I don't know about you but I have trouble coming up with meals for dinner. Too many cookbooks. Not enough items at home for any of them. And we like to buy our groceries once a paycheck. Not 4 or 5 times. I have trouble going to the store and only getting what is needed, so less trips to the grocery store is better for us. And finding a recipe that doesn't require too much time and money is difficult. I have a toddler, time is not something I have.
For a couple of years now I have heard Dave Ramsey promote E-Mealz on the radio. I never thought about it until John came home and looked it up. It is a website that provides dinner menu's for each week, and you only pay $5 dollars a month. Now I thought that it would be a waste of money, but the more i looked at it, the more I liked it. No more browsing through cookbooks and finding the perfect recipe only to find that I didn't have all the items and I didn't have money left in the budget. No more planning at all actually. Just sign on log in and print my weekly menu. 5 dollars is a steal for this kind of convenience. The best part is that they have many different meal plan options for those on a diet. They carry gluten free, low-carb, low-fat, portion control and regular. The menus so far have been mostly items we will eat and they are easy to make. You don't have to be a good cook to use these recipes. In fact I don't think they are advanced enough for me, so I add too them and take away and have a blast cooking these meals. They have plans for 2-3 people or you can pick from 4-6 if you have a bigger family. We have made one meal so far and it was a good amount of food for 3 people. Joslyn didn't eat hers so seconds for daddy!! You can also pick your store you go to. Now there aren't that many selections for stores, but the two main ones in my area are Aldi and Walmart. The advantage of picking a store is that the menu plan is based upon the sale ads. So if Asparagus is on sale that week, you will probably have a meal with that in it. This works out well because the meals are very cost friendly. And of course you don't have to shop at those stores. You can spend time and research the cheapest options or add coupons to reduce the cost lower. I tried the couponing and could never keep up with the best deals. Or I would spend the 4 to 5 hours getting my coupons ready and go to the store with my daughter and all the good deals would be wiped out. But this couponing I can do. Just look at my grocery list, that they make up for you and add what other items I need, like lunch and breakfast items. Then go through my coupon box and see if I have coupons for the items I need. That doesn't take half the time or energy as crazy couponing does.
It can be hard to step out of your comfort zone and try new meals. But we consider it an adventure. I don't normally endorse items on my blogs except for books, but this website has really helped me and I really look forward to making dinner and seeing my husbands reactions. So far so good! So if this sounds like something you would need then head over to E-Mealz and sign up. One more thing, if you do this, would you tell them you found out about it from John Ellifritt? We get a discount if we get enough people to sign up. And I can use all the help I can get. Remember only $5 dollars a month. I spend more than that at one trip to McDonalds!
Don't forget, everyone that has posted this month is in a secret blog drawing :)
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