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Does anyone use one of those meal planning services?

post #1 of 17
1/11/10 at 11:52am
Thread Starter 
Dw & I are both getting a bit burned out with meal planning. It is supposed to be my responsibility, since WOH, and she is the chief cook at the moment. I don't mind doing it, but frankly I've not been getting to it lately, so we've been looking at some of the free & paid services available online. They give you five or 7 suppers plus the shopping list to go with them, and we tried it last week. We like it, though it is very heavy on meat and premade ingredients (like cream of whatever soup) compared to the way we usually cook. So we have been taking it as a basis & adapting, adding more veggie meals etc. And that seems good, it's helped us get out of our rut & try new ideas.

Most of the paid services cost about 5$ a month, so not too crazy, but we haven't seen anything we really like yet. Does anyone use one of these services, free or paid, that they like? Or have other ideas for keeping things interesting?

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post the links or mention the ones we've tried, but I am looking for suggestions, so I guess it's okay. We tried Menus4Moms, we also looked at emealz.com. Does anyone know of any others?
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post #2 of 17
1/11/10 at 1:56pm
We have used RelishRelish for over a year now.

For the cost, I like the service. Not a lot of processed ingredients in the recipes.

I am confident enough cook to alter anything I don't like. Just getting new ideas and making the process a little easier makes it worth the cost for me.
post #3 of 17
1/11/10 at 2:23pm
Thread Starter 
thanks caneel! s
I will check that out.
Any other suggestions?
post #4 of 17
1/11/10 at 2:30pm
Thread Starter 
wow that looks great! I really like the choices...

thanks again!
post #5 of 17
1/12/10 at 3:40pm
I use mealmixer.com (morethyme). I like it a lot.
post #6 of 17
1/16/10 at 7:08pm
I used saving dinner and didn't really like it. the meals just weren't to our tastes
post #7 of 17
1/19/10 at 12:40am
I tried Saving Dinner and didn't find the meals to be to my taste either. That was several years ago.

Then I started getting a CSA box and couldn't find meal planning help anywhere for that, so I got fed up and built it myself:

http://mealplanner.eatrealgood.com

The meal planner there is free and all the meals are healthy and call for lots of veggies. I'm adding recipes pretty often, so there is lots of new stuff coming in. Users can add their own recipes, too, which I moderate. Hope that helps!

I've also heard good things about RelishRelish. I just have to be able to plan around what veggies I'm getting from my CSA, which is the point of EatRealGood.
post #8 of 17
1/19/10 at 4:03pm
Thanks for that link! It gives me hope for this coming summer.

Meal planning was the main thing that kept me from joining a CSA. It took us so long to get into the planning groove, the reverse process of ingredients first was just too much for me to deal with last year.
post #9 of 17
1/22/10 at 11:27am
I used CookingTraditionalFoods.com for awhile. It was good. Also, Cheeseslave.com does meal planning. I'm going to check out the ones mentioned above. I have so much trouble sitting down to plan out my menus!
post #10 of 17
1/23/10 at 4:28pm
My sister has been happy with RelishRelish. I am going to check out a few of these others too.
post #11 of 17
1/28/10 at 6:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by JBran879 View Post
I used CookingTraditionalFoods.com for awhile. It was good. Also, Cheeseslave.com does meal planning. I'm going to check out the ones mentioned above. I have so much trouble sitting down to plan out my menus!
Yeah I'm signing up on Cooking Traditional Foods as soon as my paypal clears. I"m also getting tired of trying to figure it all out.
post #12 of 17
1/28/10 at 8:03pm
Hmm Cooking Traditional Foods seems to be a popular choice. I might take a little look at that website.
post #13 of 17
2/27/10 at 1:24am
I was just googling about this...

I found perfectlyproduce.com

Its whole foods based and includes breakfast lunch and supper. It costs $20 for 4 weeks worth of meals (5 suppers, breakfast, lunch) PLUS snacks! It is published seasonally (every 4 months) so meals are based on seasonal produce. I also liked how they have one main bulk cooking day where you prep ingredients for meals later in the week.

I am signing up now!

Edited to add:
I paid the $20 for the "Winter" meal plan.....and all I am going to say is that there are grapes on all 4 weeks of the shopping list
post #14 of 17
2/27/10 at 2:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by patricegonzales View Post
I was just googling about this...

I found perfectlyproduce.com

Its whole foods based and includes breakfast lunch and supper. It costs $20 for 4 weeks worth of meals (5 suppers, breakfast, lunch) PLUS snacks! It is published seasonally (every 4 months) so meals are based on seasonal produce. I also liked how they have one main bulk cooking day where you prep ingredients for meals later in the week.

I am signing up now!
Thanks so much for posting about perfectlyproduce.com. I've been looking for a meal planning service for weeks now and this is EXACTLY what I need! I'm signing up now!!!
post #15 of 17
2/27/10 at 2:27pm
WOW I had no idea these meal planning sites exsited
post #16 of 17
2/27/10 at 6:36pm
Yes I once was unaware too.
post #17 of 17
3/25/10 at 1:40am
Quote:
Originally Posted by patricegonzales View Post
I am signing up now!

Edited to add:
I paid the $20 for the "Winter" meal plan.....and all I am going to say is that there are grapes on all 4 weeks of the shopping list
Maybe they're spending the winter in Chile?
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