A while back I blogged about cooking from scratch more. Around that same time, we started trying a program called E-mealz. I had heard about this from a friend who used it and also seen that Jon Acuff on Stuff Christians Like was promoting it with a coupon code that had a discount. Basically it is a website where, for $15 for three months ($12.50 with the coupon code SCL), they will give you a meal plan for dinner every week. It has recipes for each dinner and a shopping list broken down by category. The meal plan is designed to be affordable (each week is supposed to be about $35-45 for the 2 person meals-which provide more than enough for two people). Certain stores have a plan available for that store which will tell you exactly how much it is supposed to cost. There are also various specialty plans such as the low fat plan that we are on.
At $15, it breaks down to $5 a month or $1.25 a week, which I was willing to pay to have someone plan my menu for me. I was trying to do this on my own but it never failed that I would be ready to go to the store and realize I hadn’t planned yet. So I would do it hastily and end up with the same old meals over and over again. Our friends that do this really like the meals and said there had only been maybe one meal that was not good. So I signed up!
We have cooked about two weeks worth of the menus and really like it! I have never bought so much from the produce section in all my life! I like that the meals are easy yet healthy. We have really liked 9 of the 10 meals we have eaten so far. (The Turkey Burgers were a fail!) Some favorites include Black Eyed Pea Casserole, Three Cheese Manicotti (which has carrots in it!), and Mediterranean Chicken Panini.
We are on the low fat any store plan (since they don’t have HEB) but they also have plans for gluten-free, vegetarian, low carb, and portion control. They have a Kroger and Walmart plan that could be used around here. You can browse the samples if you are trying to figure out which one to get. There is a plan for four and a plan for two. Our friends have two little kids and they do the plan for two and have some for leftovers. We do the plan for two and have leftovers.
So if you are looking to a solution to your dinnertime woes of same old food and spending too much at the grocery store, I recommend trying it out! Click the link below or in my sidebar to find out more info!
E-MEALZ Easy Meals for Busy and Frugal Families
