How E-mealz Saved Our Dinnertime

Italian Casserole and Salad

I never really learned how to cook growing up. Or sew, or bake for that matter. Basically I pale in comparison to the stereotypical housewife image. My mom claims I never wanted to learn those things so she just didn't teach me. So now I just stumble through these things on my own as an adult and boy do I ever stumble. In the past, dinner was a huge stress for me. I will admit a lot of those days my husband would come home from work and I still had not figured it out. Leading us to a quick meal of a-la-TV-Dinners. Before becoming a mother it was even worse. At some point I had to pick up my game. I think it was right around the time my daughter graduated from baby food that I knew I could not squeak by anymore with last minute preparations. I tried meal planning on my own for awhile and was overwhelmed to the point that I just stopped all together. Then we were back to square one and once again I was facing my husband walking through the door with no clue what I would be putting on the table. As a side note I want to add that I have a wonderful husband who could care less if we have corn dogs with frozen corn or leftover pizza for dinner. He is an easygoing guy like that and I am so thankful. But still, I wanted to do better and wanted our family to eat better.

So in my quest a few months ago I heard about E-mealz. I thought maybe THIS would be something I could do. At $5 a month I really could not go wrong. So I signed us up for the Low-fat Family Plan. Now because I rarely do things by the book, because I always tend to find my own way, I haven't been following the plan exactly. The meals are large enough where I only pick 2-3 a week to make. The rest of the nights we do something simple like going out to eat or having left-overs. I have yet to see a repeat in recipes and keep going back through to check out old ones I have yet to try. You get 7 recipes a week with the family plan so I always have extras to choose from.

The Benefits:

• Uncomplicated recipes that even I can follow and most require minimal ingredients
• There has yet to be a recipe that we have disliked
• Did I mention easy?
• A shopping list is included every week
• Side dishes are also suggested and included
• The portions in the family plan are large enough to easily feed a family of 4, probably much more
• Low-cost solution to meal planning
• Many meal plan options to chose from including gluten-free and low-fat

The only downside I have come across is that I am the mother to the world's pickiest eater. And she has only eaten one of the meals to date. The rest of the time I end up making something separate for her. Yes, we make her try them all which usually results in a gag fest at the table and me silently hoping she doesn't vomit, again, on her plate. I have hope someday this will change.

Also, we just switched from the Family Meal Plan to the Couples Mean Plan which only has 5 meals a week instead of 7. Less to choose from but still low-fat. I am hoping this way we will cut down on the amount of left0vers we have because we just weren't getting through them all before having to toss them.

Overall I am incredibly happy with the service and plan on continuing with my subscription. If you are interested in checking them out click on over to their homepage and download a sample menu or enter your email in the box to receive 2 free family dinners to try on your own.