About a month ago I was contacted by eMeals, asking me if I'd like to try out their program. Seeing as menu planning and grocery shopping are one of my least favorite, time-sucking activities I said, "sure thing!"
Here's basically what they offer:
- A weekly menu plan - It includes 7 different meals with recipes. The variety is great. The week that I tried out included beef, chicken, pork, fish, a salad, a breakfast casserole, and a crockpot meal.
- A printable shopping list - This was super cool. All you do it print it out and head to the grocery store.
One of the meals that we enjoyed: Beef Burgundy with Egg Noodles and Fresh Steamed Carrots
Ingredients
- 1 lb London broil, cut into tips
- 1 can cream of mushroom soup
- 1 can sliced water chestnuts
- 1/2 cup red cooking wine (I substituted with a little worcestire sauce and water)
- 1 envelope dry onion soup mix
- 8 oz fresh sliced mushrooms
Instructions
Cut beef into bite sized tips. Add meat to crockpot and mix in soup, water chestnuts, wine, soup mix, and mushrooms. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours.
Boil 1 package of egg noodles until done. Drain and serve with beef burgundy over noodles.
Steam a 16 oz bag of mini carrots and season with butter and salt.
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After trying out eMeals for a week, here are my observations:
Cost effective -- In my opinion, the coolest feature of eMeals is that you can sign up for a plan that is specific to the grocery store that you shop at. They do the extra work to coordinate the menu/meals with items that are on sale at your grocery store that week! This is a big time saver for me - as I usually spend time each week pouring over the grocery ad to plan our menu and write out my grocery list. Also, with eMeals doing all the work for me, my grocery bill for that week was lower than usual.
Normal food - Nothing froo-froo or fancy. Just good, normal, family-friendly food. I would say that 6 out of 7 meals got a thumbs up from most of the family. (It's impossible to please everyone.)
Organization - These people are super-organized. On the shopping list, I love that the food items are cross-referenced with each meal number. So, say there's a meal you don't want to cook (maybe fish isn't your family's thing), then it's quick & easy to eliminate those items from your list.
Ease of mind - Knowing all week that I had the ingredients for 7 planned meals, count them . . . seven, in my cupboards & fridge, ready to go, was just awesome. It made dinner time a stress-free experience.
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Today I get to giveaway a 3 month membership to eMeals! To enter, leave me a comment telling me which eMeals plan you would try.
For additional entries:
1) "Like" eMeals on Facebook -- then come back and leave a comment to tell me you did
2) Follow eMeals on Pinterest -- leave a comment here to tell me you did
I'm going to close the giveaway on Monday, June 25th at 9pm PST and announce the winner soon after. Good luck!
