Dinner Rejuvenated - A New TOS Review!!

I love to cook.  But I do NOT like to have the same thing all the time.  I get bored and then I get lazy and dinners become the same thing over and over again.  Well, that has all but changed in the last few weeks.  I was given the AWESOME opportunity to review E-Mealz and it has revolutionized our mealtimes.

The Product:
Right about now you might be thinking, "What is E-Mealz?"  Well, let me tell you this is one very COOL product.  What E-Mealz does for you is takes the weekly sales at the grocery store and creates meal plans on those sales, saving you money.  They even go one step further and have 28 dinner menu plans which cover large families, families of just 2, and specialty meal plans for gluten free, low carb, low fat, portion control and vegetarian.  Isn't that AWESOME?!

All you have to do is go to the site pick your plan, print it, go shopping, cook and enjoy!  The weekly 2 page plans are 7 dinner meals broken into 3 columns.  The first column tells you the meal with sides and whether it is a crock pot meal, family favorite, quick meal, or needing to be marinated - so it gives you hints so you know what you will have to do at a glance for that night's meal.  The second column gives you the ingredients and the third column are the instructions for the meals.


The second page, also columned, is broken down to let you know the specific ingredients, which meal they go with, and their price.  The sale price is noted in red.  At the bottom of the page they tally the price to give you an approximate total.  All you have to add then is your staples that you might be out of, breakfasts and lunches (unless you have left overs) and voila! your menu planning is complete!

And you won't believe the price ... $15 for 3 months!  That is only $1.25 per plan or $0.18 per day's plan.  And for someone me like me this is just awesome!  There is even a member's only referral program. And the program is recommended by Dave Ramsey.  If you want to learn more come and read their FAQ's.  I also learned that they have Gift Certificates available and with Christmas coming up this might be just the thing you've been looking for for that special food enthusiast in your life.

Our Experience:
Well as soon as I had access to the plans, I took advantage.  That is because I really have been struggling with coming up dinners that are unique, but easy to make as well as kid friendly.  E-Mealz has definitely done that.  I chose to do the Publix Family meal plan since I thought that it would be one more people would use. We've been trying that one for about 8 weeks and have had some really great meals.

I do plan on switching to the low carb plan when Stephen and I get back to our strict low carb lifestyle diet, which hopefully will be soon.  But for now we've been happy with the "regular" Publix plan.

I am very picky so I was a bit concerned that I'd be having to modify the meals A LOT.  I am happy to tell you that I did not.  I think one of our first meals was called Creamy Enchiladas and they have been a meal we've had again and again.  We even have made it when we had to bring a dinner to a family at church.  Here are some pictures of our finished products for a few of the meals we have LOVED!

When you first sign up you have access to the current week's meal plan as well as the prior week's plan, so you have 14 meals to peruse through and plan for.  Of course the current week's plan will be based on the sales of that week, but I found that sometimes we had most of the items necessary for a few of the prior week's plan so if I liked one meal over another I'd do that instead.  Now that I have 8 meal plans, that have been downloaded to the computer for use at a future time, I have a TON of meals at my fingertips that require little planning on my own.  That is just a very cool service.

My girls have even rated my meals at 100% good or 2 thumbs up after finishing them.  I was even able to get my non-meat eater to eat meals with meat in them (Audrie only eats chicken and hot dogs) with no complaints.  The meals have been completely satisfying.  We have also had many meals where there were enough leftovers for at least lunch enough not another dinner.

My Thoughts:
I have been super pleased with the service that E-Mealz offers.  I have also been surprisingly happy with ALL the choices.  And in the past two months I haven't had a repeated menu plan - each day has been unique.  They do try and keep the menus from repeating for at least five or six months.

Personally, I did not like that over the weeks I've had my plan there have been several meals that were "breakfast for dinner" ideas, but that is just me.  I'm weird like that - I also don't like "dinner type" foods for breakfast. ;)  However, I don't think there has been more then one of these "breakfast meals" per week.

I would highly recommend this program for it's ease of use.  And you can check out a partial sample plan for any of the plans that interest you.  You can also check out my other Crew members who have reviewed and evaluated the other available plans.  I'd love to hear what you think about this program and which plan you would choose.  Here's to good eating!

*** I am a member of The Old Schoolhouse 2011-2012 Crew and receive free products and services in exchange for a thorough and honest review. Though I am compensated with free products, I am not compensated in the form of money for any of my reviews. My reviews will always reflect my honest opinions, findings, beliefs and experiences with the products and services that I receive.***