Disclaimer – This is a sponsored post brought to you by Blue Apron. All opinions are 100% my own.
I get that when you see that disclaimer at top that you might check out. Let’s face the facts…sponsored posts can be a real drag. They can be like a commercial in the middle of your favorite TV show. All you want to do is finish Modern Family. But I hope that this sponsored post helps the other moms out there that are fighting the ‘green fight’….the one where we, as responsible parents are trying to get more healthy foods in our kids….trying to diversify their diets….trying to get them to try new veggies and different textures. This one is for you.
As you know, I partner with Blue Apron and am super proud of it. We receive a refrigerated box filled with the fresh ingredients to create three healthy and chef-designed meals right here at home. It’s delivered right to our doorstep (which eliminates the trip to the grocery store) and it is great because each meal is a totally new and different range of tastes, textures and foods that we don’t have on our regular dinner routine.
Well, since I started with the very first box, I am kinda evangelical about telling other people about Blue Apron. I would go door-to-door if I had time, recipe card in hand. And recently when some friends asked about why I did it, I told them. One of the biggest reasons I love it is because it is one way I can get my kids to eat their veggies. Let me explain. Door bell rings. Will and Weston scream in delight. Run to front door. Find package. Open package. Discover farm-fresh ingredients inside. Boys decide what recipe card to make. Boys wash hands. Twice. Start the prep. Boys are having a blast. Dinner is done. Boys sit down. Boys surprise Daddy with plate of homemade food. Boys show daddy how to eat it. Boys show daddy how big their muscles are getting from the food.
Did you see what happened there?
That is why they love it. The motivation to try the veggies is not coming from Mommy or Daddy…it’s a box of healthy…maybe they even think Santa sent it…I have no idea….but the thing is…they get to be in charge, they get to be involved and then they get bragging rights. It’s a total win-win.
And if you are wondering….my boys have tried every item from every box. That’s impressive, right?! Kale. Broccoli. Cauliflower. Eggplant. I could go on and on. They help wash the veggies. They help cut them. They help dump them in the pan. They LOVE it. And they totally have a sense of pride about eating them.
So I am not trying to say – get Blue Apron and your kids will magically start eating all their veggies. No. That’s not true. But what I am saying is that if you are trying to expose your kids to new foods or wanting to encourage them to diversify their little taste buds, Blue Apron could be a great hands-on way to do just that.
Here are some other DO’s and DON’Ts that you can encourage your preschool kids to gobble up those greens (and yellows and reds and oranges…)
- Do make new foods fun by putting them on a skewer
- Do cut foods in fun shapes with mini cookie cutters
- Do add features to the plate like raisin eyes or noodle hair
- Do encourage eating more by serving foods in bowls with a character at the bottom under the food – will they see a Ninja Turtle or Dora?!
- Do use reverse psychology. Act over-the-top shocked after they eat a tiny little bite.
- Do allow them to be the chef (or chef’s assistant!) – meal prep takes longer but they have so much pride in it
- Do make funny noises after each bite
- Do arrange the food on the plate so that it makes a picture – a star! a boat! a baseball!
- Do make it a game – who can chew the fastest!
- Do take turns – Daddy takes a bite, Will takes a bite, Mommy, etc.
- Don’t make multiple meals – if they don’t finish their plate, don’t make a big deal (just wrap it up and serve it again when they are hungry)
- Don’t wait till it’s too late – start that meal time diversity early!
- Don’t say EAT YOUR VEGGIES
- Don’t get angry – keep your cool and teach them manners even if “the food is yuck”
- Do wonder out loud what things will taste like
- Do modify as you go. If your four year old doesn’t like it…try sprinkling parmesan, bacon bits or croutons on top to see if the next bite is better
- Do offer dips. Soups and sauces go a long way!
- Do serve the healthy options first
- Do use a reward system.
- Do encourage the one-bite-rule. If they don’t try it…they don’t know if they don’t like it.
- Do set a good example.
- Do talk about the benefits of different foods. Eat their carrots? Can they immediately see better?!
- Do play the ‘feed someone else’ game.
- Do blindfold each other and guess the food!
- Do tell kids who else eats their veggies. Ya know….Spiderman loves peas. A lot.
- Do taste the kids food – if you think it needs more salt/butter/cook time….they will too.
- Do offer healthy snacks – the more you serve of healthy foods, the more their bodies will crave the nutrition!
- Do host ‘fancy night’ where everyone practices their best behavior…light candles, play soft music, use cloth napkins and still try everything on the plate.
What are your best Do’s and Don’ts when it comes to getting those healthy options in your kiddos? I’d love to hear them.
(can you tell I like taking pretty pictures of the meals?!)
And for those of you that maybe interested in Blue Apron, here’s some more details:
- Blue Apron boxes comes with 3 meals per week (each meal can be 2, 4, or 6 servings)
- Meals are $9.99 per person with free shipping
- Available to most of the country (full map of delivery zones click here)
- No commitment – skip or cancel service at any time!
- Each meal is 500-700 calories per person
- Ingredients sourced from quality local suppliers and artisans
- All meals take 40 minutes or less to be prepared
- They have a COOKBOOK! And the cover is GORGEOUS.
DISCOUNT OFFER:
-
First 100 readers will get two free meals on their first Blue Apron order! CLICK HERE!
Would you say the portions are sized for kids or adults? For your family of 5, how many portions do you order?
I would love to try these guys out but surprise! No service in the so-called “flyover” states. Shocker.
Well, I do get tired of reading about Blue Apron but not for the reason you might think. It is not available in our part of the state we live in. Big Bummer.
So, let’s just say I am jealous.
All those meals look delicious! Your kids need a high five for trying all those different items.
Hey Katie,
How does the $9.99 per person work with kids? Do you count two kids as one person or do you pay $9.99 per kid?
Thanks
I loooooove Will’s freckles!! Heartbreaker! And you’re such a good mama. I love how dedicated you are and how you involve the kiddos. Excellent ideas!
We have had no problem dividing up the “serves two” food up for four. Example – the kale salad with chicken had two large chicken breasts…so we gave Weston three nugget sized pieces from Jers and split mine between Will and me. I think if the boys were older it might require us to get a larger portion box but with a four year old and one year old it works.
xo kb
Wish we had this in Texas!!
We picked up the “two bite rule” in Pre-k last year. The teacher encouraged the kids to try each new item twice. Often the kids would exclaim “yuck” before they even finished the first bite, so she encouraged a second test “just to be sure”. And often times they decided, “hey-this isn’t so bad!”
Forget the kids – my husband and I have tried more new veggies in the last month than in the previous five years because of Blue Apron. I started a subscription with a blogger discount about a month ago and we love it! The quality of the food is great and the recipes are inventive – different enough to be, well, different, but not weird. I would say that you do need some basic cooking knowledge and skills and you also need to be willing to do a fair amount of prep work – not a ton, but more than I’m used to doing on a weeknight. As a result, we usually make most of our meals on the weekends, but I have made them after work and it’s doable. We are very happy with Blue Apron.
We do the same thing and even pop at steamer bag of broccoli or brown rice in the microwave to add a bit more food to the mix. Love Blue Apron! It’s nice that you can skip weeks here and there too!
love your enthusiasm for feeding your kids well and making it part of your norm. i imagine it’s not easy to do with three little ones but you’re setting them up for a lifetime of healthful eating!
blue apron looks amazing…i totally get that not every company/idea can work for everyone…but as a single gal i do wish they offered a smaller meal plan – perhaps 2 meals a week instead of three. even if i ate the leftovers for lunch it would be a ton of food i think. ya know…just food for thought if they’re taking ideas from you. 🙂
Isn’t Weston (almost- as in this month) two? Or did I imagine a year went by?
I heartily agree with your advice to involve kids in the food prep! Totally helps them want to eat the veggies up. One thing that made our son love eating veggies even more was our garden this year. He helped do everything with us for the garden and was always really excited to help harvest and then cook up the veggies.
Great point about the garden!
xo kb
Almost! The 18th of this month is his bday! I’m gonna be so sad!!!
xo kb
We started getting our girls to eat their vegetables by telling them to act like dinosaurs and crunch as LOUD as possible. We’d close our eyes and they would take a bite and we’d act like they scared us because they were so loud.
I also “raced” them by turning a song on my phone (or counting to 20) and telling them to put a piece of squash in their mouth.
Now if it was just as fun for me to eat my vegetables… 😉
Alright! Between you and House*Tweaking I’m trying this!!! 🙂 I love to cook and have no problem exploring exotic or new flavors, but some of these recipes are really neat so I’ll give it a go. I like the idea that heading into winter when my garden is lacking on fresh things, I won’t have to come up with as many ideas for dinner. The discount doesn’t hurt too! 🙂 Thanks!
I would love to try it, but I can’t stomach the price. I just went to the grocery store and spent 98.76 for the week. Here are my kids faves. Whole baked chicken w sweet potatoes / greenbeans
Make chicken stock next day and make veggie tomatoe soup
Spinach chicken alfredo pasta -Food process spinach so its tiny.
3 meals we have every week that cost 5 bucks for entire family. I live in the midwest. Other faves are
Homemade fried chicken w red cabbage coleslaw. Again I use food processor to chop veggies to bits.lol
baked fish or salmon w maple syrup and green beans mashed potatoes.
They like simple, which I am grateful. 🙂
Every time I see these Blue Apron posts I swear I’m going to try them. I’m not that diverse in my cooking abilities and don’t really feel comfortable with the idea of experimenting and then having a gross dinner. This really seems like it would help and maybe I could finally get my husband to eat something green!
I totally agree with you, Mollie. This single gal would like a smaller meal plan too! I keep almost trying the service, but then decide against it because it seems kind of wasteful for just me (especially if the Bowers are able to split the meal with two little ones). I love to cook, but I don’t want to be locked into making only Blue Apron meals the week that I order. It’s a great idea, since I like trying more adventurous recipes, but don’t like ending up with 3/4 bottle of some unusual ingredient I may never use again.
I have a question about blue apron! I definitely want to sign up but can you explain how they choose the meals? I know there are six meals that blue apron will be sending out that week but can I choose the three they send to my house? For example, if I know I have an allergy to something in one of the meals they selected for me, can I just go online and switch it to one of the other meals? Any info would be great! I can’t find any info on their website about that! Thank you! 🙂
As far as I know, you can choose exactly the meals that you want within their options. I usually tell Jeremy to choose the meals so I kinda forget but I am like 95% sure.
xo – kb
Sized for adults. Each one serves 2-3 adults…so we use one box for three meals. Obviously LJ doesn’t eat it. And Weston is more of a grazer so he doesn’t eat a ton (for example, the chicken meatballs with lo mein meal had 20ish meatballs…Weston would eat 3, Will would eat 4, I would eat 6 and Jeremy would eat the rest.)
xo – kb
I tried Blue Apron and the quality of everything in the box was excellent. With one exception, of the 6 different meals all the food was delicious. Strangely enough the one that ended up in the trash was caramelized pork congee, the winning dish made by one of the Top Chef contestants. The regular Blue Apron menu items have been delicious. Before taking the leap I’d advise caution and careful planning. Here’s why:.
1. Of the six recipes we have tried there is not one I would recommend tackling after a long day at the office, picking kids up from day care. I made that mistake and it was not pretty. Fortunately Friday delivery is an option where I live.
2. Every recipe took me much longer than the estimated time to prepare. I mean 3 to 4 times longer and I’m one who reads and plans before the attempt.. An estimated 30 minute meal prep took 90. Picture exhausting, screaming, hunger melt downs. Well the kids had PBJ sandwiches and milk that evening while I finished cooking. Later the grown ups feasted on wonderful wild caught Salmon.
3. Even on non work weekends getting the under 5 set involved with the mincing, dicing and frying was a bit beyond my crew who are great kitchen helpers. This can be worked around if the prep is done before the kids join in to put things together.
4. None of the recipes was easy. They were in fact quite complex. I found some of the instructions with unfamiliar techniques skimpy and myself wishing for a video to watch.
5. After a few tries I realized Blue Apron recipes should not be attempted unless my partner in parenting was on kid duty (ages 2 and 6 years). I needed to pay careful attention to the recipes and that was not happening with the kids underfoot being creative trouble makers. Me trying to determine next steps was not conducive to my children being part of the meal prep.
My family loved the meals but unfortunately Blue Apron was not my answer to getting a tasty, healthy home cooked meal on the table on a busy weeknight rather than take-out or freezer fare. The meals turned out great, I was just to exhausted to enjoy them. I now know to either make ahead or plan Blue Apron meals for weekends.
It definitely helps to have chopping skills…but I haven’t had any trouble keeping them under the time recommended…I wonder if it would help if they had skills videos online to help teach people things like chopping or making garlic paste or whatever. You definitely bring up good points!
xo – kb
We tried Blue Apron for 3 weeks and really enjoyed it! I would make many of the dishes again, so it’s nice to have a new arsenal of weeknight recipes. There were a couple of meatball dishes that everyone in my family loved, and also lamb sliders that my pickiest eater GOBBLED up.
One frustration I had, though, was that some of the dishes were pretty spicy. While I push my kids to try new foods, the spice level on a couple of dishes was just too high for my three year-old’s palate. (I loved it, though!)
It seems like this is a service that really caters to working moms like me (and working dads too!). I wish that Blue Apron would customize a “family package” that takes spice-level into consideration and maybe includes an extra half or third-portion per kiddo.
That’s a great suggestion too!
xo – kb