If you ask most moms out there about how to make life easier, I’d put money on the fact that they’d have “menu-planning” in their arsenal of tips. Not only does it save money, but having the ingredients and recipe right at your fingertips really does make life easier.

But planning meals, writing lists, and figuring out new and exciting recipes can be time consuming, especially for folks who might be domestically challenged.

Thanks to services like Relish!, a reasonably priced subscription service that providers subscribers with a plethora of helpful services, from menu planning to crock pot recipes to printable shopping lists and more, moms can truly make one part of their day a whole heck of a lot easier.

Bloggers pointed out some of Relish!’s wonderful features:

- Shopping Lists: The program easily tabulates your chosen meals together to form your grocery list and the cooking instructions in a pdf form. I simply printed it off and took it with me to the store. Relish! compiles a list of ingredients from your meal selections. They are listed in order of how they positioned in the grocery store making your shopping trip quick and organized. 

- Budget Conscious: The recipes for each week are linked in some way through common ingredients so you don’t blow a lot of money buying items you’ll use only in one dish.  For the most part the ingredients are all pretty budget-minded and are easy to find in most well-stocked groceries. 

- Dinner & Movie: I really kind of like the dinner and movie section - much like the Valentine’s message, it features a movie of the week with a menu to match. It reminds me of a show that used to be on Friday nights where they would show a movie, and in between segments and commercials, the hosts would cook up a dinner or snack that went well with it.

- Freezer Meals: Basically, you assemple and precook as necessary - putting all in freezer containers/bags, and then affix the beautiful labels that remind you how to prepare it later. For me? This was great as I can never remember what’s “in” the magic freezer bags nor how to cook it later. I also enjoy giving away freezer meals but never have a good way to make them easy to prepare later (handing the directions to them only assures that they too will lose the directions).

Our bloggers received subscriptions to Relish! and have been testing out their services. Here’s what they had to say so far.

The bloggers commented on how easy the site was to use.”First, the ease in using this site is superb. I log on and can quickly view a variety of meals that Relish is offering that week. Each week the menu selection changes and I can easily point and click my way to creating a plan. I can also go back to previous weeks and choose meals from there as well.” Another added “When I first signed up, I was impressed at the simple graphics and ease of use of the site. I’ve used lots of menu software in the past and they’ve all fallen by the wayside as they were too cumbersome or complicated for “it’s 5 oclock what do we eat?” nights.”

Almost all the bloggers mentioned the phenomenal shopping list feature. Here’s one blogger’s take:

Where they have all failed me have been in the grocery store. I hate constructing a grocery list with a fiery passion. If I have to produce a grocery list, even if it is partially done for me, I want to blow things up. Enter Relish! It took me a grand total of five minutes to select from their weekly menu of delicious entrees, click click click and I was sitting there looking at a beautifully organized grocery list for the week’s dinners.

Then! I cut and pasted the list into my local online grocery’s shopping list function - and click click click did my weekly shopping.

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, 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.”

Stay tuned for more reviews, or try a free trial for yourself. But at $7/month, you might want to give the three-month subscription a whirl. Making life easier is definitely worth $20 (sometimes even more depending on how my day is going).

Wed 2/27 - My Five Little Monkeys
Thurs 2/28 - Lather Rinse Repeat
Fri 2/29 - Delaney Diaries
Mon 3/3 - Just Not Martha
Wed 3/5 - Round-Up Review on PBN