Meal Planning & Shopping Made Easy with Plan to Eat
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Homeschool tip: Feed your family.
I’m all about building in our family culture and homeschooling is a big piece of that for us.
But, planning for and preparing food is a big deal.
Especially for a homeschooling family where chances are almost everyone is home for three meals a day.
Add in food allergies and sensitivities that mean no prepared foods and it’s almost a full time job.
I happened upon Plan to Eat seven years ago and I can’t imagine my job of meal planning and grocery shopping without it now. I shopped for our Thanksgiving meal last week while using my Plan to Eat app list- checking things off and consulting recipes as I went.
My favorite meal planning subscription service is on sale starting Black Friday through Cyber Monday for half off!
You can’t beat the $19.50 for the year that it will cost to have your meal planning time made easy!
Plan to Eat took the part of meal planning that I’m the worst at and fixed it.
My Favorite Features of Plan to Eat
- Recipes are easy to input into the website either by hand or by a browser add on which “grabs” recipes from sites like The Food Network and other magazine sites, etc.
- Allows me to drag and drop my recipe choices into the calendar– for three meals a day and a snack
- Auto-populates a grocery list as I make my food choices for the week (or for however long I’m planning). This feature alone is worth the full price cost in my world! I can plan meals, but getting that meal list translated into an accurate grocery list is another story.
- Use the pantry feature to keep track of things you have on hand and you can check items on your pantry list and send them to the grocery list. This is a wonderful thing if you just want to pick up a few things at the store without a full on plan
- Mobile view is exquisite and once I’ve done the planning on my pc, I head out the door and my phone has my list and it’s a sweet deal with a large, clean list and the ability to click away the item after it’s in the cart. Woot! It even cheers for me when I’m done.
- Cookbook view let’s me see a recipe in the kitchen on two clean screen views with a large font. Truly beautiful.
- No ads! I love the price and I love even more the no ad site.
- Blog– You’ll receive recipes and ideas for managing meals
- Updates– the folks at Plan to Eat are always adding new features and bonuses. I use it often enough to notice pretty quickly.
Using the Plan to Eat App
Even though the mobile view of the shopping list is beautiful,
the best news is that Plan to Eat now has an app.
And it’s flawless.
The shopping list populates as you plan meals
and shows up on your mobile device!
You can edit the list on the go
and if you accidentally strike through and item,
you can bring it back by touching the item again.
The app makes it easy to plan your meals on your mobile device- like a phone or a tablet.
Plus, you can reference the plan for the week.
The app also allows you to import recipes
and plan meals for the week.
This is an amazing advantage!
Now you can use all the features of the website
on a mobile device
wherever you are!
Plan to Eat has always been powerful enough for me to be OK without the app,
but the app takes Plan to Eat next level.
Benefits of Using Plan to Eat
I’m hooked on Plan to Eat- I wouldn’t dream of letting my subscription run out! How has Plan to Eat been a positive thing in our home?
- Once I choose a recipe, I’m not entirely responsible for making sure all the ingredients end up on my list! The list auto-populates when I drop recipes into the calendar.
- I can easily reference the meals & their recipes I said I’d make for the week without it being on the wall in my kitchen.
- Plan to Eat moves seamlessly between my devices so I can work on it where ever I am- on my laptop, on my tablet, or on my phone.
- I never have to worry about forgetting my list– because it’s always on my phone (don’t worry. If you don’t have a smart phone, you can still print your list- the one you didn’t make alone!)
- It’s been fun to share recipes with other friends on Plan to Eat. If someone mentions a recipe, we can ask, “Is it on Plan to Eat?”
- Adding new recipes only takes a few minutes. So, I haven’t lost the habit of using the service.
- My recipes are never far. They are consolidated into Plan to Eat and I can use my tablet in the kitchen with cooking view.
Grab this deal while you can.
Hint: I purchased my first subscription on Black Friday eight years ago, so I always get to buy for half price at renewal time.
However, I would purchase this membership at full price. It’s been a time saver for me over and over.
So, what am I the worst at?
Making sure I have all the ingredients for the meals I’ve planned. The auto populate takes some of that responsibility out of my hands.
A total win.
Happy Holiday Shopping & Baking!
