Relish!

You already know - I'm a food whore. Full out, without apology, I love food. I like learning new things, trying new ingredients and whipping out the good stuff in each category.

But.

I also have those days when I simply don't have the time or the energy to dink around much in the kitchen. Still? Six people gotta eat 2-3 meals a day, every single day.

I'm torn many days between wishing I had the time to churn out gourmet delights and feeling frazzled because there are times I can't pull off anything more than shoving a frozen pizza down their throats.

When PBN offered up the Relish review, I didn't really care exactly what it was, since it had to do with food, I definitely wanted to try it out. What can I say? I was smitten immediately. What a fantastic concept.

Basically, it's a membership/subscription type website that assists you in preparing meals for your family. From the mundane task of writing out your grocery list to the exciting aspect of flipping thru menu choices, Relish lives to serve. (Sorry, puns are my weakness)

After I signed myself up for the membership, I familiarized myself with the finer points. It has thought of practically everything (except who's going to load the dishwasher) but has done it in a simple and concise way.

• It has a menu selection area where you can select five different meal options and then print off the grocery list. Menu ideas change on a weekly basis.
• There is a list of some simple cooking tips and suggestions that are great and easy for anyone, even the most beginner cook.
  
• There are downloadable menus for appetizers, desserts, slow cooker, and soups.
• There is a separate option for creating meals for the month that you prepare ahead, when you have time and freeze.
• There is a "Dinner and a Movie" option where they have created invitation and meal ideas to go along with movies and themes. For example, on the menu for "The Incredibles" you make a hero sandwich.
  

Even though I got a trial membership simply for the option of testing out the site and seeing what it has to offer, I plan to renew when my trial is over. There are several things that make me want to fork over my own money for this site.

First, it's inspired me to start thinking about creating freezer meals. This has always been in my mind as a thing "my grandma used to do". What, am I totally stupid?? Obviously, it never occurred to me that I might want to have a "real" dinner fully prepared that I simply throw in the oven on nights when I'm running four kids around to dance, soccer, Tae kwon do, violin, and Scouts. And this is only the beginning of being busy with four kids, so there's no reason I can't use cooking and planning ahead to my advantage to make good meals for my family without stressing myself out about it. Relish helps make planning ahead easy. Even better, it prints out the cooking instructions and a checklist to tape right on your freezer door. They have made every step quick and painless.

Also, the next best thing about Relish is how quick and simple it is to select five menus, click your mouse on what meals you want to prepare, and it itemizes your shopping list for the grocery store and even gives the nutritional information for each meal. Instead of spending hours pouring thru cookbooks to come up with dining options, you can spend five minutes tops getting your whole week done.

The meals are easy enough for even a novice cook, there are no challenging preps or exotic ingredients, yet the meals aren't boring. This week I made the slow cooker Chicken with bacon which was quite good. I also prepped the Prosciutto-Stuffed Chicken last week and am excited to pull that out on a crazy day when I'm frazzled and don't want to think about what to make for dinner.

The subscription cost for Relish is a scant $7, the meals are reliable and quick to prepare.

With Relish, I'm happy to say, dinner's already done. I rock. Well, OK, Relish rocks.