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“What’s for dinner?” Like nails on a chalkboard, these three little words send chills down my back and make me want to lock myself in the bathroom until bedtime. Not to make excuses, but between the four kids, a full-time job, and taking a class at night, my brain is somewhat full. There‘s not a lot of room in there left for meal planning. Despite my best efforts to plan and have an answer to “What’s for dinner?” somehow, I always fall short.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m very good at looking at recipes. I’m even quite skilled at shopping for and buying cartloads of groceries. The problem is my two talents rarely come together to make anything productive. So what’s a girl to do?
How about trying eMeals? eMeals is a subscription service that sends weekly meal plans to your inbox based on the information you provide. Subscribers can choose from several meal styles for a yearly charge of $58. Each week (Wednesday for me), they send out a new plan along with ….. a grocery list! A few thoughts about this process: the recipes and grocery lists are pre-made Adobe files, so they can’t be changed but can be printed and “recycled” if you find a family favorite. If you decide you want to mix things up a bit and try a different menu, be selective, as you can only do this once a month.
There are many positive aspects of this service. The recipes are delicious and use “real” ingredients. I already had most things on hand, so I didn’t need to spend much money on expensive items I would only use once. I used the Whole Foods Menu, which went over well but recently switched to the Low Fat Menu to add some new recipes to my repertoire. Other menu choices include Classic, Gluten Free, and Paleo, just to name a few. With the cold weather coming up, I’ll be switching to the Crockpot Menu in October.
Having a plan at the grocery store made shopping so much easier! Even though I bought some items I would have never purchased, at least I knew I had a use for them. Many subscribers claim they save a lot of money using the service, and I agree. If you follow the plan as directed, it does limit, if not eliminate, impulse buys. For those who become completely addicted, there is an option to add additional menus to the basic plan. Adding a lunch menu will cost an additional $4 per month, and breakfasts $3. Even though I knew what was for dinner, I still had trouble during the “busy season,” with three soccer and one football player pulling it all together. Although I loved the idea of the plan and the convenience of the lists, I still had the same basic problem. I had the recipe. I had the ingredients but didn’t have the time to put it all together. Most recipes take about 20 minutes to prepare and 30-40 minutes to cook. In hindsight, I wish I had signed up for the Crockpot Menu first and then experimented once I had more time.
This service is excellent for those who have time to prepare meals and useful for those who don’t. Written by Beth
Erica says
Emily’s review is either computer generated or some angry person who copied and pasted that same review, word for word, on as many sites as possible. I’ve seen it three other places…..this makes four. The one page for all recipes make it very easy to keep up with and cheaper to print. Also, it states on the page the limit of how many times you can switch menu styles. It only lets you do it once so I don’t quite understand how she switched it 5 times.
Heather says
Emily,
Thanks so much for your feedback. I work at eMeals and wanted to make sure to address your concerns. Have you tried our companion app? That may make it simpler for you to not have to deal with all the paper. eMeals’ customer support is very receptive to feedback and I’m sure they’d be happy to help you pick the perfect plan for you. In fact, they change new
members’ plans as often as needed to make sure they get you in the correct one. You can email them at support@emeals.com if you would like. I appreciate your time and the comment. Happy Thanksgiving!
Emily says
I’m a new customer to emeals and pretty disappointed to say the least. Mostly for 2 reasons now… 1) First thing I was disappointed in was the layout/style of the recipe PDFs. They come as 3 recipes per page, I think it would be more convenient/add value/feel-like-I-am-getting-my-monies-worth if they would designate 1 pdf page per recipe and make it pretty. Make it look like a recipe card, so I can print and add to my recipe collection. 2) LET ME VIEW MORE THAN 1 “TYPE” OF RECIPE PLAN PER WEEK. Here I am, Day 1, Hour 1, and I am switching my plan 5 times in one day in an attempt to download the past 2 weeks worth of recipes in categories I like (gourmet, classic, crockpot, healthy, vegetarian, etc.) and then it told me I can’t switch it again for another month. So now I’m stuck on “vegetarian something” because it was the last thing I picked before I guess I used up all my swaps and its not even something I really like. I just figured, heck why not download the recipes, maybe try them later. Now I’m stuck for the next month with only vegetarian recipes. WTF? I would NEVER pay $60 or $100 a year for this service. AllRecipes is WAAAAY better. and cheaper. It’s not like emeals is “customizing” the recipes they are sending me to my tastes or anything. All emeals is, is literally an over-priced email of 6 recipes, sent to you each week that you have no input over, other than to say “I want ‘Crockpot’ recipes this week instead of ‘Classic’ recipes.” (and better only do this 1 per week or you too will get stuck). Seriously, you might as well google 6 recipes each week and save the $60. This is so not worth the cost.
Richard Hicks says
I like this. Seems to me that it would free up some time for us having a planning service
Michelle F. says
I could definitely use this service.
amanda whitley says
i need something like this. i have a hard time keeping organized and planning my dinners.
Patty White says
What a wonderful site!! And I love that they have slow cooker recipes too!!