eMeals Giveaway!!!

I am so excited about eMeals that I just have to share! So, along with my friend Angela @ Selfless Ambition, we're giving away two 12-month dinner subscriptions to eMeals. That's right! There will be two lucky winners who will receive coupon codes for free eMeals for a year!

Not sure what I'm talking about, head over to eMeals or read about my first weeks of eMeals here and here. Here's a few shots of meals I prepared in my first weeks of eMeals.

I promise that I'm no chef! Most of these meals, I never would have fixed on a regular night of the week after coming home from work. I'm just following the meal plans that have been provided to me through eMeals!

Okay, convinced that you could use some meal planning help from eMeals?! Here's how you can enter the giveaway for your chance to win! Complete the tasks on the Rafflecopter form below. The first two tasks are mandatory, and as soon as you complete those tasks, the others will open right up for more chances to enter to win! Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Meal Planning via eMeals.com {Part II} + COUPON

So, hopefully you read my post from earlier this week about how I found eMeals.com and think its the answer to my desires to do meal planning effectively. If you didn't get the "Part I" of this post, you should definitely go back and read it!

I've been super excited about cooking this week and am so excited to share my first week of eMeals with you! eMeals provided me with 7 dinner menus, but I opted to only prepare four. Hubby has Bible study on Wednesday and doesn't get home until late and we usually have plans or eat out on the weekends. So, here's a run-down of this week's meals.

Meal 1 >> Grilled Pacific Flat Iron Steak with Broccoli & French Bread <<

Okay, I've never cooked flat iron steak before and I'm so glad the eMeals has exposed me to it. Cooking it on the George Foreman grill was easy and the marinade used was delish. On the eMeals app, I had a heads up that I needed to "marinate ahead."

It was good to have that reminder and when I got home in the evening, my meat was prepped and ready to go. The other thing I really liked about this week's meal plan is that I grilled the full 1.5 lbs of steak, but only half was for that meal. The rest was put in the fridge for meal 2 (and this was in my cooking instructions). It made meal 2 less time to prep since the meat only needed to be reheated.

Meal 2 >> Steak & Bleu Salad with Strawberries & Crescent Rolls <<

Above are the salad ingredients and below is the finished meal. The meal plan not only comes with your main dish, but side dishes also. Who would have thought to pair sliced strawberries with bleu cheese and balsamic vinegar? Definitely not me, but to my surprise...it worked! Feels good to be preparing something new. 

Meal 3 >> Feta Chicken Pockets with Fruit Salad <<

Meal 4 >> Buffalo-Style Chicken Pizza with Celery Stick and Ranch Dressing <<

This was my first time making pizza and that was fun! The chicken was great paired with bleu cheese (an ingredient used earlier in the week), mozzarella cheese and celery.

So, I would say (and my hubby would say) that all four meals I prepared this week were really good and none of it had I ever prepared in my home before. The shopping list was convenient with the eMeals app and this week's meals cost me less than $50 (which included buying some staple items which I should have already had in the kitchen).

I'm looking forward to my next week of eMeals. Here's a glimpse at my menu!

Okay, what are you waiting for? If you need help with meal planning, you should definitely head over to eMeals and sign up!
If you're not sure yet, here's a little incentive... Until July 4th, you can save 15% with the code FOURTH.

**As stated before, these are my honest thoughts. I was not contacted by eMeals
to provide a review and have not been compensated in any way.**

Meal Planning via eMeals.com {Part I}

One of the things on my long list to accomplish this summer is getting on board with meal planning. I have tons of recipes pinned, but rarely do I attempt them unless I'm preparing for a get-together or just itching to try something new. Once I decide I want to try, I have to go to the grocery store and often find the recipe being more effort than I'm willing to give. This leaves me with doing the same old thing for dinner and as of late, picking up dinner.

So, I started researching meal planning websites and apps. After reading a few reviews and blogs, I decided to pursue eMeals.com. A one year subscription of $58 for dinner gives you 7 recipes each week, along with prepared shopping lists. This video definitely sums up the need for meal planning in my life!

Anytime I decide to buy something online, I always look for a coupon code and was able to find one for 20% off, but then I decided to search Groupon and was pleasantly surprised that eMeals was one of this week's deals. $29 for a one-year dinner subscription...SCORE!!! Unfortunately, that option was sold out, so I had to go with the $39 option that gives me 7 dinner and 5 lunch menus a week. This option was still less than just the dinner option with 20% off, so I got twice the variety for a great price (63% off the regular price)! And what convinced me further is that it's Dave Ramsey approved and that there is a handy, dandy app for eMeals that allows me to customize my menu by skipping meals I don't want to prepare and it automatically updates my shopping list. I knew there was no way I was cooking seven days a week.

So, here is my menu for the first week. I decided to go down to four meals. eMeals allows me to customize the plan based on a menu type (i.e. low fat, low carb, clean eating, gluten free, slow cooker, etc.), the number of people I'll be feeding and base my shopping list around a preferred grocery store. For the first month, I've chosen the low fat menu for 2 and Walmart pricing. I also love the little notes that let me know if I need to do some prep work.

eMeals estimated the total that I should spend at the grocery store based on the store I chose and their current sales ad. I love how I could just check things off as I found them at the store or at home before I went shopping. I was also able to add items to my list.

And here is my total...less than $4 off...and I imagine that some of that price difference is the staple items I needed to buy that weren't already in my kitchen.

So far, I'm impressed by what eMeals has to offer. The real test, however, will be how the meals taste. I'll be back with an update at the end of the week! In the mean time, you should definitely check out eMeals. I think it's going to be worth it!

Check out the link-up for more meal planning inspiration:

**These are my honest thoughts. I was not contacted by eMeals
to provide a review and have not been compensated in any way.**