I was excited to hear about Lily On The Fly because, though I consider myself a good cook, I rarely remember to plan meals in advance and am often throwing something together at the last minute or eating appetizers for supper.

When the starter kit arrived in the mail it was even better than I thought it would be. It’s not just recipe cards – it really is a complete family meal planning kit that includes a deck of 36 meal cards and a 7 slot magnetic organizer so your whole week of meals is easily accessible on your fridge. The cards are colour coded into main dishes, side dishes and treats for easy planning, and each card has easy to follow instructions for day-before/morning prep as well as the last minute toss-together instructions. Turn the magnetic holder over and the back of each card becomes your shopping list for the week.

Brilliant, isn’t it? It really is the total package.

There are recipes that take a little bit of prep and recipes that take hardly any so you can plan your weekly according to your schedule and always have something yummy to eat. My favourite recipe so far? Cheesy potato soup. Perfect for a cold Canadian winter! There are currently two 36 card expansion packs available for $10.95 each in addition to the starter kit which sells for $15.95.

This would make an awesome gift for anyone, but especially a family with a new baby looking to do something that I find very challenging for the first several months of newborn life. Eating warm food at least once a day. Is that just me?

Use the discount code OP to save 10% until 1/15/08!

Lily on the Fly is giving a Complete Hearty Meals Collection to one T.O.P. reader. To enter the random draw, email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com before midnight MST on 12/10/07 with Lily on the Fly in the subject line and tell us the three ‘on the fly’ steps to creating great hearty meals! Congratulations Katalin!