Relish! instead of E-Mealz?

[sameyeyam]

Has anybody here used the Relish! meal plan? I am currently using the Walmart family meal plan from E-Mealz. I'm fairly happy with it, but the Relish plan looks like it might be a better fit.

You get to choose 5 meals out of about 15 that they present each week. My initial thought is the menus look healthier. But my main question is, are the recipes more complicated? I can cook good, but I work full time and I like the ease of E-mealz recipes. I get home at 5:45 and don't want to be eating at 8pm if the recipes have lots of ingredients and are more complicated.

Right now with E-Mealz I am tweaking their menu (getting rid of canned green beans and adding whatever produce is on sale that week). Plus, I get rid of stuff that we don't like. For instance this week is Tuna Burgers and they threw in an 8 piece fried chicken from the deli. I'm substituting prior recipes for Salmon with cream sauce and Black bean & sausage soup. Not a big deal, but maybe just to give you an idea of how we like to eat.

I'm really not unhappy with E-Mealz, especially after I get done with my easy weekly menu tweaking. Just wondering if anybody has used Relish and what their thought was on it.

 

[threecrazykids]

I was the same way with E-Mealz. I was constantly tweaking them and got tired of paying for it. There is a Dis'er on here that has her own website with the same service for FREE. Try www dot eatathomecooks dot com. It's worth a shot!

 

[funnygarcia]

hey you !

Yep I agree, eat at home is a good free resource for menu planning. However, it does not have a price list if that is something you like about EMealz.

another one that pulls from many sources...
http://orgjunkie.com/category/menu-plan-monday

Hmm, looks interesting and sounds like you can mix and match based on preferences
http://www.mealmixer.com/
http://www.saymmm.com/index.php


There are some other routes to take like creating your own menu plans. Tried to find the site.. but no luck. Pull out cookbooks, brainstorm family favorites. Narrow it down to 30 meals, write / type it out or write name and source of each recipe.. one per index card. Pull together enough cards per week, per month. Ring clip a packet per week and hang it on your fridge... Ta-da!
Your very own planner and all of it food YOU and the family like.

Personally I do the reverse method.. buy what's on sale, sit down once a week and think what do I have? what can I make? Adding in anything new I find online or in a book.

 

[sameyeyam]

Found a code (Penelope) for a free 2 week trial for Relish. I'm pretty impressed with their website. So MANY more options then E-Mealz. Almost too many options.

Anyway, I picked out 5 meals, 2 desserts and 6 freezer meals that I wanted to make this weekend. Some of the items I already had in my pantry, but went shopping at Walmart and found everything I needed except for flank steak and bartlett pears. Seriously, Walmart had 4 types of fancy pears and not one of them was the regular pear! I spent $140, but I did price matching also and bought some other staples. So overall I think I spent about $110 on two weeks. I was thinking it might be more expensive then Emealz, but for two weeks worth of food it was in the ballpark that I'm looking for. I like the fact that I can pick more than that weeks meals and make some ahead or put some freezer meals away.

I've got to say it was way different then shopping with Emealz. I didn't get a single thing from the Pilsbury canned bread section and had way more produce in my cart. Next step is to see how long some of these recipes will take to cook.

 

[sameyeyam]

I did like the fact that Emealz had the price list. There were a few things that I picked up for Relish that I kind of cringed when I put in the cart when I seen the price. But I do buy a lot of my groceries/pantry items at a discount Grocery Outlet. They carry some strange brands, a few dented boxes; but the values are pretty good.

I would do my own meal planning, buy what's on sale and work around that. But it was just taking me too much time. Some of the free meal plans I looked at sounded good, but they were a bit too much "comfort food" all the time.

I'm now the proud owner of a bottle of Hoisin sauce...I sure hope I can find something other then this one recipe to use it on!

 

[funnygarcia]

MMM, hoisin sauce is nice to have on hand for instant stir fry or as a base for BBQ sauce.

I've used it to make a one person meal out of leftovers.. chicken breast, plain rice, toss some frozen peas in the bowl. Sprinkle with garlic powder and ginger. Zap it in the microwave with a bit of hoisin sauce. YUM!

 

[SaraJayne]

I've had Relish! for months and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!!

It's definitely worth the $7 a month fee.

 

[kalliyan1]

Found a code (Penelope) for a free 2 week trial for Relish.

What is the coupon code? Penelope? I tried that and it didn't work...Anyway, I'm on ezmealz too and find that i would like to have more choices and less need to tweak. I may try this too.
THanks

 

[cajunfan]

I would love the coupn code too! I have been reluctant to subscribe to E-Mealz due to the inflexability.

 

[LilyWDW]

Due to this thread, I have decided to start using Say Mmm. So far it seems really easy to use and the site is really nice. The biggest reason I am using it is so I have my weekly meal planning somewhere online instead of just on my home computer. This way I can look it up and change it on the fly if needed.

 

[threecrazykids]

Due to this thread, I have decided to start using Say Mmm. So far it seems really easy to use and the site is really nice. The biggest reason I am using it is so I have my weekly meal planning somewhere online instead of just on my home computer. This way I can look it up and change it on the fly if needed.

I just signed up for this! This looks like a great site also! Thank you!

 

[lttlmc3]

I've never even heard of these! Thanks for the tips guys!

 

[labdogs42]

cool! I like E-mealz, but I'll check into those other ones!

 

[britfish]

I never knew sites like this existed! I would love the coupon code to try Relish if someone can post it.

 

[vicki_c]

That Relish site looks amazing and I just signed up. I could not find a current coupon code. I googled and there was one posted only 3-4 days ago but it is already expired - I think it was a 1 day code. So I just paid the $21 for 3 months.

I just got done looking through some of the menus and they look great. I also signed up for EMeals a few weeks ago and I think the menus look kind of ewww - I'm going to cancel that. Too processed, I think. If I wanted to do everything with so much processed food, I'd just let my DH keep cooking (just call him Mr. Hamburger Helper - LOL!).

 

[marie1203]

I decided to try E-Mealz last week and I am very disappointed with it. It didn't save me any money and there is really no a choice if you don't like what it is the menu. I been using allrecipes for months, it worked better and it is free. There is a choice were you can put all the recipes into a grocery list.

 

[sameyeyam]

Made the first Relish meal last night. It was a ricotta pasta dish and italian mozzarella salad. It was very good and everybody liked it. As I suspected, it did take longer to cook then the usual Emealz selection. But the time to prepare & cook was pretty reasonable. Was hoping to try the stuffed shrimp tonight, but DD went out, DH is playing cards with his buddies, so DS and I just ate leftovers.

I think my initial reaction that the groceries would cost more, take longer to cook then Emealz was correct. But I think the food is healthier and tastes better.

 

[vicki_c]

Made the first Relish meal last night. It was a ricotta pasta dish and italian mozzarella salad. It was very good and everybody liked it. As I suspected, it did take longer to cook then the usual Emealz selection. But the time to prepare & cook was pretty reasonable. Was hoping to try the stuffed shrimp tonight, but DD went out, DH is playing cards with his buddies, so DS and I just ate leftovers.

I think my initial reaction that the groceries would cost more, take longer to cook then Emealz was correct. But I think the food is healthier and tastes better.

We've made 2 things already - first was Crispy Chicken w/Dipping Sauce and everyone mostly liked it (DD didn't like the sauce, and then said the chicken was too plain without it - LOL!) and tonight I made the Cheesy Meatloaf which was also pretty good. I think Relish might be a keeper for us.

 

[sameyeyam]

We've made 2 things already - first was Crispy Chicken w/Dipping Sauce and everyone mostly liked it (DD didn't like the sauce, and then said the chicken was too plain without it - LOL!) and tonight I made the Cheesy Meatloaf which was also pretty good. I think Relish might be a keeper for us.

I signed up on Thursday, so I figured it would have given me the current weekly list, it gave me the prior weeks list. So I shopped from that. But when I logged on Friday, it gave me the new list...so I'm a week behind! I also picked the Cheesy Meatloaf for next week. I almost picked the Crispy Chicken also, but went with the Greek Garlic Chicken instead. Didn't want to do more then one chicken in a week. Emealz had us burnt out on chicken. This summer we got burned out on shrimp, then they seemed to switch gears and go with chicken. Sometimes I wonder if they actually look at what they are putting together for the entire week. I like chicken well enough, but not 3 times per week.

Emealz was definitely easy and I have to do more thinking and preparing with Relish...but so far the quality & choices seem much more to my family's liking.

Last night I made the pumpkin chocolate chip bread, everybody liked it. I also made the freezer selection of pumpkin icebox pie. I haven't tried it yet, but DD had a piece this morning and said it was good.