I’ve been a meal planner for many, many years. While we don’t always stick to our plan every single day, I really don’t know how I’d get through the week (or the grocery store) without a solid plan of what we’re cooking on which days.

With my meal planning experience, I wasn’t sure how different using eMeals would be from what I was currently doing. Well, let me tell you this: it’s a sanity saver and the meals are delicious. I’m seriously impressed.

eMeals.com provided me one year subscription to try out their service, but all opinions in this review are mine all mine. 

Before I tell you why I like it so much, let me quickly tell you how eMeals works.

1. Select which meal plan you’d like. Some of the choices: Classic Meals, Clean Eating (what we use), Simple Gourmet, Natural & Organic, Gluten Free. You can even pick a plan based on your family size or favorite grocery store!

If you’re worried you’ll get bored of one particular meal type, you can switch plans once per month. However, we’ve had so much variety in our Clean Eating plan that we have no plans to switch it up anytime soon.

2. Get your week’s meals. Each week, you receive an email containing a complete meal plan in a PDF format. You can also see new plans from a phone app.

3. Pick the meals you want, then use the grocery list to make shopping easy.

4. Cook and eat!

I typically use 2-4 of the meals from eMeals, sometimes mixing in a meal from a past week too. We then fill in our week’s meal plan with some of our tried and true meals and sometimes a new meal I want to try thanks to Pinterest.

Why I’m Hooked on eMeals

Yummy Food

My hubby and I both like to cook. Before kids (and Pinterest), we used to scour cooking magazines and websites looking for new things to try. After kids, we try new things probably more than most people but meal planning gets to be more and more of a chore. I’m stoked we have great-tasting meals come right to us.

Some of the eMeals dishes we’ve made:

• Spicy Mexican Chicken with Steamed Broccoli and Brown Rice
• Roasted Vegetable Orecchiette
• Creamy Pumpkin Pasta with Sausage and Sage (one of my absolute faves that I wasn’t sure I’d like)
• Asian Baby Back Ribs (we used short ribs and it was uh-mazing)
• Taco Salad
• Sweet and Smoky Bacon-Wrapped Chicken
• Slow-Simmered Bolognese Ragu

I’m told that some of their chefs worked at places like Real Simple and Cooking Light, so these are GOOD, well-balanced meals.

Easy to Make

I was actually surprised how simple the meals were to make. While some of the meals sound complicated, they’re totally doable for a weeknight.

In the phone app, certain meals are labeled things like Slow Cooker, Marinate Ahead, Super Fast, Vegetarian, Kid-Friendly. I can scan the list and click on each menu item to see how long each meal takes to prep and cook. That way, I can plan the meals around our week’s activities.

Awesomely Helpful Phone App

Having the phone app is like the icing on the cake. Actually, it’s like the flour in the cake. You can make a cake without it, but it wouldn’t be the same!

The app lists meals by week. Within each week, all your meals are laid out. If you don’t want to make a meal, just skip it. They are still saved, but they won’t show up in your grocery list. Everything you need is pulled into a list for easy shopping. You can get the app for iPhone and Android.

Kid-Friendly

If you have kids, I found that most of the meals on our Clean Eating plan were kid friendly. For example, the kids were skeptical about the pumpkin pasta but devoured it (even my most-picky-kid-on-Earth eater). For the Roasted Vegetable Orecchiette, they didn’t like the butternut squash or onions but ate the broccoli and carrots. So far we’ve been pleased with how many of the meals they like.

Affordable

eMeals costs $58 a year if you purchase a one year subscription (making it not even $5 a month). With working part-time, kids in sports, and blogging, I just don’t have time to search out meals. It’s worth the $5 a month to have the meals come to me, then fill in with our family’s tried-and-true recipes.

Final Thoughts

Even though I’ve been meal planning for years, I find using eMeals is so much easier than doing it all myself. We’re actually looking forward to dinners instead of only sticking with the same old, same old. Once my subscription expires, I’ll definitely be renewing!

Question: Do you currently meal plan at all?

eMeals.com provided me one year subscription to try out their service, but all opinions in this review are mine all mine. This post also contains affiliate links.

If I had to describe a Cirque du Soleil show in one word, there’s no question the word I’d choose: exquisite.

On Wednesday, I attended Quidam at the PNC Arena here in Raleigh. From start to finish, the show is exquisite. The performers, the story, the music. Each component comes together to build a show that captures your attention, makes your laugh and evokes oohs and ahhs from the crowd (and definitely from me too).

We couldn’t take pictures during the show as not to distract the performers. But I did snag a picture with my sister in front of PNC Arena before the show. I took my hubby, sister and her hubby while our babysitter watched our combined three kids (go babysitter)!

Quidam is a story about a girl who, ignored by her parents, slides into an imaginary world. Let me tell you: all the acts were amazing. From a performer beautifully swinging and spiraling on a long silk piece of fabric to the unbelievable and strong Statue performers, each act left the audience breathless. I mean, COME ON, can you do this?

Copyright- Cirque du Soliel

When I see any kind of live show, I love trying to get a sense of how the audience feels about the show. Well, if it was any indication, you could hear a pin drop during the Statue performance, bouts of laughter during ringmaster parts (one lady behind us was laughing so hard she couldn’t stop!) and rounds and rounds of clapping. My hands actually hurt afterwards from clapping so much. Each clap was VERY well-deserved. I’m totally in awe of the talent in each of the performers.

A Cirque du Soleil show will make you truly in awe of what the human body can do. Just look at this. We literally gasped as we watched. And just when you didn’t think it could get more impressive, they took it one step further.

Copyright- Cirque du Soleil

From the clowns to the acrobats to the musicians, each and every person in this show has MEGA TALENT.

Some cool and quite impressive facts about Quidam:

• There are approximately 250 costumes, 500 costume accessories and 200 to 300 pairs of shoes in Quidam.
• The Quidam tour travels with washers and dryers to allow the wardrobe staff to care for the costumes. All costumes are washed daily.
• The musicians follow the artists’ movements and ensure they are in sync with the act.
• The stage floor is made of aluminum decks with a rubbertype mat. The rubber is perforated to allow light to surpass from below, thus creating special visual effects. There are more than 200,000 perforations!

More than 100 million spectators have seen a Cirque du Soleil show and I’m glad that I can be one of them (this is my third)! If you’re in or near Raleigh, the show is running until Sunday, July 14 at PNC Arena. Grab yourself some tickets from the PNC Arena website and GO!

If you aren’t nearby, then see if Quidam is coming to your area. Seriously, you must!

Disclosure: I was given tickets to Quidam in order to promote the event but my options are mine all mine. 

Typically I don’t get too excited about movies with the number “3” at the end. Why? Because unless it’s a trilogy, by the time movie characters get a third round, it gets a little tiring.

However, I had high hopes for Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted because I just loved the first two so much. The storyline is essentially about Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman getting back to NYC from Africa. In that journey, they end up in Europe and team up with lackluster circus performers desperate to get to America too.

Luckily, Madagascar 3 wasn’t tiring at all. In fact, I’d argue it was the best Madagascar yet.

Why?

The Characters (Old & New)

Of course we already love the main characters Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman. As well as the crazy trio of Julien, Maurice and Mort. And then those savvy penguins. Yep, they nearly stole the show in the first Madagascar so I loved how much they were included in this one.

Along their adventure of getting to NYC, you’re introduced to new characters too like the tiger Vitaly, seal Stefano and jungle cat Gia (with the coolest accent).

Plus, it was fun to have the “bad guy” actually be a creepy lady who was just about invincible. Big Roo got big kicks out of her during the moped racing scene.

The 3D

I was truly impressed with the 3D. I can’t tell you how many movies I’ve been to where you leave scratching your head, wondering why they even bothered making it 3D. But with Madagascar 3, there was finally some excellent 3D!

It’s been a while since I’ve heard a lot of ooohs and ahhhs from the crowd as well as kids laugh as they tried to dodge things coming at them.

Afro Circus

This little diddy from Marty the Zebra is STILL stuck in my head.

Need I say more about that one?

So, was there anything I didn’t like? At one point, one of the characters says “bullshivitz” which we all know what THAT sounds like. The parents gasped, the older kids giggled and the little kids were clueless. That’s probably the only part of the movie that may make parents uncomfortable in this PG movie.

Big Roo’s Impression

Big Roo is five and he just adored it. He REALLY liked the music (Katy Perry) and the colors of the circus scenes. In fact, between the colors and the 3D, he was pretty much mesmerized by the movie.

When I asked Big Roo was he liked best, he simply said, “The jaguar.” (meaning Gia)

Madagascar 3 just opened yesterday so make it a summer movie must-see!

Disclosure: I received free passes for this movie but wasn’t compensated for this review. All opinions are mine (and Big Roo’s in some cases).