Before our wedding, my then-fiance Eric and I couldn't even begin to think about cooking. Now that we've tied the knot, we want to get into a healthy routine.
I get home a full hour and a half earlier than Eric, so we decided he'd take care of the cleaning most of the time and I'd figure out dinner most weeknights. Aaack!
I thought about meal kits, but that would still leave me with a few other weeknights to figure out meals, and I wanted to save money (my sister canceled her Blue Apron subscription because she thought it was too expensive).
What I needed was a Pinterest board full of recipes where the leftover ingredients could make more recipes.
Hilariously, through some searching, I found exactly that!!! But not on Pinterest - it's called eMeals.
For just $5 a month, you sign up for a new set of recipes each week - they give you step-by-step how-to instructions to cook along with a list of ingredients for you to buy. You can simply print out the ingredients lists and head to the store, but there was one other factor that intrigued me.
I could hook it up to a grocery delivery service like instacart to have my groceries delivered right to our place!
Even though I wasn't 100% sure, I was so curious if this dream idea I had would actually be a dream (or a nightmare). The first two weeks are free, so I could try it twice before I made up my mind.
I signed up on the eMeals site and then got to pick my plan for the week - it was not like a meal kit where if you picked Veggie, you'd be stuck in that plan forever - I could switch every week!
They had so many options to try - 30 Minutes, Low Carb, Quick & Healthy, Vegan, etc. I decided to go with Budget-Friendly (because ya know, we just got married) and once I chose it, eMeals gave me a full list of recipes for 2 people for the week.
It was well within our food budget and the recipes looked delicious! One called for red peppers, which I already had in the fridge, so I erased it from my shopping list, but otherwise, I was ready to shop!
I set it up with the Walmart delivery (because that's what's closest to me), and I was so excited for my food to come and to make dinner on a budget for me and Eric all week!
Night one, I made a pizza, which sounds complicated, but was super easy. Eric was shocked when he got home. It was super delicious! I was happy with all of the recipes and for my second week, I chose Paleo, just to try it. It definitely opened us up to some new flavors.
For just $5 a month, I can have a full grocery shopping plan and my recipes planned out in advance. No more rotten ingredients or wondering what to cook on Thursday night to end up caving with some takeout.
The bonus feature of having my groceries delivered has also changed my life! If you have the extra room in your budget, I highly recommend it.
eMeals made the transition from "cooking" for one to actually cooking for two really, really easy.
