Meal Planning is Easy with eMeals

I received a year of dinner plans($58 value) from eMeals in exchange for my trying and sharing my own thoughts about eMeals. Post also contains affiliate links. All opinions are my own as always.

Dinnertime, it’s practically a 4-letter word some days. Meal planning is a great way to organize your grocery shopping, save time, and money. Sitting down to do it and come up with ideas. That is not as easy. I get in a rut of making the same thing over and over again.

eMeals offers you the choice of plans from Dinner, Lunch, or Breakfast. You can pick what type of meals you are looking for. Just go over to eMeals and click on “See Meals Plans” to learn more about all the choices.

Choose from:

Classic Meals
Clean Eating
Paleo
Slow Cooker
Simple Gourmet
Low Carb
Low Fat
Portion Control
Natural & Organic
Gluten Free
Vegetarian

I picked Slow Cooker first, but then decided to go with Classic Meals. It was so hard to pick one, and I was glad I could switch. I wanted to switch again (I know..I’m fickle), but it says I have to wait until the end of this month before I’m allowed to again. I’m just getting my second plan so I’m learning, and I am glad I picked the Classic Meals. This week has a few yummy looking chicken recipes in it. Chicken is a favorite around here with my picky eaters!

You Signup, what’s do you get?

A list of a week’s worth of meals to make. It will also take things you made from a previous meal that week to use again later. That’s such a time saver! It even suggest sides to go with each meal, and list prep and cook time so you can really plan out your meal. It’s not all from scratch stuff. They will use canned pizza dough for a recipe to help save some time, but if you like from scratch you could do that! You would have to adjust the times.

You will notice it asks for your grocery store when you sign up. I wasn’t sure why until I saw it makes me a shopping list and figures up the cost for the week. It evens pulls from the sales ad when making the list from the select stores it has (ALDI, Kroger, Publix, Ralphs, Safeway, Target, Walmart, and Whole Foods). You can mark “Other Stores” if yours is not on the list. I marked “Other Stores” since I shop at Schnucks mainly so I got a list of items, but no prices.

Check out this Sample Family Menu for Walmart.

Besides just a grocery list, it also list the staples you need. Those things that you have in your pantry (Oil, Vinegar, etc.) or may need to add to your shopping list for the week.

I liked it was in .pdf form so that was easy to print. I found recipes that look good. I probably would not make every thing in the week it lists, but I’m looking for any new ideas to change things up.

You get a newsletter when you sign up. I actually enjoy the newsletter, which I rarely ever say. This most recent one had drink recipes, and tips for boiling eggs. It was handy information.

The only issue I was having was searching for recipes. I know everything is divided among the plans you decide to buy (Breakfast, Lunch, and/or Dinner), but I would love to be able to search the Dinner ones for recipes for an ingredient I found on sale that week or for drinks or desserts to go with my meals. They do have a blog (the newsletter directs you there) so that will help with my one complaint of searching. Also they are on Pinterest so plenty of ideas there as well. Like I said I am new to eMeals as well so I’m still exploring and finding new things!

Not everyone is going to like every recipe, but after a year of getting these every week you will have quite a library of recipes you either enjoy or want to make. Wonderful thing about recipes is that they inspire and can be adapted to your needs.

Signup is very easy, and there are three subscription options:

3 months: $21 ($7 per month), 6 months: $35 ($6 per month), and 12 months: $58 ($5 per month)

You can add Weekday Lunches (Only $4/month), which includes 5 lunches for 4 people you can pack each week. Also there is the Healthy Breakfast plan (Only $3/month), which includes 5 breakfast meals each week for 4 people.

You can easily spend $58 in a year on cookbooks that take up room on your shelves and only have a couple recipes you like. This you are getting 7 recipes per week plus more in the newsletter and on their blog. So over 364 recipes a year!

Find out more about eMeals by visiting them online, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.