E-Mealz

 

That's right, "E-Meals."

Sounds very modern, doesn't it?  It sounds inedible.  Like it would be a picture of a meal you could carry around on your mobile device.  "Have fun admiring this beautiful food wherever you go!" 

Not quite. :)  I discovered E-Mealz off of the Stuff Christians Like blog by Jon Acuff.  A recent post from Jon is a challenge to eat together as a family and E-Mealz is the sponsor.

I decided to check it out.  I am SO totally going to try this out after I get married.  For $5 a month, you download a meal plan for the week (1 meal a day).  The download includes the schedule, the ingredients needed, and the recipe as well as a pre-made shopping list!  They have many different meal plans that are categorized by store (WalMart, Kroger, any, etc.), special need (weight-loss, gluten-free, vegetarian), as well as by family size (4-6, or 'just us 2').

Their goals posted on the home page are as follows:

• Goal #1
  Spending time with your family 

• Goal #2
  Save time and money

• Goal #3
  Serve delicious food

• Goal #4
  Save yourself from multiple and last minute trips to the grocery store

• Goal #5
  Stare at your children across from the dinner table rather than into the
  pantry looking for a dinner idea

• Goal #6
  Lose weight without preparing separate meals for the family. (Every meal plan is designed to be family friendly, even the weight management plans!)

Personally, I'm excited to try this out.  When I rented a house my last year in college, figuring out what's for dinner was one of my most frustrating experiences.  Like Goal #5 says, I spent a lot of time staring into my pantry and fridge, willing a meal idea to present itself.

Something I like about the E-Mealz plans at first glance is that they seem very real about it.  For example, look at a sample meal plan and at the very bottom of the 'shopping list' page, it makes a mention to if you decide you don't want to use a particular meal, just cross off the corresponding ingredients.  They know you're not going to necessarily follow the plan to the letter.  I mean, I saw one plan that had catfish as the meal.  EW!  So not happening at my house!  They know you're real, and they're just trying to help you out.

Anyways, I totally love the idea of this and when I have to start coming up with meal ideas again when I move into my new house as a wife, I plan to give E-Mealz a try.  Maybe you'd like to as well?  No more staring into the pantry!!!