Thank you, Blue Apron!

     It wasn't as if I'd fallen to the depths of Hungry Man dinners for the last few years but life happened and the priorities fell in a different place.  One child had turned, not without significant drama, into two and naptimes fell from two down to rare and cherished.  Five years on a single income did not engender in me the thrifty spirit of many a mommy blogger.  I didn't want to blog about the meal I made with only $3.75 worth of ingredients, not because I couldn't but because being thrifty isn't something I find particularly exciting, unless it is airfare.

     In August of this last year, I went back to work teaching full-time, after subbing for two years at the school I used to teach at.  I had always hoped to go back when Rylynn, my youngest was in kindergarten but made the plunge a year early when a job opened and the cards fell into place.  This year was incredibly busy.  I very cockily assumed I could get my ESOL certification while getting used to my first year teaching with the added pressure of children at home.  It just about drove me crazy to spend my weekends writing papers on top of writing new curriculum and trying to be a good mom but it's summer now, and I made it.  

     About Christmas I made some changes to stave off the crazy.  I detailed my car, something I had never done and that epiphany opened the door to a whole host of things to make my life more organized and less overwhelming.  I asked the mother of a student who cleans home to clean out home on a regular basis.  While at my cousin's, they told me about Blue Apron, a meal delivery service they use to cook gourmet meals while working full time as lawyers.  They gave us a free week and I was in.  The box comes each Friday with pre-measured ingredients and a beautiful colored full-sized recipe card.  The meal takes no more than an hour to cook.  It has been the perfect match for our family.  The recipes are varied, healthy, and creative.  

    The picture above is one of our meals for this week, Beef Tacos & Roasted Green Beans with Cucumber-Avocado Salsa.  These tacos had some classic Mexican flavors but the salsa's use of cucumber and radish added a unique peppery crunch.  Instead of spending my valuable weekend time trying to decide on a weekly menu, I was able to open a box Friday afternoon and know I had two healthy meals for my family to try. Thank you, Blue Apron!