Kitchen Help is Just a Click Away
No matter how rough of a day I’ve had, the chances are pretty slim that any of my male loved ones will look me in the eye and say, “You look so tired. Let me fix you something to eat.” However, in the cyber world we’re living in today, the comfort of having help in the kitchen could change with just a click. Relish! is a meal planning and shopping list service run by three wonderful women, (click here to see their comforting, smiling faces) who not only plan your meals for you, but they also create a printable grocery list, along with a step by step menu plan to carry you through the week.
You can customize your Relish weekly menu by kid-friendly, vegetarian, super quick and simple gourmet. All dinners, they promise, require no more than 30 minutes prep time. There is also a section to help you create monthly freezer meals and slow cooker meals. What I like the most, however, is that the meals are in-season. When I clicked on my menu last week, I was pleased to see “The Beet Goes On” with a stunning picture of my favorite vegetable, and a recipe that included walnuts and blue cheese.
Relish! takes full advantage of family fun, and works hard to please picky eaters, with recipes like sweet and spicy drumsticks, cheddar mashed potatoes, and corn tortilla crisps. However, the Kid Friendly (KF) choices are limited each week. I was disappointed when I logged in to create my 5-meal menu plan, and only saw 5 out of the 15 menus that were offered were KF — and I know my kids would only like two of those. So, I switched over to the slow cooker section, and found 11 intriguing recipes (French onion soup with beef, and pulled pork sandwiches) in a PDF format. There was no way to select one of them to be added to my weekly menu plan, and so the ingredients would not be included in the printable shopping list. However, some crockpot meals were located in the 15 meal choices for the week.
Now the freezer meals were different. I clicked there, and found 10 meals that are updated each month. The recipes include broiled soy and ginger salmon, pistachio-stuffed chicken breasts, some soups. I could select 5 out of the ten recipes, and menu plan and shopping list were included. However, again, this was still not part of the weekly menu plan.
The dinner and a movie section includes the title of a kid-friendly movie, with the perfect food. “How about Ratatouille with Alfredo Linguine with Remy’s Eclairs? These meals too require a seperate meal plan and grocery list.
As I’m working my way through my free Relish! trial subscription, thanks to PBN, I am surprised that a subscription-based service imposes limits on how many menus you can select. Why only five per week? As nice and beautiful as the site is, I doubt that I will pay the monthly $7 fee to renew the subscription when mine expires. There are other weekly menu sites on the web that are free, with fresh ingredients that are in season, that generate printable menus, meal plans and grocery lists each week. I use one quite frequently. There are some weeks when I don’t have the time, or the need, to generate a cyber menu. — even when it’s free. I know how crazy meal planning can get. So, knowing that some weeks I won’t use the site, the $7 monthly fee would hang over my head on the weeks I didn’t have time to use the service. I know, seven dollars isn’t much, but it’s just a hassle, and that’s one less thing I need when it comes to meal planning.
Relish! does offer a free trial, and you should try it out for yourself and see what you think. The site incorporates fresh ingredients, and innovate presentation that will definitely liven up any drab same old, same old meals. I know the biggest problem all of us have is this one, “I just don’t know what to fix.” Relish can solve that problem for you with just one click.
[...] Today, I’m also reviewing Relish! and meal planning, recipe generating site for PBN. Find out how Help in the Kitchen Is Only A Click Away. [...]
[...] And most importantly, the bloggers liked the recipes. “Each dish tasted fresh and healthy. They even passed the toddler taste test which typically is only reserved for such tasty treats as Mac ‘n’ cheese and other forms of gooey pasta or baked cheese mixed with melted cheese.” Another agreed “Are the recipes any good? You bet. I’d say that we stuffed ourselves to the point of quiet contentedness about 80% of the time.” One mom noted that the recipes were in-season. “What I like the most, however, is that the meals are in-season. When I clicked on my menu last week,… [...]