Pretending to be a Chef with Blue Apron

While I love food, I’m not really that great of a cook. Definitely not the point of being called a chef. I mean, I have a few decently delicious meals that I make… I just get so darn BORED with our recipe rotation. Also, my recipes tend to be like 4 steps which include a dance break. I also stop by Let’s Dish a few times a year to keep things interesting.

Oh, and hotdogs are a staple for the summertime.
What?! They are DELICIOUS!

Anyways, one of my awesome readers* suggested I try out Blue Apron so I decided to step up my game.

What is Blue Apron?

  • A service that delivers all the fresh ingredients you need to make chef-designed recipes at home. They ship right to your door (in a refrigerated box) and deliver to over 80% of the country.
  • Each menu is between 500 – 700 calories per person and all meals can be prepared in 40 minutes or less.
  • You can get three meals per week for two, four or six people for $9.99 per person with free shipping.

I completed the online survey on what types of food we like (beef, chicken, seafood – there are also vegetarian options) and the Blue Apron website listed the three meals we would be receiving. I set my delivery up for the following week and added a note to my calendar so that I didn’t buy too much at the grocery store.

When our order arrived, it was in a HUGE box to accommodate the freezer packs. I later learned that the freezer packs are recyclable… after I threw them in the trash. Oopsie.

blue apron

We received three meals in our order:
1. Maple & Ginger Glazed Salmon with Watercress, Orange & Parsnip Salad
2. Seared Pork Medallions with Rhubarb Chutney & Sauteed Freekah
3. Lemon-Parsley Chicken Thighs with Squash & Zucchini Salad and Red Quinoa

I was able to make two of the meals this week, but ran out of time and will be freezing the ingredients for the Lemon-Parsley Chicken Thighs.

Maple & Ginger Glazed Salmon with Watercress, Orange & Parsnip Salad
Okay, I can follow directions pretty well, but I was still a bit intimidated when I read this recipe’s instructions. Also, neither Travis or I are fans of Watercress… at all. So, after much deliberation I decided to skip making the accompanying salad. I have the ingredients for the yummy sounding vinaigrette though, so I may throw it together over a type of leaf that we both like. Instead, I made a side of edamame that went well with the salmon’s flavoring.

Blue Apron Salmon meal - Pocketful of Joules

One thing I like about Blue Apron is that you get these great recipe pages, so if you really like something you can easily replicate it in the future. We LOVED the salmon and will definitely be making it again. However, Travis and I must be ogres because the serving size of the salmon was just not enough!

Seared Pork Medallions with Rhubarb Chutney & Squash and Zucchini Salad
As I mentioned, things got crazy this week (as they always do) so I combined the pork meal with the squash and zucchini from the chicken meal. I figure that the freekha and quinoa would keep easily for another time.

We love pork recipes in this house and I’m quite familiar with baking pork tenderloin, as well as various takes on pork chops. This meal was a bit different than our typical meal though… and MUCH fancier.

At this point “Chef” Joules started to take over and I just started throwing things around in a chef-ish blur. I followed the directions perfectly for the pork medallions and chutney, but I went a little nutty with the veggies. I basically just misted the asparagus, squash and zucchini with olive oil and then used the Blue Apron thyme, sea salt and pepper.

seared pork medallions - Pocketful of Joules

We LOVED the pork from this meal and I was much happier with the amount of meat – we even had enough for Jack, who devoured it. The rhubarb chutney was a bit strong, but maybe we’re just not used to rhubarb’s flavor. The veggies turned out awesome, mostly due to the quality of the vegetables provided. I wish I could get their asparagus supplier on speed-dial!

My Thoughts on Blue Apron:

Pros:

  • The meals were delicious and familiarized me with cooking with ingredients that I’ve never used.
  • It was incredibly convenient to come home from work and have my grocery shopping done for me. Now if only they would throw in some yogurts and teddy grahams…
  • The recipe cards are great and make it easy to make the recipes again in the future.

Cons:

  • Some of the portions were quite small for the price. The salmon meal was really tasty, but Travis could have eaten the entire amount on his own, leaving nothing for me and Jack!
  • We have three people in our family – so two servings are not enough for us. However, if we upgraded to four servings (with some for Jack and more for Travis) it would be $40 per meal, which is WAY over our daily home cooking budget.
  • You don’t really get much choice in the menu, other than the types of meats you eat. We didn’t like some of the side items, which is both a waste of money AND a waste of food.

I’m really glad that we had a chance to try Blue Apron, because it was a fun way to bust us out of our rut. I’m excited to have a few new recipes to add to our rotation. While a regular weekly delivery wouldn’t work for us, I can see it being a really great option for a family on the go. A family that has a more advanced tasting palate than ours…

Would you like to try Blue Apron?
The nice people at Blue Apron gave me a special discount code for Pocketful of Joules readers! My first 50 readers will get 30% off their first Blue Apron box; click here if you’d like to try it out.

What do you think – would you use a service like Blue Apron to mix up your typical meals? Are you a fan of stuff like watercress and freekha? Am I weird for not really knowing what a freekha is?

 

Disclosure: I was provided a Blue Apron order to review; however all thoughts and opinions in this review are my own. I am not rewarded or compensated in any way if you click through to purchase from Blue Apron.

*Thanks Jessy for your suggestion to try out Blue Apron! If anyone else has a company/service that you’re dying for me to review, let me know.

Like what you see? Share me with your friends!

Toddler Fun: The Crib to Bed Switch

I really, really didn’t want to switch Jack into a bed. I imagined that as soon as we made the switch, my happy little sleeper would suddenly be having middle-of-the-night dance parties. I kept putting it off, but knew we wanted to do it in the spring/early summer. Our pediatrician suggested we make the switch a couple months before potty training so that it wasn’t too much change at once.

Then, my husband texted me a picture of Jack climbing our backyard fence.
CRAP.

If he can climb the fence, he sure as heck can climb the crib! Not that he had tried, but still I felt like if I KNEW it might happen then not only would it happen, but he will fall on his head and hurt himself too. Of course!

His room was mostly childproofed, but I put in an order for some better outlet covers that would snap closed if he grabs a cord out (these).

I also used a very classy trick to keep his closet doors closed:

Door childproofing

Yeah, that’s right. I knotted two ponytail holders together and looped them over his closed doorknobs. Just call me MacGyver.

The last change I made is that I added a gate to the doorway, so that if he does wander out in the middle of the night he won’t take a header down the stairs (we have this one and love it).

door gate

I had off work for 5 days straight, so I figured that would be a great time to deal with any non-sleeping shenanigans. So, I grabbed my screwdriver and took the front rails off of his crib, converting it into the “toddler bed” option. We are holding off on putting him in a twin bed until it’s actually necessary. He still fits in his bed fine AND I want to use the adorable Land of Nod bedding as long as possible!

Jack immediately got in bed and posed for “a cheese”… so I was pretty hopeful that he wouldn’t fight going to bed that night.

new bed

After his initial try-out, I added on a hand-me-down safety bed rail that we had sitting around.

At bedtime, there was a little whining – he likes to rock with mommy in the rocking chair as long as possible – but he went to sleep within a few minutes. When I went to sleep a few hours later, I didn’t turn on my fan (white noise) so that I could better hear if he got out of bed to throw every single item from his dresser on the floor and stomp on it. I woke up probably 6 times… to nothing.

Around 9:00am the next morning I hear, “Momma? Momma! Milk and Pancakes!” and I go in his room to find him sitting up in bed calling out his order. Um…okay.

crib morning

So, the first night was a success, but I was still super nervous about nap time… which was also a non-issue.

I’m not even kidding, this whole crib to bed switch was the most UNEVENTFUL milestone of them ALL. It’s been 2 weeks and he very rarely even gets out of his bed in the morning – he just sits in there and calls for us to come and get him.

After all that worrying and planning, he totally seems to not notice that he’s able to run wild if he wants to. Perhaps it’s because of the crib rail or maybe it’s just because Jack LOVES his sleep… but I’m thrilled that this didn’t turn out to be some sort of sleeping issue that regressed him to waking up every 90 minutes. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it stays this easy!

Next up is getting rid of the pacifier…

Did your kid totally glide by with a ‘special milestone’ and make it a non-event? Did you switch into a convertible crib or go right to a bed with your toddler? Do you wish you could sleep for 13 hours straight without people thinking you’re a lazy butt?

 

Disclosure: Pocketful of Joules is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

Like what you see? Share me with your friends!

Hair & Top 10 Reasons Why You Guys Are Weird

Do you follow me on Facebook or Instagram? Well, if you do you know that I was SICK SICK SICK of my hair — the top part was a medium brown (natural color) and the bottom was lighter from some grown out highlights. The last straw was when I went to get a manicure yesterday and the lady complimented me on my ombre hair. Um… NO. I’m going to a friend’s wedding tomorrow and I just couldn’t stand looking at my hair mess for a minute longer… so I stopped by Walgreens on my way home and grabbed a box of “light golden brown” with the goal of going a couple shades lighter to match Jack’s hair.

Yeah, I spent an hour dying my hair the EXACT SAME color that it was. The first picture is right before I put the dye on and the second picture is this morning after I dyed — same bathroom, same lighting. Same hair color.

hair

The only difference is that it is now one color instead of having an unintentional ombre look. What’s funny is that I’ve used this exact color before with the results I wanted (a few years ago) so now I’m just kind of pissed off. I’m going to give it a couple weeks (with some beach time in there) to see what it fades to, but it looks like I might have to spend the big bucks to have my salon do it. Stupid hair.

Anyways, moving on…

A while back I asked for some “Top 10” list ideas from you all, since according to every blogging article out there you can attract 11,790,849 people to your blog by doing a Top 10 list. One of my awesome readers suggested that I share the top weird search terms that have brought people to my blog, which I thought was a fantastic idea. Because you people are WEIRD!

Blog Searches that Have Led to Pocketful of Joules

1. I love you. That’s mean. I’m joules
No, I’m Joules. Fun fact: I held off on saying “I love you” for a long, long time and would often reply to boyfriend’s admissions of love with a heartfelt “OH! Thank you.” Which I guess could be considered mean.

2. I got a pocketful of random shit
I usually don’t carry anything in my pockets, besides occasionally a tube of chapstick. Maybe you should clean your pockets out more often?

3. After break up joules thoughts
Hmmm… were you trying to spell the word jealous, because that makes more sense. But if you think about me after your breakup, maybe it’s because you have a crush on me? Or maybe you just read my blog a lot and want to get together to have a hard cider and talk about what a dick your ex-boyfriend turned out to be?

4. Burglars use squirrels
What?! How would a  burglar use a squirrel? Do you think maybe they can be trained to find diamonds?

5. Wild Horse Sex
Yeah, we’ve talked about this. A lot. Perv.

6. Is there a way to spread cookie butter on top of homemade marshmallows
YES. Got a pen? Okay. Take a knife. Dip it into the container of cookie butter. Remove the knife from the container and spread the cookie butter on the marshmallow. Put it in your mouth. Leave the knife out, because we all know that you’re not just eating one.

7. A seriously goofy woman
Yup, you found her.

8. joule i love u
OH! Thank you.

9. Squirrels having sex in a sock
Wait, what? Is this something you SAW or something you WANT to see? I’m confused either way. Also, if you just saw a sock darting around on the ground I’m pretty sure my first thought wouldn’t be, “Oh, there are obviously a couple squirrels having sex in that sock.”

10. naked handymen for hire ohio
Okay, I love men and I love men bodies. But NOBODY wants to see a dude’s dingle-dangles flying around when he’s using a hammer or a nail gun. MMMMMmmmkay?!

Did you find my blog by typing in some sort of random search term? What do you think these people were REALLY looking for when they found me? If you saw a sock writhing around, would you assume squirrels are having sex inside? Do you remember in Beaches when Barbara Hershey’s character was SO IMPRESSED at how daring she was to dye her hair… only to have it turn out the exact same color?

Like what you see? Share me with your friends!