This afternoon I've been messing around with tastyplanner.
Theory is that you can find recipes, put them into a calendar to plan meals for the week. Then the program generates a shopping list for you. As an extra bonus for those with Iphones, you can access the list on your phone and check off items as you purchase them.
A problem or two with this - if you love your own recipes you have to take the time to enter them.
The weekly planner feature goes from Sunday to Sunday. I don't plan Sunday to Sunday, I plan Tuesday to Tuesday because Tuesday is when I do my grocery shopping, theoretically. (Shop for the forgotten bread on Wed, get Co-op food on Thurs, pick up the forgotten milk on Sat., emergency chocolate run on Monday, etc.) But I can always ignore the days of the week and just create a 7 day menu.
The benefits:
~I will have access to my shopping list and recipes at any time (as long as I've charged my phone). This will eliminate freak outs when I loose my list while in the store only to find it in the side pocket of my purse later.
~I don't plan meals as often as I should. This creates frustration around dinner time and usually higher food costs because we eat out more, buy more prepared food (which is also unhealthy), and shop frequently resulting in more impulse purchases.
~You can find friends on tastyplanner! Which means if you enter all your yummy recipes, then I can borrow them for my own menu planning! My tastyplanner name is jendooop.
~If I plan my meals I can better utilize the food co-op. Because I can't get everything at the co-op there is some planning needed. I grocery shop on Tues and pick up the co-op order on Thursday. This takes meal coordination.
I hope I'm not making this sound overly complicated. My point is that this meal planning online could be a huge benefit. Tell me about different meal planning sites you know about.
Right now I'm going to make vegetable lasagna, which you can find here (you might have to create an account).
I have never heard of this! Hmmmm
Could it generate a "forgotten" list? You know, things that I will most likely forget during my huge shopping trip?
Posted by: Amber | January 27, 2010 at 04:46 PM
I have tried online meal planning but it didn't work for me, I have too much stuff I would have to enter in. I don't know of any site that has the recipe for "Cowboy Delight", do you? But I do try to plan a week ahead, otherwise we end up eating scrambled eggs, pancakes, grilled cheese and hot dogs every week.
Posted by: readerMom | January 27, 2010 at 04:59 PM