Dreading dinner? – Five sites to get you out of your dinner dilemma

Wait, you mean you don’t have a gourmet dinner on the table every night at six o’clock with a flourish? If you’re like most of us, either a working mom or just busy with life, kids, managing your household, etc., dinner is often an afterthought. One that results in repetition and boredom, resorting to the same dishes again and again. Or worse, one that means fast food or unhealthy choices. Well, we’ve got five sites to help take your dinner table from drab to delicious.

A few great things about Food on the Table:

• You input your local grocery store and it recommends food based on what’s on sale.
• It allows you to menu plan by mood. Feel like pasta? Maybe chicken? Or fish? Done, done and done.
• Once you select your store and your eating preferences, as well as the number of meals you plan to eat that week, Food on the Table recommends meals you’ll love containing the most in-store sale items.
• Then they give you an itemized and printable grocery list – score!
• Sign-up takes 60 seconds, it’s an App in the iTunes store and the cost is – FREE!

eMeals offers easy dinner menus for busy people. It’s like they read our minds.

• Menu plans based on weekly grocery store sales, seasonal discounts or diet preferences (gluten-free, foodie, vegetarian, homestyle, etc).
• All the recipes are tested by experts.
• Cost starts at $5/month.
• Specialty menus available for up to 6 people.

Relish promises to get you out of the dinner rut for good.

• They give you a choice of 15 meals that change every Thursday morning.
• Fresh ingredients and seasonal produce.
• Preparation is 30 minutes or less.
• Printable custom grocery list or sync to your mobile device.
• Options include kid friendly, vegetarian, simple gourmet and super quick recipes.
• Freezer meals allow you to cook, store and re-heat months later.
• Cost starts at $7/month.

The Fresh 20 is centered around fresh local and organic foods.

• You buy 20 fresh ingredients, they provide recipes for 5 dinners.
• Each meal takes less than 30 minutes to prepare.
• No preservatives, no processed food and no frozen ingredients.
• Monthly or annual membership options.
• Starts at $5/month.

The 6 O’Clock Scramble is focused on saving time and money.

• Ready-made dinner plans for the week, including side dishes and grocery list.
• All recipes are 30-minutes or less of actual work.
• They offer Super Scramble recipes which can be prepared in 20 minutes or less.
• Many recipes can be prepared ahead of time or are perfect for a slow cooker.
• All recipes include “Do Ahead Tips” so you can get dinner started in the morning or the night before.
• Recipes and instructions are easy enough to delegate to a nanny, teen or yes, husband.
• You get an organized grocery list so you always have on-hand all the ingredients you need for a week of meals.
• Cost starts at $7/month.

Which one is right for you? That’s your choice, but all are inexpensive enough to try and most offer videos, trials and other options so you can see which suits you and your family best. Be sure to tell us which site you decided to try and whether it helped get you out of your dinner dilemma. And because we want to make your life simpler as well, check out the Momiverse Make a List page to help you with grocery lists and a weekly menu planner. Bon appetite!

Danielle Hughes

Danielle Hughes has been writing since the womb. Always one with a flair for the written word, she made her stamp at the age of 12 winning a stuffed E.T. doll from a local writing competition. She has written for too many companies to name but you can check out her site if you really care (daniellezhughes.com). Currently, she's proud to be the Contributing Editor and Chief Word Navigator for the Momiverse. A mom of a 6 year old boy, Danielle resides in New York City, where she plays tennis and posts on Facebook about her hilarious dating trials and tribulations.

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