We all know that vacations can be some much needed time away. Time to spend with family. Time to just get out of town. Time to get away from it all. However, a vacation can put a major dent in your budget if you let it. The major budget buster can actually be food! Luckily for you, we’ve compiled five easy ways you can save on food while you travel. Find them below and tell us how you save on food when you travel!

1. It’s amazing how something small like water bottles can add up fast. Pack water bottles for each member in your family to refill at water fountains in amusement parks or at soda fountains at gas stations.
2. Pack brown bag lunches for each member in your family for road trips. If you don’t have time to pack lunches, go through the mailed coupons you get from fast food restaurants and grab a few to take on the road with you.
3. If you stay in a hotel, try to book one with free meals for kids and/or free breakfast.
4. Buy snacks in bulk at a store like Costco or find a buy one, get one free sale at a grocery store for your kids’ favorite snack foods to avoid overspending in gas stations , planes or amusement parks. Good filling snacks include peanut butter crackers, granola, and fruit.
5.  If you stay somewhere with a kitchenette or full kitchen, you can save big on food by cooking in. eMeals has provided a vacation plan for families to use that includes 7 dinners priced out at Walmart and broken down into a grocery list organized by aisle. The plan keeps prices low, with the cost being only around $2 per person.

*Note that our members have access to this plan on their member’s page and new members get the vacation plan free with signup.

Herbs are a great way to liven up any dish by adding flavor without adding salt, fat, and sugar. Researchers are now finding that many culinary herbs also have antioxidants that may help protect against such disease as cancer and heart disease. Not only is growing herbs good for your health but also your bank account! I love incorporating fresh herbs into eMeals menus during the warmer months when I can grow them myself. This is a fun family friendly activity that can be enjoyed all summer long!

I started out with a vintage tin I found at one of my favorite antique stores. Be creative with the container! Paint a pot as a family, use a colander, baking pan, or any other found container. Just make sure to add holes for drainage. Next, I picked my favorite herbs to cook with: sweet basil, cilantro, and oregano. Make sure when picking herbs that they require all the same amount of light and water. Fill pot with plant and vegetable potting soil and plant food. Add herbs, cover with more soil, and water. I also added fun metal garden labels. Another affordable alternative would be labeling popsicle sticks.

The ideal time for picking your herbs is in the morning before the dew has dried but before the sun gets hot. This helps ensure the best flavor and storage quality. Do not harvest more than a third of the plant at any given time. Make sure to wash herbs before cooking under running water and patting dry with paper towels. When substituting dried herbs for fresh ones use 3 times as much as you would use of a dried herb. You can also freeze herbs by removing the leaves from stems, rinsing and drying leaves, and placing them in a heavy-duty sealed plastic bag for up to 6 months.

Happy harvesting!

Meaghan is our Publix for 2 meal plan writer. She and her husband, Ross, have one fur baby Sadie.  Meaghan has been working at eMeals since April 2011

Have your kids or perhaps even you fallen in love with GoGo squeeZ yet? GoGo squeeZ is 100% all natural, Kosher, no sugar added, gluten, dairy, and nut free, applesauce in fun fruity flavors. It has no spoon, no mess, and no nonsense.  The squeezable pouch is an easy way for mom to say yes to healthy and natural snacking for her kids!

Go Go squeeZ recently changed up their packaging and wanted to include our community in the celebration! The design is new, fun, and a little zippy to encourage your kids to grab one on the go and enjoy!

To help celebrate the new playful and colorful look of the delicious and all-natural squeezable applesauce brand, GoGo squeeZ, we’re giving away a year supply! You’ll have the chance to try out all seven flavors, including the new AppleMango flavor. To enter, visit our Facebook page here and sign up for your chance to win. Stay up-to-date on all your GoGo squeeZ news, including new product announcements by heading to GoGo squeeZ’s Facebook and Twitter page.

Chocolate Squares

DIY Tea Bag Wreath

Mother’s Day Brunch Menu Featuring our Orange Julius

Free Printable Cards

Free Printable Cooking Conversion Chart

We’re giving away a $200 Visa gift card in our Mother’s Day Pinterest Contest!

Meals Like Mom Made Featuring Turkey Crunch

You can also find many more ideas for Mother’s Day gifts and inspiration on our Pinterest Mother’s Day board here. We hope you find these ideas and recipes helpful to make Mother’s Day memorable and loads of fun. What are you doing to make Mother’s Day special this year for yourself or another mom you know?

As parents, many of us are on the fast forward treadmill of this culture yelling like George Jetson “Stop this crazy thing!” And there, lurking on the sidelines is a smelly, convenient fast food bag, eager to hand us a cheap substitute. It is not just a quick fix to dinner, but a replacement for something altogether so invaluable, enriching, and life-giving to our families and homes. Think about it. All the would-be, could-be moments and treasured time that is sacred to our family around a home-cooked meal, stuffed in an obnoxious paper bag that smells like fake food. What a picture.

Over time, eMeals has brought together its own society. We have drawn together thousands of moms and dads from all walks of life who value the daily dose of home cooking and want to do the best they can to make it happen. It is not easy. Along with you, I want to be in that league of generations gone-by that preserves the life and love of home around the conversation, time spent, and laughter over a home cooked meal. These moments will not come again! Our children and loved ones are with us for such a brief season, so join the eMeals league along with me, Mommy Martha, and all who enter.  Let’s cook, love, and live like there’s no tomorrow!

Thank you Mommy Martha for all the love you stirred into my life.

Thank you for your Turkey Crunch too, one of my fav’s.

Mom is always giving of herself! Making each day special for her kids, her friends, her husband, and all those around her she loves. This year, why don’t you surprise your mom with a little treat in these beautiful cards. We were so inspired by our new Mother’s Day gift certificates that are available, that we though they would make perfect free printable cards as well. We hope you pick your favorite, print it out, and surprise mom with a card perhaps with an attached eMeals gift certificate to make her day extra special.

Some of the best memories are made around the dinner table! Give the gift that will save your favorite mom time and money. eMeals helps solve the dinner dilemma with weekly menu and grocery lists tailored to your lifestyle and shopping preferences. Treat yourself or a mom you know this year!

This year’s Mother’s Day Breakfast Menus is a nice, easy breakfast to cook and present to mom for breakfast in bed or a lovely brunch. She’ll be wowed at how special her breakfast looks. She’ll think she woke up in a 5 star hotel! For the breakfast tart, we’ve cut some corners for you by using a pre-made pizza crust that is flaky, buttery and delicious instead of pastry sheets which are hard to handle and time-consuming to use. The simple, classic flavors of eggs, cheese and bacon will delight her palette.

Our fruit dish presents fresh fruit without a lot of cover-up like a heavy sweet dip. Instead, a light, naturally-sweet fruit glaze that sweetens the fruit without over-powering it is used. It’s a refreshing side dish to her main course.

Then to top it all off, who doesn’t like an Orange Julius? It’s like a dreamsicle in a glass. So sweet and smooth. The perfect beverage to chase this perfect-for-Mom breakfast down with.

...Read the rest of Orange Julius from our Mother’s Day Menu

Cinco de Mayo Activities & Games

Free Printable Invitations, Place Cards, Table Toppers & More

Sangria from our Full Cinco de Mayo Menu

Hearty Guacamole

What do you have planned for this Cinco de Mayo? We’d love it if you used any of our recipes to take photos and share them with us on our Facebook wall!

Looking for something the kids can make for mom or grandmother this year? How about this adorable tea wreath? It’s simple, takes very little time to assemble and is something extra special every time mom wants some tea. This is the perfect gift for teachers as well since the end of the school year is coming up. The brighter the colors of the tea bags, the better!

Supplies:

Mini clothespins
Colorful assorted tea bags
Tiny sticky notes or paper and tape
Ribbon

Directions:

Take clothespins and pin tea bags to one another into a circular form. Take paper or sticky notes and place on the back of each tea bag with a handwritten note from you or your child for an extra special treat each time a cup of tea is enjoyed by the recipient. Secure ribbon with pin or tape it to the back of the tea bags. Hang up and enjoy!

What is the craftiest thing you have made before as a gift for your mom?

Are you constantly looking up these conversions? Do you think it will help you?