How Do You Plan Your Menus?

abetterluke

Just curious what everyone else does. I've been using an excel spreadsheet I made to plan our weekly/bi-weekly menu for my family but wondering if anyone else out there has found any cool sites or apps that work better?

SezxyStef

I prelog here...why type it out then log it...

ForeverSunshine09

Yeah I just prelog on here as well.

kommodevaran

I have been looking for online menu planners for a long time, but haven't found one that suits my needs. I don't need a lot of recipes, but I do need five meal slots. This is my low-tech solution: I use a spreadsheet in Open Office Writer - just a table with meals and weekdays. Fruit, vegetables and nuts are important to me, so I'll highlight them in pink, green and brown to make them easy to spot. It's so much easier to move food around there than in MFP, so I'll usually play with the spreadsheet some meals and days ahead, and then enter into MFP just the day before or the same day. I will adjust to get closer to calorie and macro goals, or if something unexpected happens. I'm a visual person, to be able to see clearly what I've eaten and what I'm going to eat, gives me peace of mind, and this method is making the great tool that MFP is, an even greater tool.

It's really low-tech, but together with an equally low-tech pantry/fridge/freezer inventory Notepad list, it's the basis for updating the low-tech grocery shopping list on my cell phone too.

I think it's fun. I get to eat what I like, I just decide what I want to eat and make it fit.

abetterluke

I do something similar with excel except i don't do the macros and stuff. it's literally just a list of what I'm having each day (and a shopping list).

kommodevaran

I'm quite laidback around macros, but I do try to hit 70 grams of protein and fat per day. Using the food diary/meal planner combo, it's easy to see to it that I get enough. I don't want to overdo it either, saving money is important to me and protein food is the most expensive, so I can remove some before I eat, if I see that the amount will be much more than enough.

Planning meals, cooking just the right amount, flexible shopping, and keeping track of inventory also reduces waste to around 0%. I no longer have to throw out stuff that has gone bad. And because I never buy things I think I "should" eat - "healthy" stuff I don't like - I eat everything I buy. That feels good.