E-Mealz - Week 2

First off I'd like to say I'm feeling a lot better and thanks for all the get well emails! I have a fantastic family who took care of everything for me, Rebecca in the morning, my in-laws in the afternoon, and my hubby in the evening! I got the rest I needed and though a bit weak, was ready to hop back to it. (Whatever it is.)

I took a quick trip to Wal-Mart and did my E-Mealz shopping and it went well. Except that my Wal-Mart does not carry couscous. I think it's too ethnic for this area. They also did not have any zucchini left and I had to go to 3 different stores before I found any. I guess there was either a huge demand for zucchini today or a massive shortage or both. I've found that the price listed on my E-Mealz list for each item is right on, except for produce which is higher in this area. Most states are close to one of the 3 hot climates that grow produce; West (California), South (Mexico), or  East (Florida). Here, Up North, though we're pretty far away from well...anywhere so our produce had to be trucked in from a longs way which seems to rise the price up. It doesn't affect the price too much though, they said it would be $76.20 for this week and my price was $79.26 but I didn't buy the couscous or pork rinds.

Ok so I promised photos! Now I'll post a pic of our dinner but I'm not going to tell you exactly what we had of course, I don't want to break any copyright laws, if you want the menu you'll have to purchase your own. I will tell you that the fish tonight was awesome! It had a crab mixture topping! I never in a million years would have thought to top fish with fish. (Is crab considered a fish? Oh well you get the idea.) It rocked though. Here's proof. (Ours is the Low Carb menu so each night is usually a meat and 2 veggies.)

The fish and two side dishes took me 25 minutes to prepare. And 0 minutes to plan out because it was already all done for me! :-P

E-Mealz Update- Menu 2

My E-mealz plan comes out on Wednesday so this is our first full week, last week I just had to use half the recipes because I started on a Sunday, and it went really well. The recipe were very easy yet really tasty. The only issue I had was that it had two pork recipes that both called for mustard. I can handle pork two days in a week but both with mustard is pushing it. Actually once with mustard was pushing it because I hate mustard so there was no way it was happening twice. I didn't need the second recipe though so that was fine. One of
the recipes also called for pork rinds....I left those out too.

This week looks good except that one of the recipes also calls for pork rinds! And it says "For those who are new to the “Low Carb World”, pork rinds are a favorite substitute for chips." Gross!
I guess because we aren't trying to eat low carb, just eat more paleolithic (which is healthy whole food such as meat, veggies, nuts, and fruits) we don't really understand the whole "eat anything just because it has no carbs" mindset. The low-carb mean plan was the closet one that had to how we eat though. But that does not mean I'm going to be chowing down on pork rinds every week. Or any week. Or ever. This week you are supposed to dip them in marina sauce! *gags*


Anways, it's not an issue. If there is something I don't like I can just replace it. As a whole the menus are great and it's been really helpful to always have ideas for dinner every day. I'll be going shopping tomorrow for week 2's items and I'm thinking about taking a photo each night of what we have for dinner. Anyone interested in that? I can also post how long it took to cook each meal, right now it's about 30 minutes a night. Except the night I had to pound the chicken....I've never done that before so everyone had to come watch me do it and then they all wanted to take a turn pounding the chicken. That chicken sure got pounded! So it took a little bit longer.

E-Mealz- Day One

Yesterday while I was running around like a crazy woman checking out yard sales and thrift stores I made a quick dash into Wal-mart to get the items on my E-Mealz list for the week. It went fine though it take take a little bit longer than a normal shopping trip just because it was a lot of items I normally never use so I had to look for them. No big deal though and probably a good thing...that's why people get stuck in a rut with cooking..they just tend to make all the same things because it's easier and quicker. I loved that some of the meals used items that were on sale for the week!

I almost didn't buy the steak it said to though...it cost so much! We just eat ground or the cheap cuts, I've never paid that much for steak or eaten that cut before. Now granted Rebecca, Alex, and I won't eat steak because it "too tough" so that's why I didn't want to pay for it....why pay so much for food that 3 of us won't eat? But I was bound and determined to test out this program so I sucked it up and bought them.

And tonight I cooked them and......

THEY WERE SOOO TENDER!

EVERYONE ate the dish!

So um....guess it does pay to buy the nicer stuff and not the tough old cheap cuts.

So meal one was awesome and different and everyone loved it. I did have to add another side though as it just had a salad with the meat and we prefer more veggies so I steamed some broccoli. Most of the meals just have one side dish so I'll just add another veggie each night.

It was nice to have an awesome meal that I didn't have to come up with myself! It only too 20 minutes to make it too!

So one point for E-Mealz, I'll keep you updated on the rest.