Relish - Menu Planning Service Review & Giveaway

{The giveaway is closed. Congratulations to #56, Lauren} The world is a funny place. Sometimes the things you most need, just fall in your lap. I'm hopelessly disorganized. I've tried over and over to plan menus, and I just can't do it.

Just as we had an extra person move into our home, I was contacted by Relish to try out their new menu planning service. It couldn't have come at a better time. Now that I have 3 adults and 2 children -all wondering what's for dinner -I needed a plan.

What is Relish? Basically, it's a one-stop menu planning, grocery list making, recipe printing, and freezer meal planning site! But without any of the work!

I was amazed at how easy it was! Every week, you select 5 entrees and one dessert from a list of 15 entree options. All entrees are marked with symbols that identify the meals with tags like kid-friendly, quick, crockpot, and vegetarian (to name a few.)

Once you select your five entrees, you click submit and a grocery list is automatically generated with every item you need to make your weekly meals. But that's not all! All the recipes are generated right below the list. And all can easily be printed in PDF format with one click of a button.

Then you take a look at your printed list, cross out any items you already have, and use the extra space to fill in any other items you need that week.

It's that simple. They even have a freezer menu planning section. I haven't delved into that yet, but I'm hoping my freezer will eventually look like the one they show on their site. Take a look at it below.

What did I think of the recipes? Simple, healthy, delicious. I always modify recipes, so I'll automatically take out extra sugar and swap oils.

And the cost of meals? To be honest, I had pretty much all the supplies on hand. I only had to buy a few lettuces (for sides) and in a few occasions, I substituted meats I had on hand even if they weren't exactly what the recipe called for. I don't think it really added any expense to my grocery shopping.

But it was so nice to have everything planned out...and not to have done any of the actual planning work. :)

A one-month subscription to Relish costs $7/month. Relish is generously giving one Suburban Jungle Reader a Free ONE YEAR subscription (worth $58.80).

How to Enter:

Leave me a comment telling me why you would like to win!

Extra Entries:

-Blog or Tweet about this giveaway - 2 entries - Leave 2 comments (one with a link) - Be sure to include @suburbanjung and a link to this post in your tweet
-Become a Suburban Jungle Follower (Twitter, Feedburner, or Google Friend Connect)- 1 entry each, up to 3 entries - leave up to 3 comments for following

-Enter one of my other current giveaways and leave 2 comments (1 telling which one) - 2 entries

This giveaway will end on November 23, 2009 at 9:00 pm EST. The winner will be selected by random.org and notified by email within 1 day of the contest end. The winner will also be identified on this post by November 24th.

No compensation was given for this review. I was offered a 1 month trial membership in order to review Relish's services. This did not sway my opinion in any way.

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