Meal Planning - any good free sites?

ekbrwz

I'm looking for recommendations of FREE websites that do meal planning for like a week at a time. Ideally I'd like something that incorporates leftovers or a whole package of whatever you buy, to reduce waste. And uses in-season produce. Maybe I want too much, I don't know.

I struggle with coming up with ideas of healthy things to eat, then I'm always scrambling at mealtime to put something together. Often it means I go over on calories.

I'd like to start planning a week of meals at a time.

kommodevaran

I don't think a free service can take all these things into consideration at once: 1) your understanding of healthy, 2) your work, family and social schedule, 3) your taste preferences, including need for variety, and allergens or other foods that you can't eat for whatever reason, 4) your cooking skills, storage and cooking facilities, 5) what's on sale/in season where you live, 6) package sizes for each food item available in your area, 7) perishability of each possible food item, 8) alternatives if something is unavailable.

This is service you'll have to pay someone for.

But it will be quite easy for you, because you know all these things or at least have access to all the necessary information.

To avoid going over your allowance, you can pre-log in your diary.

lporter229

Skinnytaste.com is a good website for recipes, but she also posts a weekly meal plan at the start of each week. There is also a tab for past meal plans. It's only for dinner, so you will have to come up with breakfast and lunch. You mentioned left overs, so you can always use dinner leftovers for lunch the next day. That is what I usually do.

RedfootDaddy

Check out Budget Bytes, especially this page and this page. I love Beth's approach to delicious cheap recipes based on a well-stocked pantry and use of leftover.

annacole94

My method is use Google Calendar (because I already use it for everything). I only plan dinners. I move meals we like to a future date after we eat them. I slap meals into the week, write a grocery list, and then I'm off. Easy to reshuffle if circumstances change through the week.

My husband is picky (hates onions), my son is 5 (and can be ridiculous). The 3 year old and I eat everything. I need to choose the recipes to make it work for us. This method keeps our favorite healthy stuff literally in rotation, and makes meal planning super fast because my list of meals is right in front of me.

zdyb23456

I have a friend that loves eMeals, but you pay a small fee. I think it's about $60 for a year? You can choose the types of meals i.e. Low carb, budget friendly, kid friendly, etc. it generates your shopping list and all the recipes you need for the week.

Sunna_W

Check this out: https://www.eatthismuch.com/ It lets you pick daily calories; number of meals; type of diets (it includes anything, paleo, vegan, keto and Mediterranean); so if you aren't picky - there is a wide range of choices.