A Delicious Melted Leek and Fontina Focaccia Pizza

We do one order of Blue Apron meals each month and this month was just as delicious as every other month has been. This month our two meals were a Melted Leek and Fontina Focaccia Pizza with Brussels Sprouts and Lemon Ricotta and a Soy Glazed Chicken with Soba Noodles, Broccoli and Cashews. As has always been the case, the ingredients were so pretty and so fresh! They use farm-fresh high quality ingredients and that is always the first thing I notice when opening my box. (The ingredients are shipped in a refrigerated box so there's no reason to worry if you aren't there when it arrives). 

The first Blue Apron meal we made was the Melted Leek and Fontina Focaccia Pizza with Brussels Sprouts and Lemon Ricotta. Although I like Brussels Sprouts I was a little unsure if I was going to like them and the Leeks on my pizza but the way they mixed together brought out their natural sweetness and it was absolutely delicious. For the side there were carrots and parsnips that we roasted and finished off with a bit of honey and lemon juice. I have always been a huge fan of roasted carrots but have to admit I had never had roasted parsnips before and now I have to say I love them. The addition of the honey and lemon on them was the perfect touch. 

I thought the prep for this meal was pretty easy. It was just some basic chopping and you were supposed to grate the cheese but I actually only grated some of it and then just cut it into thin slices which worked great too. One of my favorite things about Blue Apron is having all of the ingredients shipped right to our front door. It makes it so nice not having to worry about being short on an ingredient or having to make any extra trips to the grocery store. 

Here is what it looked like before popping it into the oven:

And here is what it looked like all finished. I have to admit I did leaves the leaks and brussels sprouts off of Lillie and Lola's half and they devoured theirs. I thought it was absolutely delicious with the leaks and brussels sprouts and would make it again in a heartbeat. It's definitely high on my list!

And the carrots and parsnips were absolutely delicious too! 

The second meal was a Soy Glazed Chicken with Soba Noodles, Broccoli and Cashews:

This also was easy to prep and our whole family loved the chicken. It had such a great flavor and mixed really well with the noodles and broccoli.

So those were our latest two Blue Apron meals. I highly suggest trying the recipes!!!! We do the family plan but they also have a two person plan and they also now offer a recycling plan with two different options! One of my favorite things is that is really helps us get out of our cooking rut which I fall into quite easily and it also helps me branch out and try different things (like leaks and brussels sprouts on my pizza!) and I end up loving them.

If you have never tried Blue Apron before we highly recommend it. For the first 25 readers who use this discount code you can get three free meals on your first order! 

I hope you all have an amazing Wednesday!

*This post was sponsored by Blue Apron. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

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My New Favorite Quesadilla

 

 Last week we had a did our monthly Blue Apron meals and I have a new favorite! It was actually a meal I was unsure I was going to like at all and now it's not only my new favorite Blue Apron meal but one of my favorite meals of any kind and I cannot wait to make them again.  The meal was Spinach and Sweet Potato Quesadillas with Queso Oaxaca and Guacamole. Although I love spinach and cheese quesadillas I thought that adding sweet potatoes sounded so strange and the type of cheese was a little out of the box for me. Well, I was so wrong. I never in a million years would have thought to add sweet potatoes to a quesadilla but it was sooooooo delicious and so was the cheese!!!  I think one of the things I enjoy most about Blue Apron is it helps get me out of a cooking rut and is makes me try things I never would have thought of. 

As usual, the ingredients were so pretty and so fresh! They use farm-fresh high quality ingredients and that is always the first thing I notice when opening my box. (The ingredients are shipped in a refrigerated box so there's no reason to worry if you aren't there when it arrives).

The prep for this meal was pretty easy, just some basic chopping and grating. And this time of year when I feel like we are living in a whirlwind I LOVE having all of the ingredients shipped right to our front door and not having to make any extra trips to the grocery store. 

It was dark out by the time we ate so I didn't get any "pretty" shots of the finished meal. So here is the one from Blue Apron's site. Seriously, this is my new favorite!

The other meal was a Cashew Chicken Stir-Fry with Tango Mandarins and Jasmine Rice. Although I put the Quesadillas in first place, this one is high on my list too and the girls liked this one better than the quesadillas. This was one of Lillie's favorites! 

This one was pretty easy as well with just some basic chopping and dicing.

I was not surprised that the chicken was delicious but I was suprised to discover that I loved the cooked mandarins with the flavoring on them too! In fact after I ate mine I stole several off of the girls plates. I loved the mix of the sweet and savory flavors combined! I also liked the extra crunch the cashews added!

I loved how pretty the finished meal looked with the pops of orange and green! I would definitely make this again as well!

So those were our latest two Blue Apron meals. I highly suggest trying the recipes - especially the Spinach and Sweet Potato Quesadilla!!!! We do the family plan but they also have a two person plan and they also now offer a recycling plan with two different options! 

If you have never tried Blue Apron before we highly recommend it. For the first 100 readers who use this discount code you can get three free meals on your first order! 

I hope you all have a fabulous Wednesday!

Delicious Winter Dinners with Blue Apron

We finally tried Blue Apron last spring and have been loving it ever since. We do it about once a month (although we missed a couple due to our schedule) and it's such a fun way for our family to cook together. We have loved each new recipe! I think all but one of the recipes we've used have been things that we've then wanted to start incorporating into our dinner rotation. I have to say though, the thing that amazes me the most is how incredibly FRESH all of the ingredients are. It's literally like we just got them from the Farmer's Market, but the best part is they are delivered right to our doorstep with the perfect proportions so we have exactly what we need and nothing goes to waste. (The box is refrigerated so no worries if you are not home when it arrives!) I also love that Blue Apron is working on developing a sustainable food system and uses such high quality ingredients. You can see their mission page here. 

We do the family plan but they also have a two person plan as well and the nice thing is you can pick and choose what weeks you want to do it and skip all of the other ones. I have the app on my phone and it makes it so easy to plan ahead! I love checking and seeing what the options are going to be for the coming weeks. 

For this round one of our meals was General Tso's Chicken with Bok Choy and Jasmine Rice and the other meal was a Fresh Mozzarella and Basil Pizza with Savoy Cabbage Salad. 

Here are some of the ingredients for the first meal. I think this ties with the Spring Asparagus Calzones for my second favorite Blue Apron meal! (My absolute favorite was their Seared Chicken and Miso Udon Noodles recipe!) You can click on any of those dishes mentioned for the recipe or you can find all of the delicious Blue Apron recipes here. 

The bok choy and radishes were delicious!!!!!!

The girls always think these tiny little bottles are so cute!

The radishes look so pretty! 

Here is the finished meal. Now that it's winter it's dark by the time we eat so I can't really take a "pretty picture" of the finished product - but let me tell you, it was DELICIOUS!!!!!

And here are some of the ingredients for the Fresh Mozzarella and Basil Pizza. All four of us inhaled this! The dough was so delicious and it was a huge pizza! And the salad that we made with it was one of my favorites.

If you've never tried Blue Apron before we highly recommend it! All of the meals can be prepared in 40 minutes or less and contain between 500-800 calories per person. The ingredients are incredibly fresh and are sourced from quality suppliers and artisans. It is such a great way to get out of your dinner rut! They also now offering a recycling program which you can read more about here.
It's nice because there's no commitment - you can skip as many meals as you would like or cancel at any time.

And guess what??? The first 25 of our readers will get THREE FREE MEALS on their first Blue Apron order. 

So head on over here to check it out! 

*This post was sponsored by Blue Apron. 

Some Cooking Fun with My Girls

For the last year or so I've heavily contemplated trying Blue Apron. My husband and I have discussed it several times. I've gone on their website many times and almost pulled the trigger but was hesitant. I absolutely loved the concept of it. My girls LOVE to cook and help in the kitchen, and I loved the idea of all the ingredients and easy to follow recipes arriving right on our doorstep making it extra easy to cook a fresh, delicious meal and I loved the idea of branching out from our routine set of meals we do. However, there were two things that made me nervous to try it. First, I am embarrassed to say all four of us are kind of picky eaters, and I worried that the food that arrived might be a bit more adventurous than we were used to and although we would of course eat it, I didn't love the idea of spending money on something if it wasn't something any of us cared for. And second,  I didn't want to have to be committed to it every week as we travel a lot and have particularly unusual schedules, especially during certain times of the year.

So, when Blue Apron contacted and asked if we wanted to try it I figured this was the perfect chance to give it a shot. And we also get to offer a great discount to you guys (you can find that at the bottom of this post). The first thing I discovered was that the two things I had been concerned about were not going to be a problem at all! Once I had logged in you can see four weeks ahead of what the meal options are. There are four options to choose from and you can choose two. And the part that I didn't realize was that you can opt out of any weeks which was perfect for us. In fact you can skip meals and cancel at any point! For instance if you don't want to do a week because it doesn't fit into your schedule or you the options aren't ones you love then you just hit the "skip this delivery" button and that's it! Once I realized how easy it was I got quite excited. Blue Apron sent us a box to review and it arrived on Monday with our two meals and we made this first meal Monday night. It was a recipe for  Spring Asparagus & Ricotta Calzones with Arrabbiata Dipping Sauce and Butter Lettuce Salad.

Here are the ingredients. We were wowed by how fresh everything was. It looked (and tasted) like it was fresh from the farmer's market! 

I didn't get many pictures of the actual cooking process but the girls and I had so much fun. They have always enjoyed cooking and baking and felt like real chefs getting to chop up all the ingredients.

And squeezing in the lemon juice...

And best of all making each calzone. The asparagus was heavenly. A couple family members chose to leave the asparagus out of theirs so I got extra which I ate on the side - it was so delicious! 

Calzones aren't exactly the prettiest food to photograph but here is a finished one. We were blown away by how delicious they were. I have never been a huge calzone fan but I was completely won over. There was literally not a crumb left on a single plate. In fact the girls begged to make them again the following night. The dough was the best I have ever eaten and I loved the mix of cheeses and asparagus. I didn't use any of the dipping sauce because I am not a tomato sauce fan but the girls and Jon loved it. The salad was so fresh and I loved the making the fresh vinaigrette dressing for it.

If you are wondering how much we loved it, let me say that as soon as we finished eating it we promptly went online and signed up for a Blue Apron subscription! It was so much fun looking through the selections and choosing our next box. We are planning on choosing one box (so two meals) each month although I think we may on some months do two boxes. It was such a fun experience and I honestly cannot rave enough about the quality of the food. We cannot wait for our next box! We went with the family plan but you can also opt for a 2-person plan as well and don't worry if you aren't home when the package arrives - it is delivered in a refrigerated box so the ingredients will stay nice and fresh. 

And here's a picture of the second meal which was a Middle Eastern Chicken and Chickpea Stew with Chermoula and Pita Croutons that we made the following night. I can't wait to make the Pita Croutons again! They were delicious in the stew and I would love to add them to any stew/soup and also to a fresh salad as well.

Sponsored by Blue Apron

And guess what? The first 25 readers will get TWO free meals on their first Blue Apron Order. Just click here. 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!