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One of the most common reasons I hear from people as to why they struggle to keep healthy is that they find it overwhelming to plan healthy meals and to get the required groceries into the house.  I'll admit that this is definitely not my favorite activity either, however, since it has to be done, I have spent some time over the years looking into how I could make this easier on myself.  I want to share with you a few tools that I've uncovered.   
 

Here's what you can do with meal planning tools:

Store hundreds of recipes Drag recipes to a meal plan calendar Add ingredients from recipes or miscellaneous items directly to your shopping list Print a shopping list organized by category/aisle Share recipes with family/friends

The biggest downside of these tools is that you need to manually enter your recipes into the tool for the first time (or at least the ingredients), but the upside is HUGE. 

 

I love meal-planning tools because I can:

Quickly skim recipes from across many of my cookbooks Quickly generate a grocery list (no more forgotten items!) Get in and out of the grocery store in no time as my list is organized by aisle

Here are the tools:

The Recipe Manager ($29.95 one time):

http://www.therecipemanager.com/
 

Added Pros: 
 - Categorization of recipes (ex entrée, Indian, vegetarian)  

- Sort and search capability for recipes by a variety of criteria

Cons:

-Does not yet synch to iphone or the internet. 

I use this tool at home and while it took a little getting used to and there's some manual setup, overall it saves me TONS of time.  I can skim through recipes I use for inspiration, easily build a grocery list that won't be missing any ingredients, and get in and out of the store quickly because I have a perfectly organized list.

 

Plan To Eat ($39/year)

http://www.plantoeat.com/planner

Added Pros:

- Categorization of recipes (ex entrée, Indian, vegetarian)

- Can upload recipes directly from several sites (epicurious, etc).

- Fantastic interface

- Shopping list viewable on your mobile phone

Cons:

- Recurring annual (or monthly) cost

 

This is a fabulous tool.  The wonderful interface makes this a great choice.  If I didn't already have The Recipe Manager, this would probably be my top choice as it is so easy to navigate.

 

Say Mmmm (free)

http://www.saymmm.com/

Added Pros:

- Free of charge

- Shopping list viewable on your mobile phone

Cons:

- Limited functionality and a bit clunky

 

This is a decent tool for meal planning and shopping lists if you are looking for something free.  The interface is a bit clunky, but the more you use it the easier it gets. 

 

What other tools have you used to help making getting healthy food on the table?  Please share, I'd love to hear your ideas!  Be well.

This is reprinted from my blog on FOX NY.

Warmly,

Andrea