What will you do about food? So many people asked us this toward the end of my pregnancy. Some of our friends were just curious, since Adam and I are those friends, the ones who cook. Then there was my mother who, after all this time, still wants to make sure I’m practicing basic survival skills. Either way, it’s a valid question. Babies turn your schedule upside down and quite literally tie up your hands so that even basic tasks (peeing, making coffee… the important things) become either one-handed activities or wait until nap time.
Let me preface this next part by admitting to you that I’m kind of a snob. I did not want to use a meal delivery service, like so many people kindly suggested to us. It probably would have been great. We probably would have relied less on emergency takeout. But the time I spend cooking has always been and continues to feel grounding, creative, and worth it. It’s something I stubbornly did not want to give up when the baby came. I still wanted more control over what and how we ate than packaged and prepped meals could give us.
So we cobbled together our own little system. After a few months of guessing, testing, and tweaking, we finally have it down to a science—a science that works well for us. I know that a one-size-fits-all solution would be too easy. Everyone eats and cooks a little differently, especially at six pm on a Tuesday night, when everyone’s hungry and nothing is quite prepared. We all have our own ways of coping, and I will be the first to admit that takeout is one of ours. But this is how we manage to cook what we want and eat fresh, nourishing food most days of the week.
Produce Box Subscription
I will preempt your question, reader—isn’t this more work than just grocery shopping and cooking at home? Maybe. But it’s the right kind of work. Or it at least feels that way. Before Olivia was born, we would visit the farmer’s market on Saturday mornings and get our produce and eggs for the week, sometimes meat and/or cheese too. For anything we couldn’t find at the market, we would supplement with trips to the grocery store. Saving time, obviously, was not the priority.
Our produce box subscription enables us to cook and eat like we went to the farmer’s market (fresh, local, seasonal) without making the trip. Instead the time goes into the effort and creativity it takes to use your whole box, week after week. But I’m here to tell you it’s possible—and fun and rewarding—and I’m working on a post that will show you exactly how we do it.
Our subscription is called Rustic Roots, and it’s local to New York (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island). We like it because the quantity and the variety of their basic “fruit and veggie box” suits our cooking/eating habits. As an add-on, we also get a dozen eggs delivered with the basket. For reference, we cook about 3-4 nights per week and eat almost every meal from our own kitchen except when we cave and get takeout, which usually accounts for about two dinners per week.
I found Rustic Roots with a Google search for “CSA (community supported agriculture) delivery Manhattan” and then with another quick search for reviews. I’m sure you can find one in your area that way, too. But another great route is to ask the vendors or information table at your farmer’s market since many of them likely participate in one or several.
Butcher Box Subscription
We are omnivores indeed. And while I’m conflicted about this, sometimes deeply, eating meat made it possible for me to feel energetic and strong during the final months of my pregnancy when I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes and had to cut wayyy back on carbs, and adding red meat into my diet postpartum has helped a lot with my anemia. In any case, Butcher Box seemed like the most sane way for us to eat meat (naturally and responsibly raised meat, that is) without constantly nagging the grocery store butcher about the source of their product—and often getting unsatisfying answers.
We get the monthly chicken and beef box, but they also offer boxes with pork, salmon, and/or a combination of everything. I initially balked at the idea of receiving frozen meat at my doorstep because a) what a concept, and b) I couldn’t imagine having the foresight to defrost something one or several days before I actually needed it. But, between this and our produce box, meal planning has felt strangely liberating. I suppose it’s that creativity thrives when there’s a little bit of structure. In any case, we’ve been very happy with the quality and convience of Butcher Box.
Instacart Membership
As the single source of food for a tiny growing human, I rarely have the opportunity for a leisurely grocery-store stroll. Also, there is no such thing as a grocery-store stroll in New York. Grocery-store obstacle course: more accurate. Grocery-store fight club: likely, especially on a Sunday. So the $110 annual membership fee for same-day grocery delivery is entirely worth it for us. We just make sure to shop at stores that don’t mark up their prices specifically for Instacart (some do, but they’re required to say so).
We use Instacart to fill in all of the fridge and pantry basics that we don’t get in our weekly produce box or monthly butcher box—spices, peanut butter, canned goods, etc. The two-hour delivery window is especially handy when my idea for dinner solidifies the same afternoon, and I don’t have all the ingredients on hand. My only advice is to be specific about substitutions, which Instacart allows you to indicate for items that may be running low. Sadly, no one can read your mind and so you should be very clear that, for example, canned corn will not work in place of corn meal for your cornbread recipe. Also, if you live in New York and are in need of canned corn, you’re welcome to mine because (just personally) yuck.
So there you have it, reader: our formula for eating well while bringing a tiny human into this world and adjusting to life as a family of three. Obviously, this isn’t for you if you’re looking to stretch your dollar further, spend less time in the kitchen, or if grocery shopping happens to be therapeutic for you (I get it). The priorities here are quality, creativity, and spending less time out and more in the kitchen.
I’d love to know your formula, too. Did you have a postpartum plan that worked well? Did you have one that crashed and burned and ended up in a multiple-day streak of takeout? Comment below and tell me everything!
