So am I eating healthier? Yes and no. Like most people, my eating patterns get better and worse according to the stresses, supports, and celebrations in my life. But beyond those external changes, I've noticed that I do sometimes do better than usual for a stretch. What makes the difference for me is planning my meals, shopping with a list, and cleaning out my fridge regularly.
(I think this last item, as unglamorous as it is, gets a lot less attention than it deserves. If you really aren't going to eat something in the next couple days, freeze it or toss it now. Don't wait until your fridge is a end-stage Tetris puzzle of potential filth containers that you are afraid to open for fear of inhaling spores of some new Superbug. If you can't see what is in your fridge, chaos will take over. Not that I'm speaking from personal experience. *cough*)
So, with great intentions, in 2015 I decided to make a Meal Planning Binder. This is a great idea for someone who is not me. It's great because it doesn't really cost anything! You get all your favorite recipes in one place! At first my enthusiasm gave me the drive to take the time to print out recipes and inventory my fridge, freezer, and pantry. So far so good. Then I had to pick 4-5 meals every week and cross reference the ingredient lists with my inventory lists. I think I made it through a full month doing this, wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles! And then Life happened (no really--first trimester icks were a real meal planning roadblock), and I stopped, started again, and then stopped for good other than a rally to make freezer meals in the three days before my due date. Meal planning that way was just more time and brain power than I could muster on a weekly basis.
So what did I do when resolutions rolled around again? Hope springs eternal, so in January of 2016, I decided to try something else, even if it meant it would cost a little bit. First I ruled out apps that do the menu planning for you. My family, it turns out, does not fancy a typical American diet, so we need to put together our own menu. In looking for recommendations, I kept hearing stellar commentary about Plan to Eat. And 10 months later, I agree that it is an AMAZING, well-designed tool worth spending a few bucks on.
It is in many ways like a gym membership, because you only get value out of it if you actually use it, but here are the main reasons I love it:
1. It paid for itself in decreased grocery spending within just TWO WEEKS of using it.
2. You can get a trial month for FREE (and WITHOUT giving them your credit card number). Plus they are about to have a sale! (Read on.)
3. It is easy enough to use that I actually use it.
4. You can upload your own recipes or grab them from the web.
5. You can drag and drop your recipes onto a calendar!
6. It makes your shopping list for you. Let me repeat: IT MAKES YOUR SHOPPING LIST FOR YOU.
7. You can trade recipes with friends.
8. It's on the cloud, so I can access my recipes anywhere, and I don't have to worry about carrying a binder with me.
9. I'm throwing out less food.
Now, I won't claim I plan my meals every week, but I've used it off and on all year. Here's my workflow:
First I drag my recipes onto my calendar to make a plan for the week. I can search among my recipes by ingredient or course or just scroll through alphabetically. If we have a lot going on, I can plan out breakfasts and lunches and even snacks ahead of time (hello, Thanksgiving!). If we have a lighter week, I may just plan out dinners. Once done, I generate the shopping list by selecting the date range I want to shop for. This is the magical part: Plan to Eat will add up the totals you need for each ingredient and group them automatically by department. These functions aren't perfect: When items are worded differently they show up as separate items, and sometimes it can't guess the department. But you know what? I don't care because it SAVES SO MUCH TIME. I open the automatically generated list on my phone and stand in front of my pantry and quickly check off all the staples we have on hand, then do the same for the refrigerated items. When you click on an item, it disappears, so it is easy to go through it fast and focus on what remains without re-writing the list.
Armed with my list on my phone, my grocery trips go faster since I don't have to meal plan in the aisles (talk about existential malaise) and my list is already grouped by department. No wifi or data coverage at the store? No problem, it still works offline. I save money by avoiding buying things I already have, buying fewer convenience foods, and eating out less often. If there is a sale at the store, or if I can't get something I need, I can access my recipes, plan, and shopping list on the go and make changes quickly. When I get home, I can click on the calendar and pull up recipes on my phone or on my computer and get cooking knowing that I have everything I need.
There are so many other little features that make Plan to Eat great. You can add prep notes to help avoid those "Oh crap!" moments when you forgot to thaw the meat or set up a marinade in advance. After a meal, I can add notes or adjust and save changes to the recipe (less butter, more salt, double quantity, etc.). If you do need to halve or double a recipe (or apply any multiplier), the program will do the math for you! You can even give it a star rating and share it with friends.
Over time it is taking less and less time to meal plan and to cook. How? I am slowly, finally learning how much cooking we actually need to do. Before, I couldn't seem to find our "sweet spot" between staring listlessly at a fridge full of unused ingredients and staring hungrily at the fridge after realizing I am missing a key ingredient for that night's dinner. Usually I over-plan, and therefore overspend and overeat. This fall, I attempted to make a 5-week plan for the first month of school to make sure I didn't fall off the wagon at a busy time. Of course, who can definitively plan that far out? (I don't want to know.) It turned out to be more cooking than I had time or fridge space for, so I quickly dragged recipes to the next open days. That 5-week plan ended up being dragged out over 7 weeks with minimal effort. I was glad to have a rough plan and the flexibility to change when I realized the mileage we were getting from leftovers. Saving time planning and cooking, and cutting down on our food waste, were the perfect accompaniments to achieving my eating goals.
Intrigued? Go get your free trial! Convinced? It is only $39 for a whole year (starting after your free trial ends)! The people who run this site have clearly got it together. At that price, it only takes avoiding a couple fast food runs to get your money back. Plus, if you like good vegetarian fare, you can grab some of my recipes on there!
