Incorporate Meal Prep Into New Meal Planning Feature

MetSyndNinja · April 17

Meal Prep is as crucial to a successful, economical diet as Meal Planning is. Create technology to make it smarter/faster/easier/cheaper.

Please incorporate an app feature into the new Meal Planner app, that strips out all the things that can be done ahead of time. For instance, one feature could identify how many cups of carrots need to be chopped for the week, across the entire week's worth of menus. Ditto for other vegetables. Ditto for other ingredients that need to be chopped/shredded/weighed&measured: Individual portions of dry oatmeal flavored with raisins, brown sugar & cinnamon; Portions of cheese; Portions of rotisserie chicken or a package of chicken breasts.

Another app feature could identify meals that can be made ahead of time, and reheated when needed … like a breakfast frittata, a large batch of roasted vegetables, or a pitcher of cold brew coffee (which can be served hot or cold).

Another app feature could identify that, when making a recipe that serves 4 people, one serving is to be eaten now, one serving is to be packaged as a meal in the fridge to be eaten later in the week, and two servings are to be packaged in the freezer, for fast leftover meals for another time.

Another app feature could suggest successive meals for economy. For instance, buy one rotisserie or whole raw chicken. Make different recipes from the chicken, and make soup from the chicken bones.

Another app feature could suggest modern appliances for ease/speed/economy in meal prep, like using an Instant Pot to quickly make a week's worth of boiled eggs, or bone broth from a chicken carcass. Use a bread machine to make an economical loaf of chemical-free, bread. The number of bread slices needed for the week could be wrapped and set aside, and the remaining slices could be wrapped & stored in the freezer. Stale bread can be used to make croutons for salads or soup.

Another app feature could identify seasons for menus/meals/ingredients to save money. We need to incorporate thrift for these expensive food times. We may not be able to have a dedicated homemaker in our families, but we can use technology to incorporate thrifty ideas. Different climate zones don't matter. Choose an average climate. In April, people in cold climates can use March menus; people in warm climates May menus.

(See images from Meta Given's "Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking", Volumes 1 & 2.)

Those ideas are from off the top of my head. Most ideas are old school practices, from back when "homemaking" was an art. Explore those sources for similar, wise ideas. It's interesting to see how old practices can be incorporated into today's times via technology.