My husband and I have been doing the Dave Ramsey program for a while. We make monthly budgets, and for the most part, we stick to them. But there’s always been one problem area that never seems to go away– food.

We eat out too much. Both my husband and I are incredibly busy. He works most nights and I get home an hour before my daughter has to go to bed. It doesn’t leave much time for cooking, washing dishes, etc. So we often grab something, which ends up being a $30 meal for unhealthy junk. After looking around for a better solution, I recalled the hype around unprepared meal delivery. I’ve had friends who have tried Blue Apron and I wondered if it was the answer we’d been looking for. Could this be just the right thing to save us money and encourage us to eat healthier?

Well, it’s been two weeks now and I have to say that we’re pretty happy so far. I’ll admit that it’s been a bit of a stretch for us since we are all picky eaters in this house. But the good thing is we’ve tried everything we were given, even when we were asked to eat turnips for the first time. And, you know what? I found out that I like turnips! I never thought I’d say that. All of the meals are health conscious and fresh from local farms. We seriously haven’t eaten this healthy in years. Sadly, I can’t tell you the last time I’ve had vegetables for several days straight. Each meal is low carb and lean but you don’t notice it. The recipes they provide ensure that every bite is full of flavor. We’re also reassured by the rating system. If we don’t like a meal, we can give it a low rating to let them know what works for us. We haven’t rated a meal lower than 3 stars so far. It’s all been so good and I feel great about the fact that I’m eating quality meals.

I also love the convenience of Blue Apron. We come home to a box at our door with the week’s meals. They are protected with huge blocks of ice so that we don’t have to stress about getting our delivery in the fridge right away. Every single ingredient we need to create the meal is provided all the way down to tiny bottles of sherry vinegar. In the past, my husband and I had wanted to try new recipes but were bummed that we’d have to invest in a full bottle of some ingredient we weren’t even sure we were going to like. This is a great way for us to try new things without us having to invest much.

The only downside so far is that the meals take a good chunk of time to prepare and cook. We haven’t figured out a great system for that yet. Each meal can take between 30-45 minutes for us novices. With everything being fresh, you have to learn how to chop your own parsley and clove your own garlic. The taste is worth it but it’s a time sucker for us currently. As of now, this isn’t enough to hold us back from continuing our plan. I’m sure we’ll either get faster with experience or find just the right tag team equation.

I haven’t lost any weight yet or felt some huge benefit from this new diet plan yet but I will say that I feel good about what’s going in my body. I hope to see physical benefits as well with the coming weeks. Even still, Blue Apron gets a thumbs up from our family.