Check out emeals.com. It is basically a service that sends you a weekly dinner menu and shopping list. I saw a groupon for it and I thought "Who would pay for that?" I already have TONS of recipes from magazines and a lot of magazines also have weekly plans. But I looked into it a little further, and it is much more than just a weekly a menu. One cool feature is that you can choose your grocery store and they will plan your menu around what is on sale. Right now they only have menus for ALDI, Kroger, Publix, Ralphs, Safeway, Wal-Mart, Whole Foods, or just any other store. They also have a number of menus to choose from: You can just do "regular" or they also have clean eating, gluten free, low carb, low fat, portion control, vegetarian, or natural and organic, and you can also choose between family size recipes or recipes for two. We have been doing the clean eating menu for about three weeks and we really love it. Only one recipe we have made was just ok - the rest were phenomenal. They also have bonus recipes for holidays and other events. I just saw today there is a special vacation menu up. Also the grocery list that comes with it is really well organized and it has the # of the recipe, so if you want to cut one out, it is really easy to update the list. (We go out at least once a week, plus with leftovers, we are probably making about 4-5 of the recipes a week). I also feel like they try to use the same ingredients in the week, so if a recipe calls for half an onion, you will probably use the other half later in the week (I hate those meal plans that have you buy a bunch of ingredients and then you have all this half open stuff around). Also, you can change your menu type I think once a month. I think I paid $29 for the whole year with my groupon, but they have shorter plans, too. Check out the video on the website and also they have some sample menus too. They do have a referral program so if anyone is interested, send me a PM. I think it has been worth it - it ends that annoying question of what is for dinner. Even if you only incorporate a few of the recipes into your regular rotation each week, I think it is a great service.
I love it! Too bad they don't have any of my grocery stores listed. If they did, I would absolutely try it! The only stores on the list that I have locally are Whole Foods, which is wonderful but way too expensive to shop at on a weekly basis, and WalMart, which I try not to shop in for personal reasons. If they add Stop and Shop or Shop Rite, I'm IN!!
I didn't see an option for 1-2 people in vegetarian. I'm pretty good at shopping sales and planning meals ahead. I keep a stocked pantry, and I usually shop every 4-6 weeks with a trip every week or two for perishables. (It's 40 miles round trip for Kroger or Wal-Mart.) It would be a good option for people who are too busy to search recipes or look for the sales.
They don't have my grocery store either, but I do most of my shopping at the farmer's market, and with the clean eating plan, I can find most of my meals there. Ima - they don't have a clean eating plan for 1-2 either - I just use the Family plan and pack for lunch, and we have also been cutting a couple meals out a week and eating leftovers of the others. Or in some cases I have just cut them back a bit.
This sounds pretty cool! I really struggle with buying the right amount of food and thinking up interesting meals that I have time to make throughout the week. If they had more grocery stores in the "Regular for 2" (I don't really shop at any of those) category, I would try it out in next couple of months when I'll be shopping for two rather than just one. What I'm planning on doing now is produce delivery, which comes from all small, organic, local farmers. It'll force me to plan my meals around what they give me and be a little creative. Edit: As I look again, why choose regular over clean eating? I feel like clean eating should be the standard! Anyway, after looking at a couple sample menus it sounds even better. It'll definitely be my backup if the produce box doesn't work out.
Wow that far to go to the supermarket. I have 5 within two miles and there use to be 7 but two closed. There are also a few smaller markets in the area, plus a Wal-Mart and Target withing 2.5 miles. I love New Jersey.
I'll definitely have to look into it! On a somewhat on related note about groupon--I just discovered it. Do I have to BUY the coupon or can I go to where the coupon is being advertised (IE: $10 for a spa mani/pedi @ xyz salon) and just show them the coupon on my smartphone to get it honored?
For groupon, it's a special deal through their company only. You have to buy it from them and then you take it in to redeem it, but you can show it to them on your smart phone then.
If you click on "any store" it gives you a generic list you can use anywhere, but you just don't get it tailored to the store's deals for the week. I don't have any of the stores either, but it is a cool feature if you do.
I find it very interesting... unfortunately, my wife has so many food sensitivities that I don't think it will work for us. I actually signed up for a membership, and the recipes are intriguing to me, but she would never be able to eat a lot of them.
Right. For this one, for example, they will send you a code, and you just go to the website and sign up and type in the coupon code. For a restaurant or a salon service, you just go and show the groupon, it can be on your phone. They will write down the number, and you get whatever the coupon was for. I just bought one for one of our favorite restaurants. I think it was $20 for an appetizer and 2 entrees (Would normally be around $50 for this place). So we will leave without paying anything (unless we order drinks and dessert). Another nice thing about groupon - if the groupon expires, you can still use it for the value you paid for it. So if I let the one above expire, I could still go in the restaurant and get $20 off our meal because that's what I paid for the groupon, so essentially I will get my money back. A warning though - if you get a groupon for a service like a massage or salon service, don't wait til the last minute to use it. Everyone else who has a groupon will be trying to use it before it expires and you won't be able to get an appointment. Some places will extend it for you, but others won't. (You will still get your value paid price back though).
I just went through my menu at lunch to make the store list. I cut a few out because we have some other plans for the holiday, but this week we are having Thai lettuce wraps, Lemon barley risotto with asparagus peas and Parmesan, roasted beet and goat cheese pizza, and Chicken, roasted pepper, and corn chowder.
Each voucher will have more details on the page before you buy, so as long as you read that, it should be pretty easy to figure out exactly what you're getting. Don't forget that coupons and the like never include a tip, so you do need to add that on! Tips should be based on the full price rather than the discounted one.
Intrigued. Mostly by the "For two" option... I can't help it. No matter what I do or how I reduce recipes, we have leftovers almost every night.
I think a couple people were interested in this if there was a groupon. http://www.groupon.com/harrisburg Saw this today - it should be available for 2 more days, although you might have to look for it under "other deals" after midnight tonight.
It is amazing! At first I thought that it wouldn't save any money but having dinner planned for most nights really did cut down on the grocery bill.
Didn't look into it yet, but it sounds nice! I like how you said the foods/menus can be centered around what's on sale at the stores at the time!
