E-mealz – How Does it Work?

I had heard of E-mealz before, but I didn’t know much about it.  However, anything that saves me time in the kitchen and in the grocery store is something that I wanted to try.  The principle of E-mealz is very simple,

but, unfortunately, it didn’t end up being as simple as I had hoped.

I am a life-long lacto-ovo vegetarian, so I quickly picked out the Vegetarian (Walmart) version, printed out the menu with grocery shopping list, and headed to our local Walmart Super Center.  While shopping from the list, I found that there were several items that I couldn’t find.  Knowing that our Walmart Super Center is one of the smallest in existence, I decided to switch to the Vegetarian (Any Store) plan.

I waited a week to print out my Vegetarian (Any Store) menu with shopping list, and with family in tow, we headed to our local Safeway grocery store.  Here again, there were a few things that we could not find.  We found as much as we could and then, headed to the checkout.  This particular plan is not tied to any sales, so I actually saw my grocery bill rise.

Problems I Had:

• There were things on the menu/shopping list that I couldn’t find at our local grocery store, and I don’t have time to go to multiple grocery stores every week.
• The shopping list was confusing.  There were actually 3 lists within 1: Grocery List, Staples Needed for Each Meal #, and Things to Have on Hand.  It seemed that things were different each week.  For example, one week, onions were on the Grocery List, and another week, onions were on the Staples Needed for Each Meal.
• There’s no nutritional information included, and that is a real problem on a vegetarian plan.  I try to keep a fairly even level of protein from day-to-day, and there seemed to be a wide variety of protein amounts.  A few of the meals were not much more than a lot of carbohydrates and some veggies.

For the record, I SO wanted to like this program, but it just didn’t work with our dietary style.  It was also surprising that I couldn’t find several of the items because we live in a  highly health-conscious area.

I know that many other people recommend this program, and if I utilized a different menu style, I might, too.  I just don’t feel that I can recommend the vegetarian meal options on E-mealz as they are.  If nutritional information were included, I might feel differently.

Pertinent Information:

• Product name: E-mealz
• Price: E-mealz is a subscription-based charge (3 months for $15 with auto renewal).
• Read other reviews on this product on the Crew Blog Page.

FTC Disclosure: I was given a 3 month subscription of E-mealz for review purposes as a part of the TOS Crew. Although I was given this product free of charge, my opinions stated above are my own and not influenced by anyone.