Plan to Eat

I have found the greatest thing since sliced bread. Seriously.

First, you must know something about me. I don't particularly loooove cooking. I can be a good cook copy a good cook (aka May Gose) when I need to, but I really don't want to spend all day in the kitchen. I blame this fact for my meal disorganization. The problem is, a family still has to eat whether Mom is organized about it or not. So I'm really shooting myself in the foot.

Maybe I should try some meal planning?

I have a friend who has been doing her own meal planning for a while, and although her example is stellar, she's not the type of friend who would grab you by the shoulders, look you square in the face and say, "YOU--MUST--TRY--THIS."

I, on the other hand, am. Consider yourself forewarned.

Even though I admired my friend's example, I just fought the idea for a while. I wasn't sure I could get it organized enough to not be a real hassle. Plus, I'm not a rigid person--I like flexibility (and a farm family NEEDS flexibility.) A meal plan system seemed way too rigid to really work for us. Not to mention a LOT of work.

Someone recommended Plan to Eat. This subscription-based meal planning website, literally, is the best thing since sliced bread. Here's how it works... (so you know, they did not ask me to review their site--I'm just a very satisfied customer and want to see other Moms benefit like I have)

1. You add recipes. These can be your own or from a website. They've made this process as easy as I can imagine, but more on that later. (click on any image to enlarge it)

2. Drag and drop recipes onto your planner. You can plan a day, a week, or a month. You can plan one meal a day, or divide it into Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and Snacks for the SUPER-organized.

3. Click Shopping List, choose the dates you want to shop for, and it generates your grocery list. At this point you can also remove any items you already have.

4. Print your revised shopping list (which is also organized according to grocery category), go shopping, and Voila! You are ready for the week. (I do mine weekly.) No more standing in front of the fridge at 11:45am wondering what we're going to have for lunch.

Features I LOVE about Plan to Eat

1. Easy Input of Recipes
This process is not complicated. I've added my own recipes easily. In fact, most recipes I just added the title and ingredients. The actual instructions are not necessary if you already have them in your kitchen (or don't need instructions...who needs instructions on making spaghetti??) Even easier are recipes you can find on the web. Just add their bookmarklet to your bookmarks bar, and click it when you find a recipe you want. It automatically imports everything, with rarely a mistake. (although you should check things over just to make sure.) How easy is THAT??

I don't do complicated side dishes most of the time. Steamed veggies, applesauce, fruit...that's pretty much what our sides consist of. I wanted to include these items on our meal plan, and have them added to the shopping list automatically, so I created a "recipe" for each, which consists of a title and the ingredient(s) I need for that item. This may seem silly, but when I add applesauce to our meal plan, I know it will show up on my shopping list.

I also realized I don't have to input my entire recipe box before I can really utilize the system. The first week, I just put in the meals I was going to use. The next week I did the same. Yesterday (no school) I took some additional time to add most of our most-commonly-used meals and sides.

2. Recipe re-sizing
Input a recipe that serves 6, change the servings to 9, click Change, and it does all of the figuring for you. Your shopping list will reflect those changes as well.

3. Flexibility
Late yesterday afternoon, Hubby called and asked if I'd like to go out to eat. (As if he needed to ask.) I had planned homemade pizza, and already had the sausage and hamburger browned. Throw the meat in the freezer, add Homemade Pizza to my Queue and I'll add it to my plan next time. I also add things I've used half of so they don't get lost in the deep depths of the freezer, like half-bags of frozen broccoli.

Some recipes I always make double of and put one batch in the freezer. I also add these to my Queue to keep track of.

4. The Shopping List
Oh--my--word. Can I just say how great it feels to know that I have every ingredient I need to make our next 8 days worth of meals? The Shopping List is the key. Plan To Eat does a great job of combining ingredients, so if you need 1/2 pound of ground beef for pizza and 2 pounds for meatloaf, you'll find "2.5 pounds ground beef" on your shopping list.

Plan to Eat also does a great job of categorizing your ingredients. When you input ingredients, it usually knows what category they are in, but you can easily change it if it gets it wrong or simply doesn't know. And as long as it is in the right category in the recipe, it will be listed under the right heading on your shopping list. With 4 children in tow, less time wandering around the grocery store is GOLDEN.

The ability to remove items you already have from the shopping list before printing is also pretty cool. No more shopping for salt and pepper, or coming home with a 6th bag of frozen peas.

Also, see the Staples List tab in the above image? Click on that tab and add things you need on a regular basis--milk, eggs, toilet paper, etc. You can add or remove items according to your specific needs.

5. Eating Better
I've been standing in front of the fridge at 11:45am thinking, "What on earth are we going to have for lunch? There're chicken nuggets [or insert another fast-but-bad-for-you food here] in the freezer. Yes, that will work...." Enough said.

Since I've been using Plan to Eat, we've eaten better food and much more balanced meals. Just ask my husband.

Cost is $39/year or $4.95 a month. I'm thinking I'll save at least that much every year between gas (trips to the grocery store) and all of those things I end up throwing out of my pantry because I didn't use them before they expired. Not to mention the addition of peace and harmony to the universe my house around mealtime.

Want to give it a try? You can get a free 30-day trial by clicking on this logo:

If you don't have a meal planning system that works for you (or a system at all,) and you think it might help, let me stand in front of you, firmly grip your shoulders, and just say, "YOU--MUST--TRY--THIS."