Recently I had the opportunity to try a meal planning product from Homemade Gourmet, a direct sales company whose mission is "to bring families back to the dinner table by providing quality, affordable, easy-to-prepare meals, education, and direct sales business opportunities." Although Homemade Gourmet is known for their mixes, the most useful product may be the 30-Day Meal Plan. The Plan is "a guide to building family traditions around your kitchen." More specifically, I found the guide to be an excellent system showing how to organize and plan your meals to make the most of your shopping and food preparation time. The product I tried was the C.O.S.T.® (Cook Once, Serve Twice®) Meal Deal for $45. The Meal Deal includes the 30-Day Meal Plan Manual and Kit (which also includes 96 recipes and 44 menu cards), the C.O.S.T.® Cookbook, and a set of starter mixes.
All of the recipes in the Plan and the C.O.S.T.® Cookbook call for Homemade Gourmet mixes, but the system would not be difficult to implement using store bought or homemade seasonings if you choose to use Homemade Gourmet recipes but not their mixes, or even your own recipes. My family liked all of the recipes that I tried from the Meal Plan (using the Homemade Gourmet seasonings) and I will continue to use some of the bulk mixes (the best deal since the individual packages are pricey), although I will also substitute my own seasonings for some of the recipes.
The 30-Day Meal Plan uses several methods to simplify meal planning. First, color-coded menu cards indicate the ease or difficulty of preparation. This makes it easy to schedule recipes with little preparation on hectic days or allow for more preparation, or perhaps a C.O.S.T.® meal, on a day when you have more time . Each recipe and menu card features a light background image of a cow, chicken, pig, fish, or veggies which lets you know at a glance if you are creating a varied menu plan for the week. The Plan also includes a meal planning poster which can be mounted on the refrigerator to give you a quick glance at your dinners for the month. The poster has slots for the menu cards which makes it easy if you need to shuffle your meal plan due to unexpected company or an unscheduled event. My only wish is that the Meal Plan had a place for lunch, since as a homeschool mom lunch is as much of a challenge as dinner!
Shopping lists are easy to prepare from the list of ingredients on the back of each menu card, and the color coding and graphics on each menu card make meal planning much simpler. After using the Homemade Gourmet recipes and menus for a few weeks, it is easy to integrate your own recipes into the system using the blank menu cards and recipe cards provided. Once you understand the principles behind Cook Once Serve Twice®, you can figure out which of your own recipes could be stretched into several meals through the creative use of the basic ingredients.
If you are finding it a challenge to avoid the drive thru, Homemade Gourmet's 30-Day Meal Plan can help you get a handle on preparing homemade dinners quickly and easily. The seasoning packets simplify the meals, which are original, attractive, and delicious. Planning once a month is a cinch with the menu cards, and knowing that you have an easily prepared meal scheduled for the nights when you will get home late will help you save on last minute eating out.
You can order Homemade Gourmet's 30-Day Meal Plan or any of the mixes through their website at http://www.homemadegourmet.com/shopping/index.asp. Homemade Gourmet is a direct sales company whose products are sold by Independent Distributors. After you place your order online, you will receive service from your personal Distributor or by a Distributor in your area that can be selected while shopping. You will be contacted by that Distributor concerning delivery dates and payment method. You may use the website to find a distributor near you or use distributor number 10861.