Life Outside of Wedding Planning: A Girl's Gotta Eat, Why Not Plan For – Ellie Wren
Life Outside of Wedding Planning:  A Girl's Gotta Eat, Why Not Plan For That?
Our Ellie Wren design team is a pretty dynamic group and, while we love everything wedding, we know that sometimes it's fun to indulge in other topics.  So, on occasion, we like to share what we're into -- be it a great new book; a new recipe; a new time-saving, life-enhancing life hack; or just something that. is. so. cool. we just need to share the love. This week it's a little bit of this (a new recipe) and a little bit of that (time-saving and just.so.cool). 
Today we're turning the focus on another creative endeavor... cooking!  Ah, the joy of cooking, right?  The process of finding a new recipe, leisurely and lovingly shopping for the ingredients and then spending hours in your kitchen simmering while you sip a drink and catch up on the days' events with your beloved.  Not exactly, especially if you're in the midst of a building a career while you're planning the wedding of your dreams.  If you're anything like us, you rush to the store the after work while frantically thinking, "what's for dinner?".  And, at least for us, this frazzled approach does have a tendency to take the fun out of things.
In a quest to bring the love of cooking back into our lives and in an effort to streamline the process a bit, we came across RealPlans.com, an online meal planner with self-proclaimed super powers (and we are in full support of the description)!  In a nutshell, RealPlans will generate a meal plan for as many days of the week as you would like, for as many people as you would like, as many times a day as you would like (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and do it all within a few minutes, while keeping your, your fiance's and your family's food preferences and allergies in mind.  And, if that's not enough, RealPlans will generate a shopping list with all of the ingredients you'll need for your weekly menu and email it to you.  How's that for streamlining?  

RealPlans Meal Planner Take a Break From Wedding Planning

A screen capture of RealPlans menu planner.  From here, you can customize to your heart's content, or send yourself your shopping list via email. 
And, while convenience is, well... convenient, what we really love about this new discovery of ours is the selection of recipes.  In addition to the recipes you get through the site itself, you can also incorporate your own recipes as well as those from your favorite food blogger, in our case Cookie & Kate, which has shown us the way in great vegetarian cooking.  Already this week, we've enjoyed the flavors of the Middle East with Cauliflower Curry and Lentil Soup and are looking forward to the Lentil Baked Ziti recipe that Kate recently posted.  Delish!  Best of all, it's been ONE (1) trip to the store, which leaves much more time for sipping and simmering. 

Cookie & Kate's Baked Lentil Ziti Take a Break From Wedding Planning

Cookie & Kate's Lentil Baked Ziti (find the recipe here)
So now that you're armed with this great new piece of information, may we suggest that you tuck this little nugget in your pocket and just let your beloved feel just that... beloved... by the way you slave over the stove to make the perfect meals.  Because, girl, your time-saving secret is safe with us.  [Note: of course, if your fiance is the cook, feel free to pass this along and give yourself a huge pat on the back for landing a chef.]
Photo Credit:  The featured image is Cookie & Kate's Spicy Sweet Potato and Green Rice Bowl.  Awesome.
Ellie Wren is not affiliated with RealPlans or Cookie & Kate, so this promotion is solely based on desire to share our love for what they do with our brides. 

 

 

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