So I promised to report back about emeals.
About a year ago, I joined emeals and tried a few meals from
their regular plan. I found that almost every meal included either pasta, rice,
or bread. That was just too many carbs for my body so I cancelled it.
Recently, I saw they now have a low carb plan so when a Groupon showed up I decided I’d try it. I printed out 2 weeks worth of low carb
menus and couldn’t find anything on the list I wanted to eat. Sure, there
were some I could suffer through, but there wasn’t anything exciting.
After deciding the low carb plan wasn’t going to work, I took
a chance and switched back to the regular Walmart family plan. I figured any
food prepared at home would be better for us than eating out. I was surprised
when I printed out it out. There were far less carbs in the meals with a lot
more fresh veggies and fruit!
So I decided to really give it a try for 1 week. I purchased
5 complete meals on Sunday. I bought everything the list said including fresh
ginger, which I’ve never done before. They give you 7 meals each week, but I
know our family enjoys a couple of nights out so I only bought supplies for the
5 that matched our tastes the best.
Since then we’ve eaten at home 5 out of past 9 days, which
is a record for us. Three of the meals were dates with friends so eating out
was our only option. So when we were at home we only chose to eat out 1 night
instead of cooking. Wow!
Random Thoughts:
It was so nice to already have an answer to “Mom, what’s for
dinner?”
I didn’t have to run to the store for forgotten supplies.
I liked that it was easy to cross off the meals we didn’t
want from the supplies list.
Shopping was easier since everything was already grouped by
sections.
It took 1.5 hours to shop for 5 dinners. I was by myself
with an 8 year old and a 4 year old.
The 5 meals cost around $85, but I had to buy a lot of
basics most people would already have in the pantry.
I decided I will need to split our weekly shopping into 2
trips. 1 for dinner supplies and 1 for breakfast and lunch supplies.
The list included one super fast and easy meal which worked
perfectly after church Wednesday night.
None of the meals were fantastic. We had 3 we rated great
and 2 rated good. None of them were terrible. I'd eat them all again.
I had to give up my perfectionist expectation that
everything I cook has to be delicious. I just followed their directions and if
it wasn’t yummy, it wasn’t my fault!
Meals that include lettuce should be eaten first. 1 bag was
the only thing I bought that went bad before we used it.
Meat that was purchased on Sunday had to be frozen by
Thursday.
The regular plan feels like it is one our family can stick
with long term. It isn’t the healthiest, but it’s way healthier than fast food
and the few “bad” splurge items help us look forward to eating meals at home.
With our hectic schedule of church, ballgames, dance class,
etc. we decided it would work best for us to buy the supplies for 4 dinners
each week. Then if we need another we can make a quick run to the store.
Here’s how it’s been working for our family:
1. I print out the weekly menu and automatically cross off
the meals I know we wouldn’t like (it’s averaged only 1 per week).
2. Then I choose our 4 from the remaining 6. If I don’t see
4 we’d like I flip back to previous weeks and pull a meal from there.
3. I make sure to only choose meals we would WANT to eat so
we are motivated to get in the kitchen and make it.
4. The day of the meal I try to chop everything in the
morning or early afternoon and toss it in the fridge. When it’s dinner time I
know everything will come together quickly so there’s no need for fast food.
Overall, I don’t see me planning a meal from scratch any
time in the near future. That’s just way too much thought and planning for me. I
really STRUGGLE with meal planning so for us, emeals is here to stay!
