What’s for dinner?

As grocery prices go up, I know Erich and I have looked for ways to make sure we plan to make our meals healthy, nutritious, and budget friendly.  We’ve learned that planning our menus accomplishes that. Having the menu prepped ahead of time all answers the age old question: “what’s for dinner?”

I know though that meal planning can be tedious.  It takes a lot of thought to plan so that we aren’t eating the same things over and over each week. Plus, the same old stuff bores me and loses my interest to cook.  And as we our activities like homeschooling, tumbling, and art lessons start to take up more and more time, having a plan already made is priceless.  I recently found E-Mealz.  Recommended by Dave Ramsey, they call themselves your “mental maid”.  E-Mealz appealed to me because unlike other meal planning services, the meals are simple family friendly dinners.  Nothing gourmet and not a lot of time consuming meals.  The categorized shopping list also easily references what ingredients go with each meal, so it’s easy to cross off a meal that our family won’t enjoy. (Okay okay, I’m the picky eater in this family!) They also list the staples you’ll need for each meal such as flour, honey, or ketchup- so you don’t find yourself buying a new bottle every week. Each weeks menu involves different prep methods such as meals you make the night before and crockpot meals.  While some meals will repeat a few times in 6 months, each week is packed with a brand new plan so you are sure to have plenty of variety making meal time fun again.

And again, the recipe are delicious!  Tonight I made a simple grilled garlic ham and cheese sandwich and Magdalena declared it “better than Subway!” That’s what I call two thumbs up!  They have a variety of different meal plans including low fat, 2 person menu, points menu, and the standard family menu that serves 4-6.   They also have menus based on the sales ads of Kroger, Walmart, and Aldi.  I choose the “any store” menu since I like to shop at different stores for different things.

And last but not least, it’s affordable!  $1.25 a week and you don’t have to think about “what’s for dinner?” Please use my link to the right and go find your very own mental maid – you’ll be glad you did!