Reddit User Comments — Meal Planning & Grocery Apps
Extracted from Reddit, comments from the last year, accessed March 2026
I love cooking, but the part that is often draining, even if it doesn't take that long, is creating a "calendar" for the upcoming week with the food we will eat each day.
I like doing that so I don't have to wonder, twice a day, "what are we going to eat today?"
I also follow some guidelines for making those decisions so that I end up with a weekly plan that is somehow balanced, and that it doesn't repeat things too much from last week.
I've tried doing it on paper but it feels "there should be an app for this".
However, all the apps I find focus too much on the recipes, whereas I want one focus on "filling the weekly plan".
How do you do this?
Any apps that you use?
I absolutely love Paprika app. I use the calendar feature to plan my cooking schedule, and you could definitely plan out your daily meals. It's mainly a recipe organizer, so it saves all the recipes you download, plus can add my notes and ratings. One of the things I appreciate is no more frantic Google searching to try and remember which site had that recipe I liked or worse the site removing the recipe! I can easily scale up / down recipes, and check off ingredients while cooking so much less likely to forget, which is also really helpful. There's also a shopping list too. :)
This is my suggestion too, even though the OP doesn't like recipe focused apps, the Meals calendar can be used as OP is looking for with non-saved-recipe meals added as just text. I also use the Menu section to plan holiday meals or other repeated events so I don't have to remember year to year what worked. A set of weekly meal rotations could easily be set up there.
I use RecipeSage. It has a meal plan calendar. Mine is filled out for lunch preps all the way through the end of the year.
It looks like any other recipe app. I don't want to have to add full recipes to the app before I can meal plan. I know the stuff I cook by memory, or I look it up in the moment, or ask ChatGPT. I'm asking about an app focused on being able to plan the week without having to add the full recipes one by one.
I do love the app Plan to Eat. Annual subscription. Half off for Black Friday. You do have to put in some kind of recipes - but for Spaghetti, I just do the title and a photo. You can capture recipes from the internet, social media, or add them yourself. It will make a grocery list, you can plan repeating menus, and more.
Otherwise, my prior plan was to just add a meal calendar to my Google calendar and put the location of the recipe in the notes. Link if I had one, or cookbook name and page, etc. These can also repeat.
Saffie AI - it's like ChatGPT for meal planning and grocery shopping, but better because you can see a visual meal plan and it creates an organized grocery list you can check off or import to Instacart. It also remembers your preferences over time. DM me for a free month if you want to try it out! I built it because I spend 4 hours every Sunday meal planning for my family and now I spend like 10 mins.
I use SuperCook. Nice app. Some set up required involves making an inventory of the food items you have.
I use OH, a potato! I can easily add recipes I find online and search for new recipes based on what I have in the app. It’s super simple to create weekly plans and generate grocery lists. They constantly improve the app and have very fast support so I believe it’s worth the money. They have a website to explain how it works: https://ohapotato.app
I totally get this — I’ve had the same struggle. The recipes aren’t the hard part; it’s the actual planning that becomes mentally exhausting, especially when you want variety and balance without spending hours each week.
I’ve felt that gap too — like, there should be something that’s just a clean, visual calendar for meals, not another recipe database.
I’ve been exploring this space myself and tinkering with a tool that’s more focused on the planning side, since nothing I found really nailed it. Curious — if something helped you quickly “fill the week” without recipe overload, what would that look like for you?
I need to lose about 30 to 50 lbs for health reasons and was thinking about going back to calorie counting since that's what I used to do when I was still single and childless. Seems like meal planning/prepping is the best way to get back into it, but, honestly, I don't even know where to start since my wife does majority of the cooking for the family. I was wondering if there are any apps out there that you all use and can recommend. Thanks!
There is a great app called AnyList. If you see a recipe online you can share it to the app, you can link it to a day or meal and also download your weekly shopping list according to the meals you’ve saved.
I want to share the website to the app for free.
For ideas, MealPrepPro, plus finding recipes online. I take online recipes, scale them for my macro and portion needs, and maybe replace ingredients like 2% milk instead of whole, etc. For tracking, Cronometer.
I’ve been using eMeals for years and love it. I don’t track calories but use it more for helping to stay on track with healthy cooking.
We were in a similar spot. Family dinners were flexible, my wife did most of the cooking, and trying to change that felt like too much.
What worked for us was not touching dinner at all. We focused on controlling breakfasts, lunches, and portions at dinner. A few repeat “default” meals for me removed the daily decision-making without adding work for her.
It felt supportive instead of disruptive, and consistency mattered way more than being perfect.
I’ve tried a few, and what helped most wasn’t a hardcore calorie app so much as something that reduced decision fatigue. Apps that let you save recipes, plan loosely, and generate a grocery list made it way easier to stay consistent without micromanaging every bite.
Since your wife does most of the cooking, I’d focus on tracking your portions or meals instead of trying to overhaul the whole family system. Even just planning your breakfasts and lunches and letting dinner be flexible can make a big difference. Calorie counting works best when it feels like support, not another full time job, so starting small is totally valid here.
For meal planning, having a place to save recipes, build weekly plans, and generate shopping lists really removes the overwhelm especially when you’re trying to get back into calorie awareness. Lots of people pair a calorie tracker (like MyFitnessPal or MacroFactor) with a recipe planner so they’re not guessing macros for every meal.
I use a recipe/meal planner called CookBook to save my go-to meals, tag them with calories/macros, and plan out dinners for the week, then I just log what I eat in my tracker. It’s made meal planning feel way more manageable and less like guesswork.
I tried a few apps over the years, but what stuck for me was keeping it simple instead of relying on tech. I plan around a handful of repeat breakfasts and lunches that I can portion easily, then just eat whatever the family dinner is in a reasonable serving. Prepping basics ahead of time like cooked protein, rice, and chopped veggies made calorie counting way less mental work. If your wife does most of the cooking, it might help to weigh or portion your plate rather than trying to change the whole meal. Starting small and consistent mattered more for me than finding the perfect system.
I’ve been trying to get my eating habits together because I’m either ordering takeout way too much or just winging it and eating random stuff that doesn’t feel great. I keep seeing ads for meal planning apps that claim to organize everything for you, but part of me feels like it’s just one more app to deal with. Do they actually help you stick to a plan or is it just good marketing? Especially curious if it makes grocery shopping easier because half the time I end up buying stuff I don’t even use.
Same here, tried like 3 different ones and always went back to just using notes app on my phone 😂 The fancy features are cool but when you're actually at the store you just want a simple list that loads fast. Plus most of those apps want you to pick from their recipes instead of just letting you plan what you actually want to eat.
They work if you’re actually using them. You just gotta be dedicated. What I did was get macrofactor and just be honest about everything youre eating and doing. Make sure you log every thing. I paid for it a year and the price went up I couldn’t afford it but it was very helpful. They have even more features now. I’m sure more apps are out there but that’s the one I used. I also had a friend around the same weight do a weight challenge we both lost 20 lbs in a month with moderate exercise. It changed my eating habits and I save more money now from just batch cooking lunch and dinner. I’ll make the protein and veggies and cook the rice or pasta in small batches cause I get bored of food sometimes so I’ll be able to use the base protein and veggies and remix the meals. Good luck. I’m here to answer any questions you got :)
Also If you’re seeing yourself buying things and not using them maybe make two grocery trips a week and make the budget smaller you’ll see yourself getting less of the “oh this expensive unique item sounds good maybe I’ll use this this week in a new recipe” and the. You dont use it or it goes bad. in my opinion if you go in for sales just get the sales and essentials. Personally I get a few things in bulk for the pantry and get my protein one one trip and small amount of veggies on Sunday and go for another grocery trip on Wednesday or Thursday for fresh veggies and whatever is on sale (ads usually reset Wednesday) I plan whatever I can get those days and whatever I miss I get on Sunday. Idk idk just my new routine
I mean...if part of you feels it's "one more thing to deal with", then you're not going to find them helpful. Apps are only helpful if you want them to be and if you take the time to use them and utilise their functionality, you know what I mean? Installing something and using it once and then not really bothering means it's not been useful OR utilised.
I think what you are probably better off asking yourself is "why do I keep falling back into these habits?", "what habits do I want to build?"and "what do I need to know to build them?". For example, you note that you're winging it a lot. I think you need to ask yourself why that's happening, and then figure out what small things you can implement to prevent that. For me, for example, I ended up winging it for a long time because I would not want to start meal prepping until Sunday afternoon, but by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around, I'd be all "ugh, but I want to play video games!" and wouldn't do it. So, I did this list thing, and found that I wrote "Don't want to prep on Sunday afternoon" What can I do to prevent that feeling? Meal prep another time. Solved. Repet for next blocker/obstacle.
Does that make sense?
...On the other hand, you know. Meal prep apps are great if you want someone else / something else to tell you what to do and when and are willing to stick with it and KNOW that you won't just let it just languish on your phone, I guess.
I tried a few and honestly the only thing that stuck was keeping a simple list of 8 to 10 meals I like to prep and rotating them each week because it makes grocery shopping way more predictable.
Honestly, I just ChatGPT and give it lots of directions. I uploaded a PDF copy of The Flavor Bible and I can ask it to generate meal ideas (not entire recipes) where the flavors all make sense. I also tell it all the ingredients I want to use up and update it as I use stuff. I've given it a lot of other parameters, like my family's dietary restrictions and preferences, the desire to prioritize seasonal produce based on my location, and the types of meals we eat. I sometimes have to correct it, but it's been honestly very useful in reducing food waste while still meeting my nutritional goals.
I do this too, but I just ask google ai. I tell it my health issues and say what kinds of meals I want, like low carb, Mediterranean and it generates a plan which I can tweak. It also gives me recipes and a shopping list if I ask. I have a whole conversation tweaking things and it’s like my best friend…lol
Definitely feels like it depends on the person. For my family, it helps, but also - I created an app to suit exactly the needs of a household meal planning app by hyper focusing into just planning, recipes, and grocery lists with collaboration in mind - vs all the other stuff. I then layered on some ability for others to contribute (family members) and also kids. For us, meal planning is a bit more of a family undertaking, and the app I built is helping with that.
I would say already if you are saying "just another thing to manage", I agree with the other poster that then it's probably not for you. Meal planning apps needs to benefit you to outweigh the cost of it, whether it's a monetary cost or a mental cost.
There’s definitely way too much to choose from. And of course everyone is going to say their app is the best
I think it’s hard because we’re all different. I personally am really really bad at planning. And I have ADHD on top of that
My way around it years ago was just eating the same thing all the time. It was super effective but very much not sustainable. My latest weight loss (~30 lbs) was fueled by a paid meal delivery service. It worked really well but was just expensive
I finally decided to make my own app that best suited me. I’m still testing it with some friends, but it works for me. And of course I’m biased but I think it would be really useful for others as well
At the end of the day just trying an app or website is really all you can do. You’re the only one that can make that decision for yourself
In my experience I haven’t found an app that inclusively does what I need it to for meal prep.
I tried one for a couple weeks and honestly the planning part was nice, but I kept forgetting to actually open the app when it mattered. So it became another thing on my phone I ignored.
What ended up working better for me was just writing 3 or 4 dinners for the week on a note and building a simple grocery list from that. Way less organized than an app, but I actually stick to it. Curious if anyone here has found an app that doesn’t feel like extra homework.
I feel like it's just one more thing. Then again, I've been cooking for over 40 years and know what I want and what I like. I decide what we're going to have for the week with my husband's input, and I do my shopping list according to the ingredients I know I need to make what I'm going to cook. I will say one challenging thing, as I just started meal prepping last month, is knowing how much food to buy to make 10 servings of one thing. Google AI sometimes helps with that, but it's not always accurate.
Honestly the grocery list part is where apps earn their keep, if they do it right. The planning part you can do on a napkin. But having something that takes your planned meals and spits out one combined list sorted by aisle? That saves real time.
The thing most people get wrong is trying to plan 7 dinners from scratch every week. Start with 3-4 that share ingredients. Chicken thighs Monday in a stir fry, shred the leftover chicken Tuesday for tacos. Same protein, two completely different meals, one grocery run.
The apps I've gotten the most out of let me save my own recipes and build from those, not some database of 10,000 recipes I'll never make. The ones that try to do everything (calorie tracking, macros, shopping, social features) usually do none of it well.
Biggest thing that helped me stop buying random stuff was just shopping from a list and not going hungry. Sounds obvious but it cut my waste in half.
I used to feel the same way, but meal planning apps actually helped me a lot with the grocery side of things because once you plan a few meals the app can automatically generate a shopping list from the ingredients, which makes it way easier to avoid buying random stuff you never use. If you prefer something simple, a recipe manager app like CookBook works well since you can save recipes from anywhere and then build your weekly plan and grocery list from them so everything stays in one place instead of bouncing between apps.
I have a spreadsheet that I’ve used for years, with drop down lists of meals that we eat regularly (Sunday is a roast, Monday is soup, Tuesday is leftovers etc). The lists get updated every so often. The longest meal plan (this is only for dinners) that I’ve done is 3+ months, people ask how you know what you’re going to want to eat that far in advance, but it’s not rigidly set in stone, I can change it if I want. But not having to think about it for the next 3 months is quite nice.
I’ve tried using chat gpt to plan but wasn’t keen on the foods they gave me, there weren’t the different veggie/meaty options, I had to get quite specific which made more work, though was good to play with for a while.
I’ve recently acquired an app, it’s taken a bit of work to populate it with the different meals we eat, but I’ve got it on both my tablet that I use at home and my phone, so can check what’s for dinner when I’m out rather than relying on a printed page attached to the fridge. The advantage of the app is that once the meals are added I can add a link to the recipe online and also a list of the ingredients, it can generate a shopping list for me (which I then add to my shopping list app for going round the shop). I started using it towards the end of January and it’s going well. I don’t have to do all 3 months at a time (not that I had to with the spreadsheet, but it’s easier to dip in and out on the tablet), I can add a few days at a time, then just need to keep a week or two ahead, I’m currently up to 23rd March, but we’re also having roast chicken on Sunday 29th. If I find a new recipe I can create the meal, add it to a date and then it will appear at some point in the future, maybe I’ll rediscover all the potential meals I’ve found in the past and just forgotten about.
Ok so I’ve tried a few meal planning apps and they all lowkey feel like they’re just adding to my list of things to do instead of making life easier. Like yeah, they give you recipes, but then I’m stuck hunting down random ingredients or adjusting the whole thing because it doesn’t fit my diet. I’m busy and just want something that handles the hard stuff, like gives me meals I’ll actually eat and doesn’t leave me with a fridge full of leftovers I don’t know what to do with. Has anyone found anything that actually works? Or is meal planning just always annoying?
Most apps add work so I just keep a short list of like ten easy meals I actually eat and rotate them then add one new thing now and then way less mental load
I recommend Zoe Barrie's Restaurant Dropout.
She gives you seasonal recipes and grocery lists with some alternatives, and then walks you through how to prep everything like a chef and in what order, and how to store everything as well.
The basic formula is prepping on the weekend, and then assembling foods quickly during the week.
If you truly want to be lazy and have disposable income, you should look into something like factor or another fridge prep delivery service.
I love Anylist. It's the only subscription I don't bat an eye at paying every year. It doesn't come preloaded with recipes but it's easy to add your own or import from other sites by sharing from a website or acting like you're going to print it out. It ignores all the extra text around the recipes and just imports the ingredients and steps. Once you have your collection started it has a built in calendar you can add them to.
You can add ingredients from recipes to shopping lists and it even supports online shopping for some stores. For example I can create a list, tap on "order pick up or delivery" and it will help me search the app for my items and add it to my cart. It also has built in recipe scaling if needed.
Most meal planning apps fail because they try to do too much. They want to be your recipe book, grocery list, nutrition tracker, and social network all at once. You end up spending more time in the app than you save in the kitchen.
The simplest system that works for most people: a Google Sheet or Notion table with 3 columns -- Day, Lunch, Dinner. Plan 5 days, leave 2 for leftovers or eating out. Generate a grocery list from the plan. Done.
If you want an actual app:
Honestly, the best meal planning tool is a rotation of 10-15 meals you already know how to cook. You do not need infinite variety -- you need consistent execution.
Supercook is, by far, my favorite app I use for meals without ending up with an obscure expensive grocery list or a ton of waste. It took about 15 minutes to set up what pantry/fridge items I have and then you can have it pull recipes based solely off what you have on hand. You can have it only be missing one ingredient, require a certain ingredient be in it (handy for trying to use up something), pull by dietary restrictions or preferences, time it takes to make, etc.
I feel this. I tried a couple apps and ended up spending more time tweaking recipes than if I had just written “chicken, rice, veg” on a sticky note and called it a day.
What’s worked better for me is picking 2 or 3 base meals I already know I’ll eat, then just rotating sauces or sides. Like same protein, different flavor profile. It keeps groceries simple and I’m not stuck with one random ingredient I’ll never use again.
Also I plan for leftovers on purpose now. If I don’t know how I’ll repurpose something, I just make less. Meal planning got way less annoying when I stopped trying to optimize it and just aimed for “good enough for this week.”
I felt the same way about apps I tried for years. They give you lots of new ideas, but no way to make a real plan with my go-to favorites too. A satisfying meal plan to me needs old and new recipes. I think it's about having variety and that can come from stuff you just haven't had in awhile too instead of something totally new to you. I solely use DinnerBestie now for meal planning and grocery shopping and I can even schedule when meals need to start right on my google calendar with the app. It lets you store your own go-to meals and brings back old favorites to schedule when they haven't been in the rotation for a while. The real game changer for me is the automated grocery integration. You just make your plan, select what you’re missing, and send the list straight to Kroger for pickup or delivery all in the app.
Crouton, Pestle, Copy Me That, Paprika 3: Each has pros and cons. Paprika has great features (e.g., pantry, syncing with calendar) but feels less modern. Crouton has an excellent UI and live feed to Reminders but lacks a pantry feature.
Yummly. Oh wait, apps suck since they can go away at any moment.
Some of us got pretty badly burned by Yummly, it did not make it very possible to "export" the recipes we had stored there. That said, after the disaster I ended up going to Paprika to store recipes, and also using SuperCook for recipe ideas. Have not been at Paprika long enough to test grocery lists, meal planning, etc. but it was the most frequently recommended and most positively reviewed option.
I've used Paprika for years and like it.
I use Mealime for meal planning and getting a grocery list (and love it!)...but it does not have a pantry feature.
I like AnyList. You can have multiple lists and add ingredients directly from recipes to your shopping list and it will make note of what recipe the item is for within the shopping list. It has meal planning as well. Check it out!
The app i like has a auto generated meal plan (you can start from scratch, or make changes to an auto generated one) It is subscription based, but I’m in love with Deglaze. It allows you to import recipes from the web and store them all on your phone. You can do meal planning on it and easily send ingredients to your shopping list. Plus the cooking mode has built in timers so you can start a timer for the correct
time with one touch if your hands are dirty. I think it’s the most worthwhile subscription I have. There’s also a free version, but you can only upload one recipe a week with it.
I use Recipe Keeper, recipes, meal planning, and grocery lists. I was able to digitize all the recipes I had in 13 different cook books and many recipe cards. Worth it!
I like Recipe Keeper too.
I'm using CookBook app, it automatically turns my weekly meals into a smart shopping list sorted by aisle, which makes the whole store run way smoother and helps me stick to my budget.
I use Larda for mine - you can import recipes, use the meal planner and the shopping list is ordered by aisle which is super handy.
HELP - I'm after a user friendly/sleek app/site that is essentially a weekly visual planner for food, where I can drop in/plan out my daily foods/recipes, which includes calorie and macro amounts, it can store recipes, provides shopping list. It's not necessarily tailored around food/weight loss, more so from a planning perspective. Does this even exist? Should I develop this? I'm so over writing weekly meal plan on paper, trying to add up calories on different apps, store recipes everywhere. I feel the mental load of planning food for a busy family could be lessoned with this idea…
I’m using OH, a potato! and I love it. It gives me recipe ideas based on what I have, I can also import my own recipes (from social media, screenshots, text, cookbooks) and create a weekly meal plan in seconds. It also generates a grocery list. One bonus: I can invite my husband to my household so we do the planning, groceries & cooking together and share the mental load. They also have a tamagotchi system which helps me stick to weekly meal planning lol
Sorted sidekick has recipes with a shopping list for a week that you use the ingredients throughout to save on waste. See Mindy Mom on YouTube has some similar things as well.
I totally relate to what you’re describing — the mental load of planning meals, juggling recipes, shopping lists, and nutrition info across different tools is exhausting.
Out of curiosity, have you found anything that gets close to solving this for you? Or are you still manually piecing things together?
I’ve been exploring this problem space myself because I’ve felt similar pain — especially trying to stay consistent while juggling work, health goals, and limited time. Would love to hear what features would really make your life easier.
I use ReciMe and have been liking it. There’s a 14 day free trial but I did end up paying for it as it was the best app I came across for a visual meal planner and recipe manager type thing. It also has a shopping list tab but I use a different app so my partner can see/update the list in real time (app is called Bring!).
You can auto import recipes from URLs or videos (it doesn’t always import right from videos), and you can add nutritional info to the recipe. It has a feature to estimate the nutritional info but I wouldn’t trust it yet, just add it manually. It also lets you convert between metric and imperial, add serving sizes so you can increase/decrease if needed and it updates the ingredient amounts needed.
Only thing I will say is when using the planner part where you can assign a recipe to breakfast/lunch/dinner/snack each day of the week, i wish there was another option/tag/category for like ‘prep’, as I’m often prepping a meal that doesn’t overlap with the meals I’ll actually eat that day.
Try Otto Chef
You can generate a weeks worth of meal including breakfast lunch dinner and snack. You can swap out, set your preferences, etc.. then it autogenerates a shopping list and batch prep instructions. It also has instacart integration so you can order your groceries with a couple clicks.
Saffie AI - it's like if ChatGPT and HelloFresh had a baby.
Visual weekly planner, smart shopping list, one-click order from instacart.
I love Paprika to store recipes, when I’m on a recipe I click the forward button and the paprika come as an option to send it to. You can make notes, grocery list, and add/edit the recipe. I’ve used it for years and I love it. No help with meal Planning aspect… but I love the app to store recipes. It also remembers the website so you can go back to it or read the recipe in the apps format.
MealTwine is a good meal planner app that allows you to add recipes (just take an image of a recipe or add a URL and it can extract all information necessary from that), plan it, make diet plans that you can reuse and even allows you to get the shopping list for the week if you want to.
But it won't be able to track any calorie and macro amounts, it's mainly focused on collect your favourite meals, the planning, and making shopping easier.
I use PrepWize, I like it so far. You still get a lot of value without the subscription
I need a app that will allow me to just plug in meals, get the macros they have. That's it. All the apps I've tried try to make a diet for me, and are just a hustle of menus to deal with. What I want is just adding ingridents to meal, name the meal, select what meals on what day, and get the macros for them. What app can do this? With no clutter and bloat.
MacroFactor. You can easily import a recipe with a url or pasting all ingredients in the describe button. Calories and macros all there.
Macrodiery
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I second this. I use it primarily as a recipe book.
I've been looking for a tool to help plan our weekly meals. My main challenges are finding recipes my toddler likes, ensuring nutritional balance, and automatically creating a grocery list.
I've seen a bunch of free apps, but they seem pretty generic. I've also seen some paid ones. For those who use one, what features make a paid subscription worth it for you? Or are the free ones good enough? I'd be willing to pay a few bucks a month if it genuinely saved me time and stress. What are your thoughts?
I’ve tried a lot and they all kinda suck. I do use Paprika for keeping track of recipes. It has the cleanest layout. If you find a recipe you like you can automatically upload it to the app and it gets rid of all the stupid stories and nonsense on the webpage and just saves the exact recipe. You can make your own tags to organize the recipes like kid friendly, lunch, breakfast, etc.. Can automatically half or double recipes. You can use it to plan your week and it will make your grocery list for you, but I just do this myself.
I’ve been using CopyMeThat and really like it. The free version is lovely — it copies recipes from the net and you can also add your own. You can easily schedule a recipe for a specific night or add it to your queue and then make a shopping list from recipes. For a one time fee of $25 you can have the premium, which also lets you set a master shopping list (I paid the premium fee because the app as a whole is worth $25 for me, but I don’t actually use any of the premium features)
I use the Plan to Eat app. You import recipes, put them in the calendar, and the app generates a shopping list. It does take some initial legwork, and it is not a free app, but it has been so worth it for me. You can adjust recipe quantities, make a bunch of tags, rank recipes, and you can even make meal plan templates. It's compatible on iOS and Android and web and you can login on multiple devices. Now that I have been using the app for a few years, I can typically scroll thru it and make my 2 week meal plan in 20 minutes or less. I do it while I'm nap trapped.
I typically shop twice a month, for 7-10 dinners at a time, in the morning before my husband goes to work (we shop as a family, grocery stores are DEAD in the mornings). The last couple meals we will either use frozen veg or do a quick grocery run for more. Or use heartier veg, like carrots and cabbage, that can survive being in the fridge for 10 days.
Traditional themed nights didn't work for me, so I do it by protein source: chicken, pork, chickpeas, lentils, black beans, tofu, cheese, wildcard.
We do homemade pizza Sunday so we have a top tier leftover for lunch on Monday.
We keep a pretty stocked pantry and freezer, and have some standard pantry meals we can usually make when we're running low (nachos with beans, frozen corn, and frozen bell peppers; cheese pizza; mac and cheese; pasta with red sauce; tofu stir fry).
I did a free trial of Plan to Eat and liked it, but then got a little overwhelmed by all the setup it was going to take and didn't take the plunge of subscribing. Maybe worth revisiting. Do you know if Plan to Eat allows multiple users on one account? Like, could my partner and I both use/add to the same recipes, shopping lists, etc?
PlanToEat. I've been using it for at least 10 years. Great interface, easy to paste a recipe and photo from a website with just a link, also pretty easy to input your own recipes. Not to mention meal planning.
Thanks! It looks like it can send your grocery list to stores for delivery. Is that correct?
Try CookBook app, You can import recipes from websites, social media, and even photos of handwritten recipes. Plus, it links up with Instacart so you can order groceries straight from the app.
been using pantryai for a few weeks now, does what you need super well. plus they also have fridge and pantry scanning, which works surprisingly well (normally not a fan of ai but this the type of use case that i can support haha)
Idk which country you’re in but in the UK there’s an amazing app called cherrypick which links to the supermarket so you pick meals & the ingredients get added to your online shopping list. Then you get it delivered. Honestly it’s saved me so much time. Can’t recommend it enough.
We probably eat later than many parents would prefer but this is what works for us. First and foremost, my husband and I are a team and believe in divide and conquer. Either Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning my husband and I plan out the menu for the week based on what we have going on during the week and who will cook on which night. For example, my husband works from home on Wednesdays so he is in charge of dinner on Wednesdays. After the menu is done, we put grocery items on an app (Cozi) based on what we don't already have in the house. He does the grocery shopping while I clean house or whatever. My husband gets what we need for the week. He may buy extra meat on sale while grocery shopping and that will be what we use for meals the next week or so. My kid is one of those annoying picky eaters and we're tired so we let him basically eat chicken nuggets, french fries, and fruit every night (pick and choose your battles...and give a multi vitamin). Our meals typically create 4 servings, which is dinner that night and our lunch the next day. This means we minimally have leftovers/waste after the next day. My husband and I also perimeter shop for the most part - we mostly eat produce, protein, and dairy and keep shopping from the middle aisles included grains, rice, and pastas to a minimum.
The app we use, Cozi, is a family calendar and for lists - grocery, house needs, etc. There is a free version and premium version but we get by on the free one.
Every now and then, the week takes a turn and we sometimes just shift to the other parent possibly cooking on a night they weren't originally planning on cooking but that is rare because we typically know what the week will look like on Sunday. We should do more meal prep on weekends but we don't. We just choose meals that take an hour or less from start to finish. One of us should be starting to cook between 6 and 6:30p at the latest. Often, on nights he grills something, I will cook the 2 vegetables inside. I would say we order "car pizza" (Papa John's) once every 2-3 months and if we do take out or eat out, it is weekends only.
as a parent who always ends up with 2 things I didn’t need + forgetting one thing I did, I found something that helps a lot: there’s an app called Jow that lets you build your meals for the week and then creates a shopping list based on what you need.
it’s been a game-changer for reducing impulse buys and sticking somewhat closer to my grocery budget (even if I slip up sometimes 😂).
The best thing I did for myself is compiling all the recipes I have into an app that organizes them. I browse the app (there's photos) and pick what sounds good this week OR I go through the app in mind with "well I have x,y, and z at home, what can I make with minimal other groceries?" This sounds horribly like an ad and I SWEAR to you it's not, I'm just a visual person and organizing all of this made it easier for me to pick and choose weekly with minimal brain drain.
I’m really curious about people’s experiences with pantry/meal-planning apps for cooking. I've tried a number of these myself: Paprika, Recime, Cooklist, KitchenPal, but always ended up abandoning it after less than a month, I’m really curious to hear people who still use them but also others that have stopped using:
Would love to hear any suggestions on other apps to try as well!
I use COPY ME THAT. It has good recipe collection features including tagging and links back to the original recipe. It also has a decent meal planner and shoppping list and found they took a little time getting use to but work well. It is a web app, android app (not sure about Apple stuff) and has a chrome extension.I tried keeping my own in spreadsheets, docs and even OneNote but the online web tool that is COPY ME THAT was much easier and had better features than I could automate in other tools.I have no association with COPY ME THAT other than being a fairly happy user.
I want an app that:
So far I have not been satisfied by any app I have tried:* Supercook's pantry management is pretty cool, but it does not allow me to save my own curated recipes, it just lists from the already parsed websites (and there are many many uninteresting recipes in Supercook). I don't want an app suggesting me thousands of uncurated recipes.* Paprika does not list meet requirements 3 and 4* Samsung Food (former Whisk) has an awful UX and the shopping list does not take into account my pantry.* KitchenPal also has an awful UX and adding my curated recipes is not straightforward (I need to sort of submit it to the devs of the app so they can add it to my saved recipes)I really really would appreciate advice on some app that would be nice for me.P.S.: I wanted to try Cooklist but for some reason it's not available for me on Playstore.
I feel your pain. I'm using both Supercook and Paprika, and it's kind of awkward, but when Yummly evaporated I spent a whooole lot of time exploring options and those two seem to be about the best out there right now. I know from comments here that a number of people are working away at trying to "build the better mousetrap", but it doesn't seem to have materialized yet. And, in fact, your requirement list is asking a whole lot of a functional program/app.
I don't think there's an app that does all this today but I've always thought these pantry style features could be really cool. The only thing is it may require quite a bit of effort to manage and keep up to date. Another idea to add to this list is the ability to take a picture of a receipt and have it automatically add all the ingredients to your pantry with the right amounts ideally
Okay got 2 different programs depending on your operating system.
First one is Now Your Cooking. Allows for importing recipes, has nutrition tables for recipes, can categorize recipes to customized categories, helps with shopping lists anyways here is the link for it. Now Your Cooking. This is a windows based software.
Next is "Copy Me That" works on Android and Apple OS. Here is the link for it Copy Me That. Able to have custom categories, imports easily from most apps or urls. Has a great meal planning and grocery list. The basic app is free but is worth going premium. Hope one of these helps.
Copy Me That doesn't have a pantry resource unfortunately.
Oh, and the ability to automate adding items to a local grocery store car would be awesome
I love Paprika but after a certain amount of recipes it got so unwieldy and hard to meal plan. I switched to EatStash because it automatically tagged them for filtering, supported reel import, and was focused on meal planning. I tried ReciMe but didn't find it nearly as organized and intuitive
I use Paprika 3 for mine. You can scale recipes. You can also download a recipe from a website to save it without the life story and ads. It allows you to assign multiple categories to a recipe, like Soup, Main-Course, and Slow-Cooker. You define the categories. It also lets you meal plan and create a shopping list.
paprika! I love it so much I bought it on iPhone, Mac, and Windows since I use all 3 🤪 It syncs fantastically between them as well.
+1 for Paprika. I feel so much more organized with everything collected there.
I started with a spreadsheet, but moved to Recime app, as the other recipe keeper apps are too clunky and ugly for my tastes. I do also intend to print PDF versions for binders at a later date.
Paprika App. For iOS and desktop too. Super affordable, non-subscription, syncs to the cloud. Imports from web sites, categorizes, scales up/down, creates grocery lists, tracks pantry items, plan meals.
It doesn’t shop or cook the food for you but that’s kind of it.
Paprika - I only use it for saving recipes, but I went and messed with the meal planning and grocery, and you can add your recipes to the calendar, and then have the ingredients added to the grocery list. I don't know if this feature is available with the free version because I liked the app so much, I bought it even though I probably didn't need to, so you may want to check which version you'd need.
EatStash saves recipes and does everything that Paprika does, but it has much better meal planning features
Umami. It is better designed than Paprika and aside from being able to import recipes from a URL, you're able to import recipes from social media (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok) and scan printed or handwritten recipes. 30 day free trial. Then you can buy it for a one-time charge of $59.99. I tried several other options (Plan to Eat, ReciMe, Cookbook, Recipe Keeper). Most were subscription based. I still use Paprika though. It's sufficient enough for me
Many apps are old and outdated these days IMO. I've tried a lot of them but my fave app is CookBook. Does all your social importing, has an AI recipe scanner, AI features, nutrition calc and all the other standard meal planner, groceries features. Highly recommend it, think I use it every day!!
Super Cook lets you enter the ingredients you have and gives you ideas pulling from recipe links all over the internet with recipes you can make with those. You can also filter by meal type, cuisine, diet. https://www.supercook.com/#/desktop You have to do your own vetting on the quality of the linked sources.
I plan week by week. I use an app to help me plan it out so I can see it in a calendar view.This also helps me create my shopping list and helps prevent from over buying or straying from the needs list and getting junk food lol.I try to prep multiple meals in one day even though we are eating a different meal each night. So I’ll prepare 2 meats and 2 veggies in one night, which usually serves us for about 2-3 meals. And then repeat. That way I am not cooking more than 3 times a week, but we have a fresh new meal or new combo daily. My husband is great with leftovers and has this for lunches as well.