Reviewing Relish! came at the perfect time. I needed a breather from meal planning and I had no idea that there was a site out there which did everything I did and then some. Each month involved selecting our meals, writing down all the ingredients, tallying the ingredients and shopping. It often takes me at least 4 hours each month because, well… when you have 5 little ones, interruptions are bound to happen. Needless to say, while it’s a help to our budget, it’s a big task for this busy mommy.
While I didn’t do a month planning for July with Relish, I did do two weeks and the time saver was incredible. So come take a tour with me, I think you’ll appreciate the idea behind Relish! and all they do so save busy moms hours of time in meal planning. I know I have and look forward to the months ahead using Relish!
Relish! is very user friendly in my opinion. I love the look and layout of their site. It was easy to navigate and find what I needed. Once I had my account set up, I went straight to their Menus tab. The Features tab is their weekly Feature and feature topics like… a bit of Vidallia onion history. So fun and interesting! 🙂
So here we are at the weekly menu. It’s easy to find and really easy to use. The legend key helps you with the recipes as they often have KF for Kid-Friendly meals, V for vegetarian, etc.
Over to the right of My Weekly Menu is the Relish! Weekly Menu. This week has 26 items including pancakes and icebox cake (in other words, not *all* dinner items.) You drag and drop from Relish! Weekly Menu to yours. It’s that easy!
Want something else that isn’t on this weeks’ menu? Or have an ingredient to use up? You can use the search feature to pull up what you need. I know there have been several times at the end of the month where I’ve had something left over and not sure what to do with it.
Once you’ve created you menu by selecting the meals, you’ll click the green Shopping List tab. A new window pops up and you’ll see list of categories like above. From there, you can click on each category and see all the items you need to purchase or have on hand. It’s not pictured but you can also change the number of people you need to shop for. You can change by 2’s from either 2 people up to 8! Those boxes to the left allow you to check off what you already have on hand. So while it will still show up on your shopping list, it will have a strike through going through it.
What took me hours, probably about 4 hours, maybe more as it depended on interruptions, only took me the time to select our meals and just start clicking buttons. You know another awesome feature? Relish! lists the Weight Watcher’s Plus Points on the recipes along with the nutritional info. Another win for those on Weight Watcher’s and another step eliminated for me. I no longer have to type in all the ingredients for the meal to figure out my points.
And one last thing, see the snowflake and word ‘Freezer’ in the image there? That means this meal is freezer friendly. So when you print your shopping list and recipes, a handy little tag prints out that you can attach to your dish. The tag gives you thawing and cooking instructions so you don’t have to find the recipe again. Along with the freezer tag, a freezer list prints out that lists all the freezer meals you’ve selected. You can put that on your freezer and just check off each meal as you use them. Yet another list you don’t have to worry about. Just think how easy something like planning once a month cooking could be with this?!?!
Overall, I think Relish! is worth the price because it saves so much time. There is no way I could pay someone $7 a month for 4 hours or more of work. The recipes we’ve tried so far are very yummy and we’re all looking forward to trying the rest of the ones I’ve printed. In fact, hop on over here to see one of the yummy meals I cooked this last weekend. 🙂
Last but not least, if you have gluten intolerance, head over to Relish’s sister site, GFree Cuisine. You’ll find recipes tailored for you and your family.
Connect with Relish by visiting their Facebook page or their GFree Cuisine Facebook page.
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