A Fresh Direct Delivery Meal Plan!
This meal plan for my first Fresh Direct delivery has been a while coming to the blog, although when I made it last week it couldn’t have gone better! I was hoping to post it mid-week (last week) with pictures of a couple things that we’d eaten so far, but life (and pregnancy) won. Looking back at my calendar, I’ll be honest–I’m not totally sure what I spent the week doing, but there was a lot of driving around to errands (just not groceries!) and I’m really trying to stay committed to a light workout routine even though I let it go for a while in the second trimester. I’m trying to walk a mile or two every day, plus do either the Spinning Babies daily activities or some yoga.
Note: I have no affiliation with Fresh Direct and haven’t received any compensation or freebies in exchange for this post. If you DO want to support more free meal plans on NCK, you can use this link to do all your Amazon shopping (no extra charge to you). Thanks!
Today, after I dropped the Clar Bear off at doggie day care, the rain cut my walk short, and now I need a break from lugging the contents of our dining room (still being used, a year later, as the move-in room) to the basement so it’s ready to seat a crowd at my baby shower! I can make about half a trip down those stairs before being in complete oxygen deprivation. Thank you baby for squishing my airways.
Now it’s only a matter of minutes before sitting starts to kill my back and I’m back to the stairs, so apologies if the writing is a little disjointed–I’ll take what I can get for time! Just practicing for the demanding infant schedule.
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Thoughts on my First Fresh Direct Grocery Delivery
It just so happened that shortly after dipping my toes in the water of highly convenient grocery delivery with Peapod, I received a couple of snail mail coupons from Fresh Direct, a similar service that delivers in the Northeast U.S. With two coupons for $50 off an order of $125, and free delivery (okay, actually delivery for one cent), I couldn’t waste any time checking out my second grocery delivery service. $125 is right around my average spending on groceries for the week (probably excluding the weekend), so I didn’t have to spend beyond what I normally would to get the discount. I buy a lot of produce, and when tallying up my grocery spending for this week, the promo essentially equated to getting all my veggies FREE. I will most definitely take that.
The promo code is “SAVE2017”. Feel free to give it a try before February 17–it will likely still work!
Check out the post about Peapod for more about how I’m planning for deliveries and meals. I’ll post the meal plan I used for the Fresh Direct order in a day or two, but for now here are my general thoughts on Fresh Direct delivery service.
5 Ingredient Veggie Tofu Scramble
It’s Sunday night, and I should be shooting a few pictures of my Fresh Direct order right now, but, thanks to some mildly serious snow and/or a confused driver, the delivery is running an hour late. Grocery delivery pointers: don’t schedule deliveries after dark if your house is hard to find. Last I checked, the driver is backtracking to find out just where he dropped off the order, since it wasn’t here or at any or our immediate neighbors’ houses.
Meanwhile, I wanted to start giving the recipes from last week’s grocery list their own blog posts, since the ones in the Google Sheet are “rough” outlines, and might not serve beginning cooks well. So we’ll start with breakfast!
If you honestly have tried and hate tofu, there’s probably not much I can do to convince you of the merits of a tofu scramble. But, if you have even the slightest taste for it, there are so many reasons to try this breakfast.
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A Peapod Delivery Meal Plan!
So, I tried Peapod. I liked it (for the most part). But just what did I order, and how does it fit into my meal plan for the week?
Note: I have no affiliation with Peapod and haven’t received any compensation or freebies in exchange for this post. If you DO want to support more free meal plans on NCK, you can use this link to do all your Amazon shopping (no extra charge to you). Thanks!
As I mentioned, I’m putting together as many easy meal plans as possible for when the baby comes. For me, cooking is a hobby and a stress release, something I’ll need to hold onto even when I’m sleep deprived and my hair hasn’t been washed in two days. However, I’ve come to acknowledge that, as the exclusive feeder for a while (we’re going to try to stay away from bottles as long as possible), my window for cooking with a baby in the house may be limited to the pocket somewhere in between Steve getting home, feeding or changing the baby, and feeding and “changing” the pugs. Sounds like a pretty small pocket. But I’m determined to cook some dinners, even if they’re far simpler dishes than I would have considered putting on my meal plans two years ago.
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Thoughts on my First Peapod Grocery Delivery
Welcome to 2017! Although pregnant, I got to end 2016 with a half glass of nice bubbly, surrounded by my boys (and maybe a girl, too?!), watching…a thought provoking documentary on minimalism. It was actually the perfect way to transition into a new year. Looking at my home, you probably wouldn’t describe me as a minimalist, but I really identify with the mindset, and I try to keep items without use or value out of our house. As we add furry friends and a tiny human it gets to be more of a challenge, but the film reminded me that there are families out there–families full of pets and children–who make a minimalist lifestyle work in their own way, and I plan on honing in on their example as we decide what baby Schatteman needs in order to exist upon his or her entry to the world (2 months!).
With the baby’s impending arrival in mind, Steve is really pushing me to look into services that can free up my time. And “pushing” in the best way possible. My husband encouraging me to spend a little extra money to make life easier is most partners’ dream, but, being a stubborn perfectionist, I’m a little harder sell that someone else would be better at doing my grocery shopping or cleaning my house than me. Don’t even get me started on my highly specialized laundry system.
I’m writing simple meal plans ahead of time for when the baby comes, and testing one out this week presented a great opportunity to try out Peapod for grocery delivery. I had no excuses left: my meal plan for the next week was finished by Wednesday, and, using the promo code “60DAYSFREE” (still active as of this post date), I got $20 off my first order plus delivery fees, which range from about $7 to $10, waived for two whole months.
Now, I know there are several other services out there, and since my experience wasn’t perfect, I’ll probably test one or two others before baby Schatteman hits the ground. Rachael Ray Everyday magazine had a nice comparison in a recent issue of some major services. That should also clarify that I have no affiliation with Peapod and am writing this review totally of my own accord, hopefully to help some of you simplify a busy schedule in the coming months, or new year. With that said, my initial thoughts.
The Yummiest Food Magazine Recipes of November 2016
If you’re the type that could spend hours flipping through food magazines, perhaps the same ones over and over, agonizing over which few recipes are worthy of your next weeknight dinner or weekend dessert, then you know that November is serious business for these colorful periodicals: Thanksgiving. With the exception of Friends-giving or last year, I’m not normally responsible for the entire meal (and I certainly won’t be this year at 25 weeks pregnant), so I get to pick a couple really elaborate recipes to contribute to the feast.
Photo: John Kernick via foodandwine.com
In all honesty, I find the internet way too overwhelming for recipe selection, especially at such a food-centric holiday as Thanksgiving. Sometimes I’ll reference my Pinterest boards for old favorites or seasonal ideas when planning weekly dinners, but for guests and holidays, my go-to sources are cookbooks and food magazines. I bounce between publications. I used to be a Bon Appetit subscriber, but I’ve found they try too hard to be trendy for my taste, which never wavers far from classic, one-dish comfort food. Food & Wine hasn’t gone similarly astray, and even though I skip a lot of the pages, they always have those few, must-make recipes, like a creamy appetizer dip or chocolatey dessert (see above). [Read more…]
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