December – a month where people are usually stuffing their faces with Christmas cookies, having large family dinners, and indulging in all the libations! We did a bit of that too, but we also managed to stay on track with Blue Apron during the holidays. Maybe there was a week we could have skipped a box, but it all worked out in the end.
Last month’s favorites I’ve included in this round up total up to six! I tried to pick just five, and I might do that going forward, but I had to throw an extra one in for good measure this month.
Here are our December favs!
Pork Lo Mein
Pork lo mein was a new dish for me – I’ve eaten plenty of chow mein in my life, but can’t ever say that I’ve tried lo mein noodles! I definitely like them much better than the chow mein. They seem a little more airy and less dense than chow mein noodles.
I’m also digging the ground pork dishes as of late. Introducing meat back into my diet after nearly nine years has been interesting, but I do tend to favor the ground meat a bit more than straight cuts of meat. As a veggie lover, if I had one complaint, it would be to add more of a variety of veggies! This dish came with bok choy (my favorite veggie for Asian dishes) and celery.
Overall, I really liked the flavors of this dish due in part to the sauce (soy sauce, sherry vinegar, black bean sauce, and sesame oil), and it was a nice hot dish on a cold evening.
Our Variations
Just a little cayenne for heat.
Mexican-Style Fish
Every week, we try to get something with seafood since I still lean towards favoring more of a pescatarian diet. Also, the fish dishes are always lighter on calories!
I was a little skeptical about how this dish would pull together after reading some reviews of other Blue Apron “chefs” on Instagram, but it ended up being incredibly delicious! This Mexican-style fish dish was prepared with wild Alaskan Pollock fillets – a fish I have come to prefer a bit more over cod in terms of texture. The crunch of the shishito peppers and pepitas gave the dish some nice texture, and the cilantro sour cream was an excellent accompaniment to the fish. Kudos to my husband who always manages to cook our fish dishes to perfection!
Our Variations
No variations in this dish – everything mixed well!
Hot Italian Pork Sausage Bucatini
Talk about comfort food! Seeing as how we all splurge a little in December, we picked out a pasta dish because it just really sounded tasty. This recipe made a lot of food! I’ve noticed with the pasta dishes you can get three to four servings out of them. We each had a huge plate full of pasta, and I ate the rest of it for lunch the next day. Not gonna complain!
The ground hot Italian pork was really flavorful, and I really loved that Brussels sprouts was the veggie of choice, which has become one of my favorite vegetables in recent years. The addition of apple cider vinegar gives this dish some much needed acid, while the cool mascarpone cheese creates a creamy sauce that coats the hollow bucatini pasta beautifully.
Our Variations
No changes or additions here. The hot Italian sausage gives the spice kick that is needed, though if you need more, add some pepper flakes if you have them in your pantry!
Miso Mirin Cod
Talk about a very light and low carb meal! In fact, this is probably one of the lighter meals we’ve cooked from Blue Apron recently. Of course, all I could think about was adding rice to soak up the broth, but I resisted the temptation. Veggies in this dish included bok choy, mushrooms, and shishito peppers (love the little crunch from these), and the sauce provided a lot of complexity with white miso paste, black bean sauce, and sambal (chili paste).
Our Variations
None! Though if you don’t care about carbs, a scoop of rice wouldn’t hurt here.
Mexican-Spiced Pork Roast
This Mexican-Spiced Pork Roast was another pleasant surprise for me as I’m still navigating the world of meat. My favorite part about this dish, though, was actually the beans! They were so flavorful after being simmered with garlic, and adding honey at the end to give them a little bit of sweetness was genius! I did not think that would work but I totally want to make all my beans like this in the future.
Our Variations
I had a silly thought that all the ingredients wouldn’t be filling enough, so I made some rice. It was definitely not needed, although a good addition! I also added some sliced avocado – because I love avo with my Mexican-style dishes. Lastly, I also opted to saute the peppers and onions versus roast them in the oven, and my husband pan-seared the pork versus oven roast.
Cumin-Sichuan Shrimp
Last but not least, we have this Cumin-Sichuan Shrimp with a burst of flavor from fresh ginger and a punch from the cumin peppercorn sauce that was included.
The shrimp dishes from Blue Apron always seem to make it onto my favorites list! It is one of my favorites seafoods, after all. The cumin flavor was very forward and made it feel like we were eating a very light curry dish. Loved the bok choy, of course, and I was happy to have some rice with this dish.
Variations
Just a little cayenne for extra heat!
I hope you are enjoying my little monthly favorites from Blue Apron! These are all dishes that we would make again. If you’re cooking with Blue Apron, be sure to comment below on what your favorite dishes were for the month!
Happy eating!
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