A Healthy Meal Plan to Cut Down on Time and Your Spending

We all want to eat healthier and of course, spend less on groceries, and time shopping for them. Everybody wants to save money where they can. Well, that's always been our goal, and we believe we speak for a lot of others. Adam & I (admittedly more so the "I" part) have the extra added element of not being able to cook. I don't know if it's because I didn't learn as I was growing up or just because I don't have the gene for it. Rather, I have the gene for burning everything (you're welcome for the job security, all you firefighters out there).

Being that it's only Adam and me that create our family unit, we have wasted a TON of food (which equals $$$) by shopping for a couple of recipes but leaving the store with a multitude of items that would inevitably become the forgotten fermenting blob in the bottom drawer of our fridge. Let's face it; typically those of us who haven't grown up cooking or have a lack of a knack for it, don't have enough sense or the palette to throw together the leftovers to make a meal. Well, I definitely lack creativity in that department. I often wonder how much money it would add up to if we were to count the amount of neglected grapes that you could probably get a pretty good buzz off of, or the sad tomatoes that have now grown body hair. Would we be millionaires? Probably.

We've been using eMeals now for a couple of years off & on. There are times I'm good, and we eat home for the majority of the week (which in itself saves A LOT of money). I ended up deciding to become an affiliate with this company because I love them so much and have genuinely learned more than I've hoped for from them.

Here are the highlights of my love for them:

• You can pick your family size in which eMeals has weekly plans (breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and special occassions) that are either Paleo, low-carb, low-fat, cheap, quick, vegetarian & the list goes on.

• All the recipes for the week coincide with each other and mix ingredients. Now your fresh basil you bought for your Seared Pork Chops and Peaches won't wither to waste because it's also being used in your Pizza Chicken with Pepperoni and Basil dinner.

• There's an app! It's easy to use. It lets you pick which recipes you want and makes a grocery list for you. No more taking up valuable time to figure what meals to make. Now you can get back to your extreme games of Cribbage!

• It's inexpensive. It ranges from $5-$25 a year (dependent on how many plans you get), which was nothing after the money we were saving.

• I historically been a super boring person when it comes to trying new things, I've stuck with my "safe" foods. This has gotten me out of my comfort zone to try new stuff.

• It's been teaching me to cook! Granted...it's not always pretty. There are days when my poor husband has suffered through dry chicken followed by swigs of water, but I've gotten better, and it has me excited about it rather than dreading and then wondering... "which items should I grab first after accidentally setting the house on fire"?!

For those of you that are in my and Adam's shoes, having the guilt of the dry, wrinkled lemons you're throwing away, or you want to live a healthier more cost-efficient lifestyle, give eMeals a try. You won't regret it.