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Consistent use of a meal plan service - which one have you stayed with?


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Posted

I've tried a couple but none have ever stuck.  If you've found one you like would you include why it is working?  Thanks for your reply...

Posted

Relish is my favorite.  I've used e-meals and Fresh 20 also.  I like Relish best because they give you choices and that works out better for my picky family.  Also, you can search through older recipes. The other ones don't have that. 

 

 

Posted

I used emeals years ago.  Blech.  Has it improved?

 

I currently am using it.  I always wait for a good deal.  Probably what is different is they have more meal plans.  Also, you can switch them as often as you want. 

 

I find that if they still have your address and you go there and leave they will e-mail you with a discount code within a couple of days.

Posted

We used e-meals for awhile. But it got so that there was at least one meal a week (often more) with a major ingredient at at least one person in our house refused to eat.

 

I finally decided I could do the same thing they did on my own. So I made a quarterly meal plan -- one for each season. I'm able to use seasonal ingredients and only things I know my family will eat. It took some time to put it together over the first year, and some tweaking over the second, but now it saves TONS of time and money. I use the same format they used, with a coordinating grocery list for each week, and keep everything in a binder in the kitchen.

  • Like 4
Posted

I am currently using Emeals for the 3rd year I think. I used it for a while, then got cancer and they couldn't help me, then I picked back up again and we are about done with our second year since picking it back up again. 

 

We eat paleo-ish. It has been helpful, and other times not so much. My family might eat oddly. I am not sure. We are normally able to get 1 week of meal plans and make it go 2-3 weeks. So this throws everything off. 

 

I am right now looking at this: https://realplans.com I am wondering if this would be a better fit for us. You can cater to things like my son's white potato allergy, or my peanut/cashew/pistachio allergy and still be paleo. It also gives you a schedule to remind you to do things. I think we might try this in october or so, to see if we want to switch to it before our E-meals ends in November. 

  • Like 1
Posted

I use emeals and have done so for at least 3 years.

 

What keeps me sticking to it is that I use it in a way that is convenient for me.  It is a tool, not something I must slavishly stick to in order for it to work.  I get my plans emailed to me every Wednesday.  That does not mean I'm at the store on Thursday every week buying for 7 new meals.  Sometimes we have leftovers, sometimes we eat out, etc, etc.  So, I rarely use a new plan every week.  I just file it away for when I need a new one.  I have a lot of unused plans.  I don't feel guilty about this or that it's wasteful.  If anything, I can put off my subscription for awhile next year because I have so many plans to use up.

 

I only make the meals that look good and that I know our family will eat.

 

I will say that having the list of meals and being stocked up on the groceries for them makes me so much happier around dinner time.  I just have to go to the kitchen and get stuff out and cook it.  No thinking involved.

  • Like 2
Posted

I use emeals and have done so for at least 3 years.

 

What keeps me sticking to it is that I use it in a way that is convenient for me.  It is a tool, not something I must slavishly stick to in order for it to work.  I get my plans emailed to me every Wednesday.  That does not mean I'm at the store on Thursday every week buying for 7 new meals.  Sometimes we have leftovers, sometimes we eat out, etc, etc.  So, I rarely use a new plan every week.  I just file it away for when I need a new one.  I have a lot of unused plans.  I don't feel guilty about this or that it's wasteful.  If anything, I can put off my subscription for awhile next year because I have so many plans to use up.

 

I only make the meals that look good and that I know our family will eat.

 

I will say that having the list of meals and being stocked up on the groceries for them makes me so much happier around dinner time.  I just have to go to the kitchen and get stuff out and cook it.  No thinking involved.

 

Yeah I find about half the meals absolutely do not appeal to anyone here.  I can usually tweak stuff to work, but gee with all that tweaking I might as well just browse cookbooks or the Internet.  It ends up not being all that helpful.  I have liked the meals I've tried though. 

 

I definitely prefer a plan because if I wait until dinner time I'll be stressed out. 

Posted

RIght now, I'm trying out 5dinners1hour.com  We're using the sample plans right now but I will be subscribing to the Prime Plan.  So far, the food is all REALLY good and it really does only take an hour of prep for all 5 dinners.

Posted

We have generally adventurous and/or compliant eaters, and I've found that generally speaking even if it doesn't sound "right" to me, the flavors are generally pretty good. So unless it is something I know I detest, I will usually give their recipes a try. Like there was a cheeseburger salad listed one time that sounded weird...But i made it anyway and everyone loved it.

 

I do have one kid with allergies, so sometimes that requires some kind of work around, but I've been pleased overall.

  • Like 1
Posted

We have generally adventurous and/or compliant eaters, and I've found that generally speaking even if it doesn't sound "right" to me, the flavors are generally pretty good. So unless it is something I know I detest, I will usually give their recipes a try. Like there was a cheeseburger salad listed one time that sounded weird...But i made it anyway and everyone loved it.

 

I do have one kid with allergies, so sometimes that requires some kind of work around, but I've been pleased overall.

 

My husband isn't extremely picky, but he has a short list of things he won't eat and they just so happen to be pretty common food items (same with me, but not all the same things).  For example, he won't eat beef.  He hates Parmesan cheese.  We both hate avocados, olives, and cilantro.  One recipe they had recently on e-meals was stuffed baked avocados!  It did come to me later that I could have just used something like zucchini. 

 

Also, they have some stuff that I dunno what it is.  Like chicken sprinkled with Greek seasoning.  What on earth is Greek seasoning?  I don't bother with stuff like that.  I can manage chicken with something on it.

Posted

Woah, those are tough to accomodate...it might knock out our entire italian and mexican repertoire!! But, when we do those things I typically just let people choose their toppings, so maybe I'm more accommodating than I think!

 

For the seasonings I just go to the spice aisle and find that flavor. If I don't see it then we go with italian seasoning or, my favorite, Montreal steak seasoning (goes on anything!).

Posted

Woah, those are tough to accomodate...it might knock out our entire italian and mexican repertoire!! But, when we do those things I typically just let people choose their toppings, so maybe I'm more accommodating than I think!

 

For the seasonings I just go to the spice aisle and find that flavor. If I don't see it then we go with italian seasoning or, my favorite, Montreal steak seasoning (goes on anything!).

 

I can sub ground beef out very easily.  Pork can work in a lot of cases.  But sometimes a recipe has too many "nopes" so forget it.

  • Like 1
Posted

I've been using emeals. I used it many years ago and it has improved a lot. I use the 30 minute meal plan and find that even though there are usually one or two (sometimes 3) recipes some of us might not eat it's still plenty of recipes for the week. I have enough saved in my favorites index (on the app), have leftovers, or we eat out once a week or so. I like the grocery list automatically updating when I delete a meal. We have so much less waste than when I tried to plan myself and then wouldn't get to a meal that week, or forgot what I bought an ingredient for. This way I put them on my list for the week and just go right down the list each day (occasionally I skip around, but it's less mental energy if I just go down the list)

Emeals has a two week free trial. I don't know if others do, but that might be your best bet. Just try them for the shorter term to see what you like and what you don't. Even if the price per week is higher, it would be cheaper in the long run than paying a bunch up front for a long term and hating it.

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