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It's not a virtual meal. But you might call it virtuous.

Home cooks across the nation and the world are discovering they have a personal kitchen organizer at their fingertips. It's dinnerplanner.com, the brainchild of two Pittsburgh-area women that's rising in recognition on the Internet.

For $5 a month -- with a three-month minimum -- Melissa Good of Upper St. Clair and Sue Koza of Peters provide weekly dinner menus, taste-tested recipes developed for households of four to six, color-coded shopping lists and a few words of wisdom about diet, exercise, eating healthfully and the importance of family meals.

The two even take the pictures of the finished dishes that accompany their recipes. All that's left for clients to do is shop and cook.

"We drove our relatives crazy because we didn't repeat a recipe for a whole year," says Koza, a Web designer who works for Good's husband, Mark, at PC McKenzie Co. in Upper St. Clair, a purveyor of capital equipment. It was Mark Good who turned his wife and Koza on to the idea of the site, which will celebrate its second anniversary next month, says Melissa Good, 49.

The seed was sowed years ago when Melissa Good -- a teacher by profession and mother of three -- decided to do a better job managing her household, particularly concerning what she put on the table every day.

"I don't mind cooking -- it's thinking about what I have to make," she says. "I started organizing my life this way."

Mark Good told friends and employees about the improvements his wife had made at home, and they began calling her for advice and to ask for printed instructions and recipes.

He introduced his wife to Koza, 44 -- who admits she wasn't much of a cook back then -- and dropped a few suggestions about joining forces on the Web. The women tossed around the idea until one day Koza decided to take things into her own hands by designing a Web site using Good's organizational materials and -- surprise! -- sent it to her friend for consideration.

"I've done (design) for so many years, it's easy. I live and breathe the Internet," says Koza, who works on the site from her home. "You put a lot of effort into it in the beginning. We worked pretty hard the first year."

The women spent three months refining the site and testing, evaluating and tweaking the recipes before dinnerplanner.com was launched in February 2003.

The site averages from 1,500 to 1,800 subscribers on any day, mostly from the United States, says Koza, including clients from Hawaii, Alaska and Spain. They range from beginning cooks to gourmets.

"Honestly," Koza says, "we have people who don't know how to make a baked potato."

Here's the deal: Each Friday, dinnerplanner.com sends a week's dinner menu to subscribers, who can print it out and use as desired. About three months ago, they added some recipes appealing specifically to youngsters.

"There may be some people who are making all seven recipes," Good says. "Or someone might go to grandma's house every week or want to make their own favorite recipes as well."

"We have a family menu geared toward everyone," Koza says. "Everyone will be happy. The kids will be happy. Dad will be happy. We searched high and low (for the recipes), and cooked and cooked. We feel like these meals are pretty much guaranteed."

Sarah McDonald, 25, of Colfax, Wash., about 60 miles south of Spokane, won't dispute that. The married mother of two boys -- 2 1/2 years and 6 months -- likes that every recipe has been tested. "So you know it's going to taste good before you cook it," she says.

"I joined dinnerplanner.com when I was expecting our second child," McDonald says. "I knew I was not going to want to go to the grocery store every day like I had been and having to try and think of something to make for dinner when it was 4 p.m. and dinner time was at 5:30. So I tried going through all my cookbooks to make a weekly menu, and that was very time-consuming, and there just wasn't much variety."

McDonald searched on the Internet and found dinnerplanner.com. "I am so glad I did, because after three years of making the same dinners over and over again, it was such a refreshing change to be able to do my shopping once a week and actually know what I was going to make every day of the week." She prints out recipes the family likes and saves them in a three-ring binder.

"My husband has commented on how much he has liked the meals I have been preparing since I have been subscribing -- not that they were bad before!" McDonald says. "But it gives a great variety, and I don't think we've come across a meal that we didn't like."

Oneita S. Higham of Ross is among dinnerplanner.com's charter subscribers. She says the variety of recipes is the site's biggest draw for her, and she likes that the dishes are quick, don't come with a long list of ingredients or require hard-to-find, exotic foods. She was unaware of the site's Pittsburgh connection until Koza and Good one time mentioned that they are Steelers fans. "I think that's so interesting that they are from here," Higham says.

Higham and her husband, Bob, are retired, and she still cooks dinner every day, except for one night a week when the couple dines out.

"I don't use all of (the recipes)," says Higham, who has a cookbook collection in the hundreds. "And I really don't have any favorite recipe. I like to try new things. I do share a lot of them, though, especially with my mother, who is 92, and some of my nieces."

Another satisfied client is Julie Pron, 30, of West Chester, Pa. -- mother of a 16-month-old son. She says she is saving about $50 a month, as well as her sanity, since she signed on with Koza and Good.

"I fix about four of the meals a week," she says. "I go to the store on Monday and start cooking on Monday night."

Her husband, Steve, is enthusiastic about the service, the meals and the economical cost of the Web site.

"He thinks life is great," Pron says. "Our meals are so much better. I mean, there was always food in the fridge, but now there is always something to eat when he comes home. It's totally worth it."

Dinnerplanner.com has made Pron a confident cook, she says.

"I always say I am 'learning' when people ask me about my cooking, but it's amazing -- my friends come now and I am not embarrassed to cook for them. I used to order pizza, but the other day I made stuffed shells. I never would have made them before."

Pron likes the variety of recipes and hasn't made one twice -- despite her husband's pleadings to repeat his favorite, a chicken salad. "I like to try the new ones -- I don't want to wait."

Koza and Good say they try to keep a running rapport with subscribers so they can focus on what they like. Good monitors the site during the day, Koza in the evening when she is home from work. They have a "live chat button" feature that lets them know when clients need help. "We always try to be available -- I think our response time is pretty quick," Koza says.

They are eager for suggestions and feedback, and there have been few complaints -- and Koza says her cooking prowess has improved exponentially since startup.

There is one discouraging word, however, from Pron, who lives in the Philadelphia area.

"They are Steelers fans," she says. "That's one thing I don't like."

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