PROMPT. What was the last thing you made?
What materials did you use?
Is there something you want to make,
but you need to clear some time for it?*

A meal. My cooking. At home. From scratch. With Blue Apron.

Blue Apron makes cooking fun and easy. We’ll provide you with all the ingredients that you need to make a delicious meal in exactly the right proportions. (- Blue Apron)

(Thanks to friend Jayne Vidheecharoen for her review of her experience with Blue Apron. She jump-started me; no pressure and no fuss.)

This post is part of Reverb – 2014 Reboot.

And to finish answering the prompt, I used the ingredients provided by Blue Apron PLUS my salt, pepper, olive oil, water, cooking utensils, and dish ware.

As far something I want to make but need to clear some time for – going to the grocery store and purchasing ingredients to cook meals from epicurious.com – basically going free range cooking, without the pre-measured ingredients. (Oooo!)

Pretty simple want (which I have done).

For the rest of this post, I share about my Blue Apron experience, if you are interested. (And by the way, I have cooked more meals since Thanksgiving.)

Want to try Blue Apron? If you want to try Blue Apron, let me know; I have a few extra meal boxes to give away. I get zero kickback. Just send me your email address to have a box sent to you. Free. No obligation to Blue Apron.

Habit of Sometimes Cooking

In the mid-2000s when I moved back to the Bay Area, I cooked more. Why? I was getting the feel of my new place, I worked from home, and I had a boyfriend; hunkering down at home makes for a good excuse to cook meals and spend time with together. After I broke up with the boyfriend and then started working in San Francisco, regularly cooking fell off of my radar. Socializing, eating out with friends, happy hours, post-work activities – time away from home. That said, I dabbled in cooking – much more dabbling than actually cooking.

Excuses for Not Cooking. I keep odd hours (excuse number 1). There are many convenient eating-out-with-friends places in San Francisco (excuse number 2). I enjoy socializing over meals. (This is not an excuse; this feeds my soul – no pun intended.)

Habit of Cooking

I am “making” meals with a purpose – to create the habit of cooking (and enjoying) meals at home. Blue Apron delivers the ingredients and recipes. I prep the ingredients, cook the meal, eat the food, and clean the dishes and utensils.I am also learning how to cook better; there are on-line videos and tips for reference, as well.

Simple.

Thanks to Jayne

Jayne’s perspectives – value, lifelong learning, simplicity & quality, feel good viral distribution – spoke to me. A few of her tidbits from her review –

• Value – At $9.99 per serving it was a no-brainer, especially since living in San Francisco … way more than that. But for now this is a good baby step towards spending slightly less money eating out and wasting less money on groceries I that go uneaten in my fridge. I’m trying to just create a habit and get more comfortable in the kitchen, I’ll optimize and refactor later.
• Lifelong Learning – Other companies only highlight saving time, but just being saving time only appeals to my logical side and not to my emotional side. … Their approach makes learning to cook a lot more fun as opposed to making me feel an anxious newbie.
• Simplicity & Quality –  When I first signed up there were only two types of boxes, omnivore or vegetarian.** I’m not just paying for groceries or recipe cards but chef expertise. It’s the convenience of trusting a more qualified person to make decisions I don’t want to be bothered with … but the paradox of choice is part of the very problem I’m trying to solve.
• Feel Good Viral Distribution – … you invite to send some friends free boxes of meals. … I get to feel good by giving my friend a gift that costs me absolutely nothing. I don’t get any sort of referral kickback for new sign ups, just the intrinsic joy of sharing something I like.

My First Meal: Cod Over Linguini

My first Blue Apron meal/recipe – Cod Over Linguini.

 

Simple. Very simple. VERY.

• STEP 1 – Ingredients
• STEP 2 – Prep & Cook
• STEP 3 – Plate & Eat

Cooking More Regularly

Yes, I am cooking more regularly – with and without Blue Apron. Through the years, I have collected or been gifted several cooking books; select recipes from select cookbooks are in rotation.

Tiny Habit. As part of my small steps toward cooking and cooking more, I have created tiny habits for myself around preparing ingredients, plating the meal, and cleaning up. Go figure!

Next step? Reorganizing my kitchen. (Small steps)

While not necessarily a meal – What is the last thing you made? What do you want to make?***

*prompt from Reverb10, Author Gretchen Rubin
** Blue Apron now has a mix-and-match approach.
*** In December 2010, my answer was a Halloween cow costume.