Thanks to Markerly.com for making this post about eMeals possible. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
For a 35% discount on your eMeals subscription, enter the coupon code “cyber35”.
The holidays are a busy time and trying to plan out and cook meals can often take away from the joy of the season. You want to shop for presents, bake cookies, and share in the spirit of the season with the kids. Add in the various holiday parties, school activities, Christmas programs, etc. and who has time to plan out a week’s worth of meals, put together a shopping list, buy groceries, and cook the meals.
In order to help with meal planning through the holidays and into 2014, we are excited to be reviewing eMeals, a subscription meal planning service that sends your meal plan, recipes, and shopping list to your inbox each week. As a bonus, the shopping list is coordinated with the weekly sales at selected stores nationwide. Not only does it take the thinking out of the picture for you, it can help save you money in the process! In fact, financial planning celebrity and TV host, Dave Ramsey is a big supporter of eMeals, because it saves families so much money!
Still, I love to cook and plan out meals. If I’m not doing that, at least sometimes, I’m just not a happy camper. So, for me, I typically use meal planning services to get some great ideas and to supplement holes in my meal plan. For those nights that I’m not cooking, I definitely look for convenience. That’s why we picked the Slow Cooker Clean Eating Family Plan.
The first recipe we tried out was the slow cooker tomato sauce. To be honest, I found it to be a little bland and loose for my taste, but when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, right? I took that sauce, added some frozen meatballs, tossed that with some cooked penne, topped it all with cheese, and popped it into the oven for a lovely baked pasta. It turned out pretty tasty!
One of the hardest things for me to do is turning the previous night’s meal into something completely different. Part of what I really like about eMeals is that it helps you out with that. There’s no way that our family could use up a full pot of pasta sauce. eMeals knows this and had me pull some of it out to make a tomato soup the next night. Considering my thoughts about the sauce itself, the soup was actually pretty good. I paired it with a yummy grilled cheese sandwich for a comforting weeknight meal.
By far, my favorite meal was the White Bean and Chicken Chili. The cook in me had to amp it up a little. Instead of just tossing everything into the slow cooker, I started by cooking the vegetables and chicken in a sautee pan, browning it all to develop some flavors before starting the long, slow cook. I felt like it was a little more soup than chili, but after putting it over some rice, adding in some cheese, sour cream, chopped green onions, and fresh diced tomatoes, and topping it with some corn chips, I really appreciated that it wasn’t as thick. In fact, it’s one of the better chilies that I’ve had in a while and one of the best slow cooker chilies that I’ve ever had. Like so many other chilies, this one is even better a day or two later. Great for lunches or leftover nights!
eMeals has already been a help to us and I hope it will continue to be throughout the next year. Make sure you sign up for your subscription and use the code “cyber35” to save 35%.
How do you keep up with your menu plan during the busy holiday season? Leave us a comment and let us know.
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