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Do any of you use apps to help with your meal planning? As a single woman whose work day ends at 6 (and really, more like 6:30 or 7 most days), a 45 minute commute, part time grad school, and a roster of speaking, professional and volunteer engagements, I find myself scrambling for dinner most nights and eating junk for lunch. I know I am wasting money hand over fist on food and would like to change that, but no longer have the time I used to have to spend hours pulling together a bunch of recipes, making a weekly meal plan, and then culling a shopping list from the plan.
What do you use? What features does it have that make your life easier, your wallet fuller, and your belly full?
I've found a few interesting looking apps only to find that many of them are only available for Apple devices, so I'm especially interested in hearing what Android users use!
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
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Not an app, but my cousin's wife found this system and has said that it's fantastic. She and my cousin both work and have a baby, so time to cook is at a premium.
Thanks! I used to do a similar meal planning system where I would either assemble or make the week's meals all on Sunday. Unfortunately, I live with two roommates who also cook and we share an apartment-sized (read: smaller than average) fridge and freezer. Luckily, I do have plenty of cabinet space and have made ample use of meal-starters from Trader Joe's, but really can't keep more than 3 days worth of food in our fridge.
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
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Gotcha! I feel your pain on the apartment-sized fridge. I have that now, along with the smaller oven that doesn't accommodate a regular-sized cookie sheet. I'm moving in March and my new apartment has full-sized appliances -- I get to make cookies again!!
What my research is telling me is that there's clearly a demand for what I'm looking for, but no one is actually doing it! There are a few meal planning apps out there, but none do all the things I'd want it to do. I would pay for the service! I suppose I should probably redouble my efforts to learn to code. :P
Apartment style appliances are the devil. At least I have a full size oven! I've lived with roommates since college (Boston's rent prices are insane) but have always had at most 1 other roommate who cooked regularly. Now, both of my roommates cook (though all 3 of us have very different diets and preferences so we can't go in together). We also all use a different type of milk, drink different things, have different frozen desserts, and use different condiments so our fridge and freezer are bursting to the gills even BEFORE you factor in meals for the week! If I had anywhere to put it, I'd buy a chest freezer. That's how I learned how to shop as a kid - there were only 4 of us but we always had homemade tv dinners, frozen stock, frozen vegetables from the garden, and tons of meat we bought on sale in the chest freezer.
On the bright side: One day, I'll leave Boston and will get over my disappointment of leaving my favorite city with being overwhelmed at how new and cheap housing is practically anywhere else! The place I live in now is my first apartment with a hood over the oven - and let me tell you, it is life changing to not have the smoke alarm go off regularly and not have to cook with my windows all open in the middle of the winter!
For now, I've been trying Pepperplate. You can only load recipes through the desktop interface, but they have partnerships with a lot of recipe sites and blogs (i.e. Allrecipes.com, Pioneer Woman, Serious Eats, Food Network) that makes it easy to pull recipes into your account. You then add whatever you want to cook to your weekly meal plan and it will generate a shopping list. It also scales meals down, so if it is expected to serve 6, I can make it a half recipe and have extra for lunch the next day.
Ideally, an app would allow me to pull in recipes on my mobile device (since my big "I'm waiting and bored" activity is Pinterest), keep track of bulk items I have on hand and how much I use up for restocking purposes, give meal suggestions, and also either tie directly into a health app or have it's own calorie counting functionality.
I usually shop late in the week and make a menu to go from Sat to Sat. Of course I quite often stray from the menu or change the days I have something. This week, we are having steak, chicken fried chicken, tacos, Salmon. left over pork roast, veggie burgers or that is the plan right now.
Beef ragout tonight or cream sauce with smoked country ham and mushrooms, fajitas or something with chicken tomorrow. Freezer and pantry are stocked. All we need this week are fresh veggies and green salad.
Peach crumble pie is a must this week! I can almost smell it.
Usually before work, I try to have a big bowl of salad. At work, I try to eat fruit. When I get home, that is when I have my main meal of a pasta with a fancy topping (ie, fish cooked in white wine with spices and cheese). If I have time (ie, such as not starving), I may make a beef or fish stew.
The catch with making a stew or having something like Moors & Christians is that I don't have it starting on Wednesday if I have busy weekend. Having lots of beans when you are going to be in costume or camping is not wise.
If I'm in a hurry, I may mix up one of those pasta side packages in a measuring cup in the microwave, with fish and cheese, and eat it from the cup.
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Meal Plan
