Ever heard of eMeals? It’s a meal planning service that Dave Ramsey has been recommending for years, and after having several friends rave about it, I decided to try it out.
Fortunately, eMeals offers a free 14-day trial of their service, because I don’t like committing to a meal planning service without trying the recipes.
What eMeals offers:
eMeals offers a TON of different menus. There is Clean Eating, Quick & Healthy, Paleo, Budget Friendly, Slow Cooker, 30 Minute Meals and Gluten Free, just to name a few. You can also add on breakfast and lunch plans for an additional fee.
How it works:
You pick any menu to get started, but never fear, you can switch meal plans as often as you want. Then, pick the recipes you like within the menu, add them to your shopping list and upload your list to Kroger’s ClickList, Walmart Online Grocery and other grocery pickup services. (You can also skip the uploading process and just shop on your own, but I have a toddler. Enough said. ) When you are ready to cook, either use printable instructions you can print from the desktop site or read from their app to make your meal.
Pros:
I loved the ability to upload the shopping list to Kroger ClickList. Using a grocery pickup service really helps me cut back on my grocery expenses, and Kroger is my favorite service.
Cons:
The recipes were just OK to me, 5/10 if I had to score. I made Egg Roll in a Bowl, Turkey Chili and Chicken & Black Bean Chimichangas. I have made similar recipes to these in the past that were much, much better. Taste is a huge factor for us. I’m pregnant, so if it doesn’t taste great, I’m not eating it more than once.
I also had trouble finding enough meals (my goal was 2 for lunch and 2 for dinner) under one menu. You are able to pick recipes from different menus, but that would require switching back and forth between menus and that is a little too much hassle for me. Part of that may be because I don’t really like seafood or spicy foods, and I seldom cook beef other than ground beef, so that eliminates a lot of recipes.
I choose meals by what we are in the mood for, and eMeals didn’t always allow me to do that. For example, I might be in the mood for Italian, but I couldn’t find a recipe that looked good.
Cost:
Unless you cancel the trial, you will automatically be enrolled in a plan. A subscription at eMeals is $5 a month for a 12-month subscription or $10 a month for a 3-month subscription. And you do have to call eMeals to cancel the trial, but the process is fairly painless.
The price is pretty inexpensive if you like the recipes, because eMeals will definitely save you time planning meals.
Overall thoughts:
But because I know several people who do enjoy eMeals, I recommend people go ahead and sign up for the 2-week trial. If you like it, it would be a life-saver.
I have tried other meal plans as well, and my overall recommendation is to only try meal plan services if you love 90% of the site’s recipes, and if you don’t want a lot of control over your menu, meaning you just need to get good food on the table and don’t really care what it is.
What about you? Have you tried any meal planning services? If so, which did you try and what did you think? I’d love to hear since I am still searching for the perfect one for me.