I was scrolling through my Blue Apron app recently, skipping the rest of this month’s shipments, when a pop-up appeared to ask me (a bit saltily, it must be said) why I was choosing to skip so many shipments lately. I’m just not feeling you right now, Blue Apron! BA is great when you’re in a rut, but right now I like shopping and cooking.

However! As it turns out, BA would have been a great option during the week of July 4. One night we went out to dinner, and on the 4th we got fried chicken carry-out because America, so I really did not need a full week of dinner planning. BA actually would have been a more efficient and less wasteful option (I had to throw out some mushrooms that went off…I haaaaaate wasting food which is one reason I heart meal planning.

But I do want to talk about a couple recipes I made and liked: Grilled sesame-lime chicken breasts and cucumber salad with soy, ginger, and garlic.

Cucumber salad is among my favorite things; the ATK smashed cucumber salad being the queen of all cucumber salads. I also make a generic version of my own on occasion, with cucumber, tomatoes, red onion and whatever herbs are lying around. My husband pointed out that the real key to a good cucumber salad is making it ahead of time – it’s not bad the first day, but on the second day the cukes have had time to absorb the dressing and it’s much tastier.

In any event, it was a great accompaniment to the grilled chicken breasts, which I did not undercook or burn! I tried to round out this dinner with vermicelli noodles, but they were sort of a flop. I did what I could with sesame oil and a ton of scallions, though.

Next time I have a lot to tell you about my new Instant Pot and all the Indian food I plan to make in it!