Blue Apron meal #3: Whole Wheat Spaghetti & Zucchini

[thistlechaser]

Recipe here.
Time: About 30 minutes (goal!)
New foods: Whole wheat spaghetti (though had whole wheat pasta before in other forms)

This was the recipe I was least looking forward to. I've never had any success with whole wheat pasta, it always ended up tasting too heavy and thick and just ruining anything I put with it. I don't recall ever having zucchini and it's not really high on my list of things to try. I've had pesto before (and liked it), but never with spinach.

Add onto that list that I've spent major time and effort cooking in the last couple days, and a MAJOR craving for pizza, and I almost tossed this whole thing out instead of trying it.

I decided to just make the pesto, then I could save it for some other time. Then I decided to cook half of the pasta just to see what it was like. I was going to combine the two, but that ended up not happening. After the pasta was cooked, I added a little butter to it and tried it. It hadn't tasted anything like it had previously, it tasted "normal", so I decided to just eat it that way.

I'm starting to question how healthy these meals are. Even without the zucchini, less than half of the pasta was a big heap of it on a normal sized dinner plate -- probably three to four times as much pasta as one should have in a meal.

So, even though I ate some of it, I have to call this one a fail. Bad track record for this week! Next week should be better.

I forgot to post the pictures with my first Blue Apron post, so belatedly here they are:

Everything sent for the week:

Those brown bags contain all the little things, like cheeses, spice mixes, little bottle of vinegar, etc. These are the fixings for three meals for two people, cost of $60. The box it was sent in was amazing, so strong! I'm going to keep as many as I can, to use in future movings. The cold packs were great, too -- wish I had a bigger freezer so I could keep them. All in all, the packaging of this stuff is really high quality and well done.

You get a nice recipe card for each one, laminated to protect it from kitchen messes:

Comments

[teaandfailure.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I always got three servings out of a meal, so I think for two people each one is a bit large. However, the one this week that was 700 kcal was the worst I've seen - they are usually 500-600 per meal which is pretty good calorie-wise.

I do wish they had more veggies and less potato/grain/starch though.

I'm with you on the noodles, I am just not a noodle fan. I have come to resent them getting in the way of delicious sauce, or just being there to add bulk. These days I usually just eat more zucchini (roasted with parmesan, zucchini is epic awesome), but I am also told you can make noodles out of zucchini if you have a spiral slicer. I have a spiral slicer, but I haven't tried it yet.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

This week the meat part has been reasonable for one person (one surprisingly skinny chicken breast or a bit of burger meat in the chili), but the "bulk" stuff (beans, wheat berries, pasta) was way way too much for me.

I did notice the calories, too. I suppose it's from all that bulk stuff.

I'll be happy when I make meals I'd be happy to have leftovers for. Cooking once and getting three meals out of it would rock.

[doxxxicle.livejournal.com]

I don't particularly like zucchini, but I do like zucchini bread. It's like banana bread but made with zucchini's instead. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

If hungry enough, I'd probably try zucchini bread. I'd much rather have banana bread though! :D

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

I have no interest in whole wheat pasta, that is for sure. Semolina all the way.

See me colored astonished learning you've never eaten zucchini! How in the world did you manage to avoid all your life this ubiquitous -- and fundamental! particularly in Mediterranean cuisines! -- vegetable? Gads, we must consume in various way an average of 10 zuchs between us every week. Of course, we eat a lot of "Mediterranan" type meals, even when we go out to eat. That sort of foods and dishes you find all around the coast of the Mediterranean, as well as throughout Spain, Italy and what used to be Yugoslavia, Greece, etc. The BEST food in the world: olives, olive oil, garlic, wine, -- what's not to like? :)

Love, C.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have some pretty big holes in my diet. Very, very belatedly I'm trying to correct it, but I'm not an adventurous eater, so trying new things is challenging for me. Even seemingly harmless things like zucchini!

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

Now you've put an image of DANGEROUS ZUKES in my mind's eye! I see them wielding ninja stars at those who disparage them. :)

Love, C>

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Hah! Be careful next time you go shopping...

[pure-trance.livejournal.com]

Ohhh I didn't know they had one of these things locally? How much is it and is it worthwhile?

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Blue Apron (http://www.blueapron.com/). The price is more than I like, $60. It's $10 per meal, three meals per week, minimum of two people. But that does include shipping, which is kind of boggling. This week's box weighed 15 pounds! And they have to ship it fast since there's raw meat in there. It's expensive, but the price seems fair for what you get.

I don't know if it's local, but they do ship here!

[tedwords.livejournal.com]

This all looks rather complex for my simple little mind...

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

All cooking is! Or so it seems to me...

[spike7451.livejournal.com]

I never have much luck with whole meal, as we call it, pasta and I would have thought that zucchini was a bit bland to base a pasta dish on. Hope the next meal you try is better.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what I had thought too.