5 Meal Planning Apps Worth Trying

Planning your meals in advance is a great way to make great tasting, healthier foods without breaking the bank. However, sifting through recipes and making lists can prove to be a daunting task.  Did you know there is an app for that? Yes, it’s true! There are dozens of meal planning apps available to help you organize recipes, suggest new dishes, and build grocery lists.

This is a list of five meal planning apps we thought were worth taking a closer look at.

1. Paprika (Apple, Android) – $4.99. Paprika is both an app and a website. This app allows you to grab recipes you find just about anywhere on the web and have them added to your list. It has tools to help you plan your meals and grocery lists and also adjust recipes. Ingredients on your grocery list are automatically sorted by aisle, and ingredients will automatically be combined. (If one of your planned meals calls for two eggs and another calls for three, your grocery list would read five eggs.)

2. Plan to Eat (Website, page accessible on smart phones) – $5/month, or $40/year. Plan to Eat is a grocery list organizer and menu planning app that is simple to use. This app allows you to organize and share recipes and will include your recipes on your meal planning calendar. It has an automated grocery list maker based on the recipes you include in your meal plan. Plan to Eat also caters to special diets (gluten free, dairy free, etc.), which is great if you have to cook for people with different tastes, or you’re trying something new with your own diet. There is a 30 day free trial if you want to give it a try before purchasing. Many people who use the app say the price is well worth it. It appears that an actual cell phone app is in the works.

3. Pepperplate (Apple, Android) – Free. This app allows its users to organize the recipes they find on the app as well as recipes they add themselves to their personal Pepperplate account. This is an app that will walk its users through recipe instructions to make preparing meals a breeze. You can plan meals days and even weeks in advance to ensure that your recipes are made to order for whatever occasions they are for.   Pepperplate will generate a shopping list based on your meal plan and it also allows you to share your recipes, meal plans and shopping lists if and when you need to.

4. Food on the Table (Apple, Android) – Free. Instead of having you choose the recipes that you want to cook this app delivers recipes to you every week based on the dietary restrictions and preferences that you set. When used correctly this app can make meal planning even less stressful than the other apps mentioned. Not only will this app assist you with your grocery list and assist you with your recipes, but it will help you find deals based on your location to help save the user some money.

5. AllRecipes Dinner Spinner (Apple, Android) – Free. The app uses various categories from cuisine to cooking time to dietary restrictions to help you plan a menu that best suits your needs. The app’s web component allows you to print your weekly plan, which is great to put up in your kitchen as a friendly reminder.  There are also videos available with the recipes to ensure that you are not lost in the instructions.

This is only a small handful of the meal planning apps available. If you do not see an app that best suits your needs, a quick internet search is bound to pull something that you like up.

Don’t forget you can use Fill Your Plate for recipe inspiration as well. Plus, Fill Your Plate will be mobile friendly this fall so that you can search for farmers markets, farm products and recipes while you’re traveling around the state.