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Meal Planning, Simplified

meal planning simplified

I’m the mom who loves to eat but really, really, really dislikes pretty much all tasks leading up to the eating part.  You know… dreaded duties like searching for recipes, planning the meals, organizing the recipes, and making the grocery lists.

I am not kidding about this.  If I were single, I would make one crockpot of red beans and rice large enough to feed me for a week, and I would consume it for every. single. meal.

Mind you, I would do this NOT because I have an unusual affinity for red beans and rice, but because THAT is how much I loathe the searching, planning, organizing, and listing that surrounds food preparation.

But I am not single, no one in my family enjoys red beans and rice, and apparently I’m the only one who thinks it’s a good idea to make a huge pot of anything to eat for every meal for an entire week.

So for years – in an effort to serve my family well – I have set aside weekly time to pour over cookbooks, write out grocery lists, and sketch meals onto a calendar. And even though I know the Bible says that I should complain about NOTHING (see Philippians 2:14 if you don’t believe me), may I confess that every. single. week. I would grumble in my heart about having to plan meals?

(Foodie friends, don’t judge me. Seriously. Stop judging me right now! :))

But then… someone told me about this Web site called Plan to Eat — an online meal-planning service — that could help me in this area of weakness in my life.

And you guys… I canNOT even BEGIN to tell you how much I absolutely LOVE this Web site.

Remember how I despise the searching for, planning out, organizing together and writing down of all things related to eating at home?  Well, this Web site does just about all of that for me.

Seriously.

While I do still have to forage for recipes, the hunt is as simple as surfing the Web or flipping through Pinterest. When I find something I like, I click the handy Plan to Eat bookmark (that I have uploaded to my browser’s toolbar), and PRESTO… the recipe automatically uploads. And get this… it NOT ONLY uploads the recipe, but it ALSO categorizes it.

Bottom line: I search, I click what I like, and Plan to Eat uploads and organizes my selections.

But that’s not all.

After collecting a good number of recipes in my account, I tried out the site’s “Planner” feature.  It took me to a split screen where I simply dragged my recipes into different time slots (i.e. breakfast, lunch, dinner) on different days of the week.  Planning a weekly menu took me less than five minutes.  Planning a month could take less than ten!

But the best feature is the “Shopping List.”  Once I set my meals on a calendar, making a grocery list took me… wait for it…

ONE. SECOND.

It’s true.  One second. All I had to do was click the “Shopping List” button and TA-DA! – there was my grocery list… and it, too, was categorized (i.e. baking, dry goods, dairy, etc.).

There are all kinds of features available with the Plan to Eat service that I haven’t even tried yet.  For example, there is a “friends” feature where you can find friends and share recipes. There’s a mobile app where you can have access to your shopping list and recipes on your smartphone.

Does this kind of a service interest you at all? Yes?

Plan to Eat is only $4.95 per month or $39 for an entire year!! Find out all about Plan to Eat and sign up for your very own 30 day FREE trial membership by clicking—> HERE.

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GUESS WHAT?? Plan to Eat has offered to give away a one-year membership to one of our readers! Enter to win below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blessings,

Rhonda Owens

Disclosure: This post is a sponsored post. All opinions are my own. See full disclosure here.

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38 Comments

  1. i would like to win the Plan to Eat giveaway because I am just not good at meal planning. We have allergies, people who WON’T eat vegetables, and dairy issues, and budgeting issues. I can use help. thx

  2. I love that the recipes are there and it creates the shopping list. This sounds great as we too have allergy issues!

  3. I hate to cook, etc. I’d rather eat out every day of my life, but the money factor is the limiting issue. I have so many picky eaters that I doubt I could find a recipe that everyone would eat. (our menu is identical week to week with my husband cooking steak, cube steak, pork steak or pork chops, chicken, etc and then when I ‘cook’ I order pizza!)

  4. I recently started monthly meal planning for my family, this would make it so much more efficient!

  5. i print out a blank calendar each month and spend about 30 minutes planning out suppers for the month. i’d love this!!!!!!! what a great find! thanks!!!!!!!

  6. I love to cook…..too much! I spend entirely too much money on food. This would be a great way to plan and shop for what I need only.

  7. It would help my children more than me, a fun way for them to become more involved in learning how to cook.

  8. I have heard many good things about this from others and would love to try it out for our family!

  9. I have 9 children to feed. 3 meals a day 7 days a week! It’s hard to keep the meals new and fresh and not the same old thing all the time. I need this service!

  10. I do enjoy the cooking part but lately I have ignored my meal planning routine and I feel frustrated with making healthy meals for my family everyday.

  11. I sure do need help with meal planning. I am definitely going to try the free month. I would love to win this as our money is very limited.

  12. I really need this for my family of 7! Life is so busy and this would really help simplify things! TFS!!

  13. I thought I solved my problem using GMAIL and creating a meal planning calendar. But this looks awesome!!! Recipes, planning and the list…on my!! I so need this.

  14. I could really use this! I have a family of 7 and I haven’t been able to figure out a meal plan.

  15. I HATE the thought of cooking. I hate everything about it. We have been eating fast food at least three or four nights a week. Bad for me, bad for my husband and bad for my kids. Oh, and bad for the bank account. This would be amazing to have. At least it would take out part of what I hate about cooking dinner. =)

  16. This would so great! I really want my family to eat healthier and this would save us so much money! Thank you for the chance!!

  17. Every minute counts – and saving a few by signing up for this sounds great!!!

  18. we live in a country where red beans and rice IS the staple…and we’ve tried…but it lasts about two nights. meal planning is the bane of my existence most weeks. i don’t know how many times i have found myself at 5pm with hungry people and no plan…so i declare it “fend for yourself” night. yet, i SO want to teach my kids to eat healthy and plan well. this sounds like a great idea!

  19. This would make my life so much easier! I feel your pain…I loathe meal planning!

  20. I am terrible when it comes to deciding what to do for dinner. Plus, I have three kids with one on the way and suffer from hypothyroidism. Very hard to get the energy too. This would be a blessing!

  21. I would absolutely love a service like Plan To Eat because I, just like you, do NOT enjoy thinking of what to eat, figuring out what ingredients I need, shopping for the ingredients at the store, and wondering if my family will like it. It feels like such a burden. Plus, we’re adding a little girl to the family in May! I need this badly!

  22. I would love a service like this because I’m looking for ways to be more organized about my meal prep, come up with new ideas to make for meals, and be able to have the ingredients ahead of time so I’m not running to the store at the last minute when I finally DO decide what to make…this looks GREAT!! Thanks for sharing!

  23. Life is busy, isn’t it? I find the whole process of shopping, planning, cooking to take up a lot of time and I don’t think that I am being very efficient with my time.

  24. We have such a tight budget that meal planning is difficult because my kids are picky, and to have something like this that would help me just pick and go would be such a blessing!

  25. I am always looking for new ideas to help with meal planning. This looks like fun!

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