For the first time in a while, I stayed in an apartment for a month. This was an opportunity to take on a touch of domesticity with BlueApron. One of my goals was to cook healthy, nutritious, flavorful foods rather than my usual: pasta, rice, eggs, mac and cheese, cereal. Another goal was to cook meat: true confession in the past I worried about undercooking and my parents’ grilling standards, to the point that I never cooked meat at home in a pan. This seems dumb now, but I did meet someone else with the same mindset!

My first week was discouraging. I was rushed and confused, especially in my new kitchen without most essentials. Eventually I learned to cut up and prepare everything in advance, add a little extra olive oil to coat my pan, cut into meats to check if they’re done. After failures cooking half-recipes, I decided to cook it all and put the second serving in the refrigerator (unless it needs to be fresh, such as tortilla with melted cheese).

The first meal to be Instagrammable was this salmon and kale:

Followed by a burger: