Photo courtesy of Blue Apron

I am focused on streamlining grocery shopping, prepping, and cooking dinner during the week, so I decided to try Blue Apron, a food delivery service that offers you tasty and healthy dinner options.  Here is how it works: you join Blue Apron and view the menus; they send all the food and instructions to you on a day that you have designated; arrives in a well-packed refrigerated box; you unpack, follow instructions, and prepare dinner – couldn’t be simpler and the meal tastes like you were eating in a top-notch restaurant.   And it only costs $9.99 per meal (if I order dinner-to-go at a local chain restaurant it usually runs around $25 and just tastes okay.)

Last night the menu was: Pan-Seared Chicken Thighs with Roasted Baby Zebra Eggplants & Fennel Salad.  This recipe was created by Chef Michael Anthony, owner and executive chef of Gramercy Tavern in NYC (a restaurant I just happened to have dined at around 5 years ago while on a trip to Manhattan).  Dinner consisted of chicken thighs (my favorite part of the chicken) placed on top of mashed baby zebra eggplants that I had roasted in the oven with a smidge of olive oil and salt/pepper and a salad of diced tomatoes and fennel.  For starters I don’t eat fennel, as I don’t like it.  Wait…I haven’t actually ever tasted fennel, so I thought I would be brave and make the recipe as it was supposed to be made.  Glad I did, as I really enjoyed the fennel and tomato combo – who knew?

Here’s the good part:  someone else has gone and sourced all the FRESH ingredients and put them into baggies and portioned everything out – then they shipped it to me in a refrigerated box so everything stays chilled until I get home at the end of the day.  Basically I did a bit of chopping (tomatoes, fennel), scored the eggplants and roasted them for 20 minutes, pan seared the chicken thighs, and made a simple glaze to top it all off.

One word to describe dinner:  Delectable!  (also known as heavenly and exquisite).  I know I already said it was healthy, but also need to mention it was only 525 calories – which fits well with my 1200 calorie daily intake.

I was so caught up in the fragrant smells of the crispy chicken, fennel, and eggplant that I forgot to take a photo – so am posting the one from Blue Apron (mine of course looked just like it!).

If anyone wants the recipe to this luscious dinner, send me a comment and I will post.

Next week I am trying PLATED – similar concept but different menus.

That’s All.