Is getting healthy on your goals list for 2013?  If so, you may appreciate this chart of calorie needs created/provided by eMeals.  Keep in mind it’s just a guideline – but I love that it includes the little ones.  (I can never remember how much my toddlers/preschoolers are supposed to be eating compared to the rest of us.)

eMeals is a service that provides you with actual meal plans, including the accompanying recipes and shopping lists, for about $5/month.  There are a number of different options (ten varieties!), including vegetarian, gluten-free, and paleo, and you can choose your store to get a meal plan built around the sales.  None of my major local grocery stores are options (just Wal-Mart), so I can’t really take advantage of that particular feature, but if you live in a metro area, I would assume you’d have more choices.  You can select from family-size options, as well.

If you like, add on breakfast and/or lunch menus.

I’ve only seen the first couple weeks’ menus so far, but they seem to be around $100/week for the 3-6-family-member plan.  That’s a little steep for us, particularly considering it’s dinners only, and that I’m not convinced the prices are all accurate for my area.  The prices are all listed beside the required items, though, so you can see the cost at a glance.  Each ingredient also indicates which days’ recipes it’s used for.

I was a little torn regarding which menu to choose: clean eating, paleo, or gluten-free.  Ultimately, I settled on gluten-free, as that’s an actual dietary need in my family, but I wonder if either of the other two might be closer to how we eat on a regular basis.  You can easily switch from one to another if you change your mind down the road, so there’s no harm done if you pick the “wrong” one. 🙂

Do you use (or have you ever used) a meal planning service?  What did you like best about it?  (I hate having to think about what we’re going to eat, so it’s a big plus for me just having someone else do the thinking!)