Menu Plan Wednesday Made Easy

Menu planning. Meal planning. Cooking magazine perusing. Ahhhh, all things I LOVED doing pre-baby! Post-baby, it just turned in to a chore. A chore that I became to hate and drag my feet on...which in turn caused a lot more eating out than necessary. I wasn't happy. I'm sure my husband wasn't happy (even though he really enjoys eating out...it's the cost of the eating out that gets ya!). I was doing just enough to get by as far as shopping for the baby, but that wasn't good enough. At this stage in my life, I needed help, I needed a solution and I needed one fast...

Enter E-mealz, my current meal planning saving grace.

Back in 2009, I tried this out and wasn't that impressed with it because a lot of the meals used canned soups and processed foods. To be honest, I think I was being a little bit of a food snob. However, over the past couple of years they have done a really good job of creating menus that combine easy cooking with fresher ingredients. So I decided to give it another go...and I am happy to report that I was able to go shopping and cook 7 dinners this week!! yahooooooo! I still do a little subbing based on our likes and dislikes -- and of course, I modify recipes all the time so that is no different here either, but the great thing is not only do they give you a menu for the week, but they also provide the shopping list! :) Most menus are based on the weekly sales and it is meant to save your family some money as well...and really? who doesn't want to save some moolah??

Is every single recipe a home run? No, but they are still pretty good. And let's face it, not every recipe I was making on my own was a home run either so that's not much different. But what is different is the amount of time I am not spending meal planning and cooking, which means more family time...and I'll take that any day!!

Wanna check it out? They have quite a few sample menus that you can peruse and try out recipes for your family. There are even portion control meal plans that coincide with systems like Weight Watchers as well as low-carb meal plans. We currently do a meal plan for 5 meals a week for 2 people and it is plenty of food for us and the little miss -- but if you have more than one kiddo, I would probably recommend the 4-6 people menu which gives you 7 meals rather than 5 meals per week.

Here's what's on the menu for this week: (Some from e-mealz and some regular staple meals)
Buffalo Chicken and Salad
Honey Garlic Pork Chops and Veggies
Taco Salad
Spaghetti and Salad
Potato Soup
Sweet & Sour Chicken
Orange Marinade Steak and Salad/Veggies