Meal prep planning - app, diary, other?

1fit_mamma

Hi all,

Going to start prepping for my working week, just wondering how you all plan for the week ahead? Any fancy app-users out there? If so which one do you use? Or you do you find a certain layout on paper works best? I know this sounds super pedantic, just want to get off to a good start and would love to hear what works for some. I'm a bit of an organisation geek so love this stuff!

TavistockToad

i have a menu written on scrap paper, pinned to the fridge with a magnet and a mental plan in my head of what workout to do each day to get 5 in per week...

kommodevaran

It's not pedantic - finding the right tools is super important. I'm using a spredsheet, and I fill in the foods I know/think I am going to eat as soon I have an idea about what I want/when I get home from the store.

janetay01

Excel spreadsheet with the meals for the week and formatted to spit out a shopping list for us as well - makes the whole experience so much easier and leaves us less open to impulse buys from shopping when hungry!

WinoGelato

I've looked around a bit at different programs, never found one I loved so I will follow this thread and see if there's anything new out there.

Years ago I downloaded an excel based program that took some time to set up, basically you entered all your standard meals into one tab, organized however you like (beef/chicken/fish, pizza, pasta, sandwiches, sides, vegetables, etc) and then on the front tab each day of the week had drop down selections to pull in what you had entered on the subsequent tab. It was fine but: 1. Took forever to get set up
2. Didn't include recipes so I always had to go back and dig those up

Pepperplate is about the best software I found for collecting recipes (either from websites or manually created) and then you can create a menu plan and shopping list from it. I found it about the same time as the excel version I mentioned above, as well as Pinterest, and I felt like I was keeping records and recipes in multiple places so I kind of gave up on that.

If you want a site that provides suggested meal plans, I think skinnytaste has weekly meals, but they will all be her recipes, not your own.

1fit_mamma

janetay01 wrote: »

Excel spreadsheet with the meals for the week and formatted to spit out a shopping list for us as well - makes the whole experience so much easier and leaves us less open to impulse buys from shopping when hungry!

Thanks guys! For some reason excel hadn't even crossed my mind, sounds like a winner. Do you plan out your meals on the sheet just for shopping, or do you do a Mon-Fri type thing with each meal, calories etc and then a shopping list seperate?

1fit_mamma

WinoGelato wrote: »

I've looked around a bit at different programs, never found one I loved so I will follow this thread and see if there's anything new out there.

Years ago I downloaded an excel based program that took some time to set up, basically you entered all your standard meals into one tab, organized however you like (beef/chicken/fish, pizza, pasta, sandwiches, sides, vegetables, etc) and then on the front tab each day of the week had drop down selections to pull in what you had entered on the subsequent tab. It was fine but: 1. Took forever to get set up
2. Didn't include recipes so I always had to go back and dig those up

Pepperplate is about the best software I found for collecting recipes (either from websites or manually created) and then you can create a menu plan and shopping list from it. I found it about the same time as the excel version I mentioned above, as well as Pinterest, and I felt like I was keeping records and recipes in multiple places so I kind of gave up on that.

If you want a site that provides suggested meal plans, I think skinnytaste has weekly meals, but they will all be her recipes, not your own.

Hmmm sounds like the spreadsheet can get super complex if you let it! I might try a simple version and see how it works, but I'm guessing it's harder than it seems. Hopefully some more suggestions will keep coming for us...