food was good. I enjoyed it okay when we did it together, but it didn't make me fall in love with cooking and it isn't something I'd ever do by myself. So imagine my annoyance when my husband tells me that another (yes another) accidental Blue Apron delivery was en route. Mind you, this man is in Arizona and won't be coming back any time soon. The third and last time we did Blue Apron together was an accident too! I told him he needs to delete his account so this would never happen again, but alas months later another box showed up. I had no idea it was coming. I'd already prepped my meals for the week, when three meals meant to serve four people arrived on my doorstep on a Wednesday evening. I was very, very upset for about 15-20 minutes because I had absolutely no desire to cook! Yes, everything is there for you, but so what! I still didn't want to do it!

Beef and Udon Noodles

Pesto Chicken Foccacia Sandwich

Challenge accepted. When life hands you Blue Apron. You cook it. I've never cooked meals like this alone, so I decided to step out of my comfort zone, and no way was I letting $104.00 go to waste. I skipped my upcoming grocery pick up. I planned out what I would cook when, from most perishable to least perishable and accepted that I would be cooking actual real meals all week. Alone. I'm so slow in the kitchen I already knew every meal was going to take me much longer than it says, with no guarantee that anything I made would actually be edible! Work had been super busy for going on two weeks so by the time Friday rolled around, the last thing I wanted to do was spend an hour plus cooking and then doing dishes. I was immediately reminded of why I don't like to bother. I understand that it can be worth it when you cook something that you really end up enjoying, but I just have a really big problem with the time it takes to get there. 

I was not thrilled, but there was nothing else to do, but pour the wine and get started. I probably shouldn't feel like I accomplished anything because it's just cooking, but I do! I've never done that much cooking in my life. Some of you probably cook three meals every week, like it's no thing, but not me. For my husband or anyone who actually cooks, these recipes are probably not that hard but I found them to be quite complex and laborious. I'm not kidding. So many steps. So many ingredients I'd never heard of. There were a few mishaps, but three meals were produced. Everything was edible, but there was only one real winner. The Foccacia sandwiches were pretty good, but I actually enjoyed the left over bread toasted, by itself with melted cheese a little bit better. The Hot Honey Crispy Chicken was a total fail, if you can believe that considering how easy chicken and rice should be, but you know they try to make it all fancy and that was ultimately my undoing. The Noodle dish was fab if I do say so myself, but it's probably the foolproof one that nobody can mess up. Overall, it was was rough and I'm glad it's over.

It was 10 days from the day the box arrived to the day I cooked that last meal. I don't recommend that at all. Some of the veggies did not make it, and I know I waited too long, but it was three sets of four serving meals I didn't know was coming and had to eat alone. It was the best I could do! I was starving by the time I ate every meal for two reasons. One, because I have a life and things to do, so I couldn't start cooking until between 5:30-6:45pm every single time. Two, I'm so damn slow! 

I thought it might be fun for my husband to take a peek at exactly how things went down without him around to supervise. I made a video documenting the entire process that he won't know about it until he finds it here on YouTube. I'm guessing he will probably be equal parts appalled and amused. 

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Is Blue Apron Worth The Money?