Relish! Review & Giveaway!

Do you find yourself scrambling every night to feed your busy family with no idea of what to make? Or, do you find yourself picking up supper on the way home at a local fast food restaurant or from the prepared section of your local deli? Perhaps you feel like you are spending way too much money on food and you want to find a way to reduce your food budget. Fact: Meal Planning is an activity that can allow you to achieve all of these goals…and more!

Introducing Relish! “A weekly menu planner aimed to help busy families put wonderful meals on the table every night. No sloppy casseroles or expensive kitchen blunders. Instead look for everyday food…with a gourmet twist.”

Relish! was developed by a busy team of two moms (Ann and Karen) who always seemed to have trouble coming up with solutions for dinner. Like many families, they just did not feel like there was enough time in the day. Never mind extra time to be reading through piles of cookbooks for meal ideas. It was at that time that Ann and Karen decided that there must be an easier way.

Relish! is dedicated to providing you and your family with weekly meal plans that are quick, healthy, and expose your children to a variety of new foods and flavors. To ensure that each meal from Relish! is both delicious and easy to make, Master cook Gwenn Wilson tests out each recipe and offers shortcuts and tips to help you through the process.

The founders of Relish! have also developed a meal-planning program especially for people with gluten intolerance. For more information, please visit Gfree.

Review
When I first came across Relish!, I was surprised by all the different features their website offers. Not only do they offer recipes and allow you to make weekly meal plans with them, but they also allow you to take your meal plan and automatically turn it into a shopping list that separates your items into different categories (e.g. Meats, produce, etc.) to make shopping easier. In addition, on the Relish! website you will find weekly articles (features) on a variety of topics (this week’s article talks about clarified butter). Relish! provides menus for horsdoeuvres, dinner and movie events, lunches, desserts, this-and-that, and freezer meals. After looking through all they have to offer, I can definitely see how they are different from other meal-planning programs.

Here is what Relish! had to say about their program:
“We offer the plan to get you out of your dinner rut for good and to prepare healthy and creative dinners, every night. You choose your weekly recipes, the grocery list is tabulated, shop once a week and have all of the ingredients needed for five meals. [View a menu]

• Each week you choose five entrees to make for the week.
• All dinners are kitchen-tested (no more disasters) and take 30 minutes or less prep.
• The comprehensive grocery list makes grocery shopping a snap. [View a grocery list]
• 5 dinners and sides cost less than $95 per week at the grocery store. You will notice substantial savings by sticking to a list!
• A Relish! subscription is only $7 per month. [Subscribe for a 6-month or 12-month period and save 15-30% off the regular price.]
• Monthly freezer menus are included in the subscription, plus much more [read on]

By planning only 5 meals each week, it gives you a little wiggle room. This means you can either use one night to make a family favorite, to make a Relish! Dinner and Movie night, to go out for dinner, or to eat leftovers.

The first time I used Relish!, I noticed this interesting feature at the bottom of the page called the ‘recipe legend’. This legend deciphers common symbols that are used to identify their meals easily. For example, kid friendly, Crockpot, lower calorie, one pot, dessert, etc. I really like this idea because it makes finding meals that my family will enjoy or that I will enjoy making, so much easier.

Now, to give you an idea on my eating habits, I am a fairly picky eater (my boyfriend is too; although he may not willingly agree with this statement). So, when I first saw that I was only going to be offered 15 meal options and have to pick 5 of them for the week, I was a bit concerned. Needless to say, the first week didn’t go overly well. I admit, I was a bit worried that this whole review process wouldn’t go as planned. However, as a couple more weeks went by, I started to see more and more meals that both my boyfriend and I would enjoy.

I soon discovered the past menus and favorites functions on Relish! This turned my worries upside down. Relish! allows you to add meals that you and your family enjoyed to ‘Your Favorites’ easily. Each week when you go to plan out your menu, you will find a box that lists all the favorites that you have selected in the past. All you need to do is select “Add to Week” and the meal gets added to your weekly menu. Once you’ve selected five meals plus one dessert (optional), you are able to choose how many people you will need to feed. Relish! allows you to choose from family sizes of 2 – 8. Finally, all you do is click ‘Create Your Custom Menu’ and Relish! does all the hard work for you. Relish! will look through all the recipes you’ve chosen and create one shopping list (separated into categories). Underneath the shopping list, you will find the recipes, instructions, and nutritional information for all your recipes! In my opinion, it doesn’t get much easier than this! I am very excited that we will no longer have to eat the same boring meals week after week. I am definitely looking forward to eating some new & interesting meals (I am sure my boyfriend is happy about that as well).

Besides the meal planning that Relish! offers, my other two favorite features are the Lunch menus and the Dinner and Movie menus. First of all, I love the lunch menus because they give great ideas other than traditional PB&J sandwiches. Two weeks of lunch ideas are provided on the Relish! website. Each idea comes with a recipe and step-by-step instructions. These ideas are great on their own or can easily be matched with your child’s current favorites! Second of all, I really enjoyed reading through their Dinner and Movie menus. This reminds me of that TBS show called Dinner and a Movie; they pair a movie with a themed dinner for a night of fun. This is a great idea for family night, or get-togethers with family and friends. One of the menus that I am hoping to use in the next little while is the one for Kung Fu Panda. This menu contains items such as Jack Black Punch, Kung Pao Chicken, Panda Cake, as well as others.

In conclusion, I am extremely happy to have found Relish! This is a great program that will not only save me time and frustration, but money too! I am looking forward to seeing the new recipes that pop up in the weeks to come.

What can you win? One winner will receive a 1-year Relish! subscription.

To enter, Go to the Relish! website and take a look around. Then, come back here and tell me one thing that you learned. This question must be answered to gain an entry in the giveaway.

Each of the following will give you one extra entry in the giveaway. Please make sure to leave a separate comment for each thing you do:
-Telling me how you think Relish! would help your family.
-Naming your favorite healthy meal.
-Naming one of your favorite meals that is no so healthy, but you wish that was.
-Naming one food that your child refuses to eat. If you don’t have any children, name one food that you disliked as a child.
-Adding my new Everything ‘In the Kitchen’ Up Close button to your blog sidebar.
-Adding my Everything 'In the Kitchen' Up Close Grand Opening Event Button to your blog sidebar.
-Visiting my brand new food blog, Everything 'In the Kitchen' Up Close, and entering one of my giveaways. Giveaways will be added daily for the next two weeks. You can only do this extra entry once per giveaway!
-Tweeting about this giveaway (with a link to this page) on Twitter. Please leave a link to your tweet. You can do this once a day.
-Blogging about this giveaway on your blog. Please leave a link to your blog post in your comment.

This giveaway will end on Monday, March 23rd at 11:59pm (Central Standard Time). After the giveaway has ended, the winner will be picked randomly using random.org. EMAIL RULES: In order to win, you must provide a valid email. I will be notifying the winner by email only. Please make sure your blog profile includes your email address and make sure that it is visible. If you do not have a blogger account, please make sure you have included your email address in your post. If there is no email address provided, to contact the winner, another person will be chosen. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to the winning email notification with their complete mailing address (I will be forwarding all this information to the sponsor), If this information is not received within 48 hours, a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is open to residents of Canada and the US only!

Good Luck!

Relish! is offering all my readers the chance to receive a free silicone basting brush when you sign up with Relish! Just quote the coupon code “dinner” during checkout.


Do you want another chance to win a 1-year subscription to Relish!? Check out the Relish! giveaway on my brand new food blog, Everything 'In the Kitchen' Up Close! You can enter both but only win once.