I am a HUGE advocate for meal planning! I take a little time each week to decide what meals I will be cooking. This eliminates the dreaded 5:00 convo of, “What do you want to eat?” followed by “I don’t know. What do YOU want to eat?” If I don’t meal plan, this conversation can last for hours…and it usually ends with us breaking the budget and going out to eat at 8:00 at night. Not a good plan! A little preparation goes a long way!
E-MEALZ
I have talked about e-mealz before and I love these guys! When you sign up for an E-mealz subscription, you recieve a preplanned menu and grocery list each week. They have many different menu plan options…small family, large family, Wal-Mart, Publix, Low Fat, WW Points, and more! You choose which plan fits your family, log into your account each week, print your plan and grocery list, and hit the store. It’s just that simple! They have just added a Gluten-Free Meal Plan! This is a healthy, mostly whole foods option even if your family does not have gluten allergies. You can click the E-mealz banner to the right if you would like to find out more!
PLAN TO EAT
I discovered plantoeat.com a few months ago. This is the source that I currently use for meal planning! When you sign up for Plan To Eat, you can upload recipes from your favorite sites and/or enter your favorite family recipes. Plan To Eat has a planner tab that allows you to easily drop your meals into the day that you are going to cook them. The best part…the site creates a shopping list as you plan your meals! I usually plan 1 or 2 weeks at a time. I spent several hours over the summer adding healthy meals into my Plan To Eat recipe book. Now it is very easy for me to create my weekly plan and print the shopping list! I really like that Plan To Eat offers a free 30-day trial! I was hooked after about a day. You can also share recipes with your friends. If you decide to sign up for a free trial, add me as your “friend” and you can view and use the meals that I have in my recipe book. My username is katrinahilliard…no caps or spaces. Follow the link below to check it out!
http://www.plantoeat.com/tePfhN1Own
katrina