Has anyone tried e-mealz.com?

[Lori2202]

A friend of mine introduced me to e-mealz.com and I was wondering if anyone had tried it. It is an online meal planning tool and the concept seems genius, but would like to hear from someone who has actually used it.

 

[TnTWalter]

I think I'm still a member. It's ok. Not terribly impressed.

There's a free one too...
http://eatathomecooks.com/weekly-menus

 

[Mrs. Bradbury]

I did it for maybe a month. I guess my expectations were more than I got. Too many recipes are already-prepared stuff where you throw in a prepackaged salad and call it dinner. She is very big on heating up a can of green beans for a side dish. My family (including me) expects a little more. YMMV.

 

[dis-happy]

I use menu-mailer. The recipes are from scratch (not processed things) and are really, really good! Your subscription includes 3 menu choices: heart healthy, low carb and regular. There used to be one for frugal meals too, not sure it it's a different subscription or not. One recipe a week is always for a crockpot meal. Included is a shopping list, side dish suggestions and nutritional information.

When I was pg. I purchased the frozen meals bundle....LOVED IT!!! Had 25 meals in my freezer ready to go before the baby was born. They were a lifesaver.

 

[threecrazykids]

I used it for quite awhile...i liked it...if you use coupon code "DAVE" you get a discount off your first subscription...renewals are regular rate. I have plenty of recipes now so I stopped the subscription for awhile now...may try it again later, but I enjoyed the meals.

 

[gacompguy]

We subscribed several months ago and have been extremely happy. My wife and I simply don't have time to make elaborate meals or spend hours at the grocery store. E-mealz gives us a shopping list based on Publix that takes advantage of the current sales. While most of the meals are simple to prepare, I can't say I recall any pre-packaged meals with a salad thrown in. All of them have required some type of preparation. We've especially enjoyed the variety in the meals; I can't say we've had any repeats in 4+ months.

 

[Mrs. Bradbury]

While most of the meals are simple to prepare, I can't say I recall any pre-packaged meals with a salad thrown in.

This is from the 8/13/08 Publix meal plan:

Meal 1 Ready to Eat! Easy Combo Meal
8 piece fried chicken or Rotisserie chicken
2 – 16 oz sides of your choice
1 pkg (4 ct) rolls
Free gallon Deli iced tea
Serve heated or cold! Enjoy!

And this one from the 8-28-08 Walmart meal plan is almost as bad IMHO:

Meal 5 Bacon Corn Chowder Muffins
12 slices of cooked bacon
3 cans of cream of potato soup (3 c milk)
2 cans corn, drained
1 - 2 boxes muffins (butter)
Cook bacon. Cut or crumble into pieces. Pour soup, corn and milk into large pan. Heat for 5 minutes;add bacon. Bring to a simmer. Make and serve warm muffins with soup.

And by bad, I don't mean the food is bad necessarily, it's that if I pay for a meal planning service, I expect more. Hopefully she has improved since then. If you & your family enjoy it, then it's a good value for you; nobody else matters.

 

[Amy8888]

I was using e-mealz for a few months but I stopped before my subscription was even up (it renewed and I used it for another week or so but then I stopped). I liked it because I am on Weight Watchers and I liked the points option.

I really thought it was a great idea. I'm not sure it saved me much on groceries, but there was definitely a feeling that I had the ingredients for the meal, so I better use them. That was good to avoid going out to eat because I was too tired to cook. But ultimately, I think the recipes weren't that great, it got to be too time-consuming to do the planning, and it didn't save me much money. Since stopping we've just been playing by ear (probably even more than before I went on e-mealz) and this is forcing us to be more creative, go through the cabinets and freezer, and just use up more. And honestly I haven't been too tempted to run out to eat since stopping either. I just weigh the time it would take to go through a drive-through versus just go home and find something there, and going home usually wins.

 

[Amy8888]

We subscribed several months ago and have been extremely happy. My wife and I simply don't have time to make elaborate meals or spend hours at the grocery store. E-mealz gives us a shopping list based on Publix that takes advantage of the current sales. While most of the meals are simple to prepare, I can't say I recall any pre-packaged meals with a salad thrown in. All of them have required some type of preparation. We've especially enjoyed the variety in the meals; I can't say we've had any repeats in 4+ months.

Off the top of my head, I remember a southwestern chicken salad that used the pre-cooked and pre-sliced chicken on top of a bagged salad with corn and beans, and a few recipes using pre-cooked bacon (which I found nasty and never bought after the first time).

 

[PrincessPeyton]

I ordered the "general" plan since we didn't have Super Walmart at the time and I was a disappointed. I canceled my subscription also before my 3 months were up. It was a bit too processed for my family. To save time I have been using Once A Month Mom menus and cooking a majority of my meals once a month! LOVE IT!

 

[RetroMom]

I love e-mealz!! I haven't tried the other plans people have mentioned, so I can't really compare, but I'm sure they are good too. I just don't have a lot of experience in creating a variety of meals and I'm always short on time, so over the years the dinners in my house became stuck in a rut. Plus, I just don't have the time to look over the circulars and see what's on sale and put together menus based around them. E-mealz makes it so simple! I go through the list, see if there are any meals that I know my kids won't like and mark through those (and plan a replacement), check my supply list against what I already have in the fridge/pantry, add any other items I need and off to Kroger I go! If you are a person who loves to cook and knows all about menu planning, then this is probably not for you. My kids and I have loved it because we have tried out different kinds of meats, spices, combos of foods and so forth. It has also been great for us because I walk straight into Kroger, mark off my list and I am out of there!

 

[gacompguy]

This is from the 8/13/08 Publix meal plan:

[bulk redacted....]

And by bad, I don't mean the food is bad necessarily, it's that if I pay for a meal planning service, I expect more. Hopefully she has improved since then. If you & your family enjoy it, then it's a good value for you; nobody else matters.

Actually, we use one of the low fat plans. Like I said, we haven't had any pre-made meals I can recall. If we have, there haven't been many.