Wondering how to make and plan family-friendly meals for your family? This genius hack will make it easy!
Let’s face it, getting a home cooked meal on the dinner table every night often feels like it’s mission impossible.
Whether it’s your kids’ busy after-school schedules (those 5 o’clock practices!), your baby’s witching hour, an empty fridge, or sheer “I don’t have the energy to think about what I’m making” exhaustion, there always seems to be something pulling you away from preparing that home cooked dinner.
But feeding your family a nutritious meal is so important, and eating together at the table gives you time to re-connect, improve your children’s communication skills, and teach them good eating habits.
And that’s why we’re here to help. We’ve partnered with our favorite meal delivery kit company, Blue Apron, to show you that making a home cooked meal doesn’t need to be difficult. With Blue Apron’s delicious ready-to-cook meals and our simple tips, dinner time can easily be turned into a stress-free (and fun!) family affair.
PIN for when you want an easy way to make a home cooked meal!
PLAN AHEAD
Reducing the stress of cooking for your family starts with planning. The more you can plan ahead, the more prepared and relaxed you can be come dinner time.
First, look at your schedule a full week ahead and decide what nights will be your most difficult – ones where you won’t have as much time to cook, or on particularly busy days where you won’t want to think about what’s for dinner.
Mark these nights for your Blue Apron meals (you can select 2, 3 or 4 meals a week) and place your order online.
We love Blue Apron because they allow you to choose from an ever-changing menu of chef-designed, ready-to-cook meals and they come with perfectly proportioned quality ingredients – all sent directly to your door!
But not to worry – if you don’t feel like you’ll need the extra help that week, Blue Apron is super flexible. You can skip weeks, change your plan, or cancel at any time.
SPECIAL OFFER: To help get you started, use our special link to get $60 off your first 3 Blue Apron boxes!
Once you’ve chosen your Blue Apron meal-days, plan the rest of the week with some of your family’s favorites, and then make a list for the grocery store for any ingredients you’ll need.
There, doesn’t that feel good already?!
MAKE IT A FAMILY AFFAIR
Don’t put all the cooking weight on your shoulders – get your family involved!
Cooking together is always more fun, so invite your kids into the kitchen where they can assist – even your littlest cooks can help wash and dry produce, and older kids can help with peeling, chopping and stirring.
With your Blue Apron meals, the step-by-step recipe cards can teach them about wholesome ingredients, and you’ll be able to discover new flavors together. Ultimately, you’ll not only be helping yourself by lessening your dinnertime load, but you’ll also be helping your kids build culinary skills that will serve them for years to come.
And we love that Blue Apron is always family-friendly, offering their “Signature for 4” meals with recipes that serve 4 people.
Plus, right now Blue Apron is celebrating the release of Disney and Pixar’s new film, Soul (streaming December 25 on Disney+), with 4 limited-time recipes the whole family will enjoy.
These recipes will not only feed your soul, but are quick, healthy, and a great family activity to make (and eat!) together. One new recipe will be available each week from 12/21/20 through 1/11/21, so look for the blue “Jazz Up Dinner” logo when you go to select your meals.
And don’t forget to use our special link when ordering to get $60 off your first 3 Blue Apron boxes.
Make it a dinner-and-a-movie night! Select one of the special Blue Apron meals celebrating Disney and Pixar’s Soul, to make as a family. After you enjoy the meal, cozy up and watch Soul on Disney+ together. It will not only provide a fun activity for your kids, but can create a new family dinner-and-a-movie-night tradition as well.
REFRESH YOUR ROUTINE
Sometimes all you need to snap out of a “I don’t feel like making dinner” funk is some fresh new recipes. But searching for ones that your family will enjoy, then shopping for new ingredients takes time and effort (hence the reason we fall into that rut in the first place!).
But simply adding in some Blue Apron meals will provide a new variety that can spark life into your old routine, and also help your family try new flavors.
Blue Apron’s chef-designed recipes include specialty sauces and premium ingredients that would otherwise be difficult, expensive or time-consuming to source or make. But with their ready-to-cook meals sent right to your door, it couldn’t be easier to try new recipes, and snap you out of your dinner time rut.
Add some extra excitement and tell your family they’ll be voting on their favorite dinner at the end of the week…and the winner will be featured on next week’s menu. Make sure you keep those Blue Apron recipe cards so you can re-create their favorites!
And with prices starting as low as $7.49 per serving, the value for these stress-free recipes delivered to your door is hard to beat.
Check out this week’s menu using our link and get that $60 discount across your first 3 boxes. Once you see how easy it can be to put a nutritious, home cooked meal on the table, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it!
Thanks again to our sponsor, Blue Apron, for providing families with chef-designed, ready-to-cook meals with perfectly portioned ingredients, sent to your front door – allowing for easy, stress-free home cooked family meals. Try their limited-time recipes celebrating Disney and Pixar’s Soul, streaming December 25 on Disney+, for a fun dinner-and-a-movie night in!
