Using Plan to Eat on a Mobile Device

One of the most common questions people ask about Plan to Eat is whether or not there’s a mobile app available. Technically, the answer is no, but that’s primarily because the mobile website works so well and gives you everything you need already. Let’s take a look!

When you visit PlantoEat.com on most mobile devices you should automatically be redirected to the mobile version. If you are not automatically redirected, you can always visit http://m.plantoeat.com. The shopping list is the most popular feature on the mobile site and is therefore the first page you see when signing in.

plan to eat mobile

The shopping list has nice size type and plenty of white space to make it easy on the eyes so that you can use it while shopping.

You have a couple of options here. I typically Hide Checked Items while shopping, so that I can easily see what’s left to buy, but you can uncheck that box to see everything on your list as well:

plan to eat mobile

You can also choose whether to display all of your store shopping lists at one time or just view one in particular, by clicking on Select a store:

plan to eat mobile

You can also view your Recipe Book on your phone:

plan to eat mobile

This lets you pull up a recipe in the kitchen while you cook without having to scroll all over the place in order to read all of the instructions:

plan to eat mobile

Although you can’t actually plan your menu from the mobile view (and I’m not sure you’d want to on a tiny screen anyway!), you can see each day’s menu plan by clicking on the planner option and scrolling through the days:

plan to eat mobile

You can also add the ingredients from a recipe to your Shopping List by clicking the Add to Shopping List button in the recipe view. Doing that also adds the recipe to the current day’s menu plan.

plan to eat mobile

Finally, if the reason you’ve been wishing for an app is to get the handy dandy icon on your homescreen, never fear, you can still do that! Here’s how:

While visiting Plan to Eat on your phone, click the “send to” icon at the bottom of the screen, which brings up the following options.

plan to eat mobile

Select Add to Home Screen, and voila — your very own icon that you can add to a folder, your home bar or wherever else you’d like it to be so that you can open Plan to Eat with just one click!

plan to eat mobile

I really love the mobile site because I can use it on my iPhone or iPad while shopping to save the paper and easily see what’s left. I also find carrying my phone while I shop a lot easier than carrying paper and a pen and trying to cross things off as I walk!

How about you? Do you use the mobile site for your grocery shopping? How about in the kitchen while you cook?

Delicious GFCF Homemade Tomato Soup

tomato soup

This tomato soup from Gluten-Free Mom has quickly become my favorite gluten-, dairy-, soy-free recipe. It’s easy to put together, makes the whole house smell good and is so flavorful! It is a bit on the spicy side, so I cut the basil and pepper in half this week for my girls, although I prefer it with the full amounts of both.

Ingredients

  • 3 T olive oil
  • 1 large white onion
  • 2 carrots
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 2 cans of diced tomatoes (14.5 ounce)
  • 1 T tomato paste 
  • 2 t sugar
  • 1 12 T dried basil
  • 3 cups gluten-free chicken broth
  • 14 cup almond milk
  • 1 T salt
  • 2 t pepper

Directions

  1. Chop carrots and onions and saute in olive oil in a large soup pot over medium-low heat. Cook until tender, about 10 minutes, while you prepare the rest of your ingredients
  2. Mince the garlic.
  3. Stir in tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic, sugar, basil, chicken stock, almond milk and salt and pepper and bring to a boil.
  4. Lower the heat and simmer for 30+ minutes.
  5. Use an immersion blender or food processor to blend the soup until smooth.
  6. Serve in bowls with spoons or in jars with straws!

Enjoy!

Overnight Steel Cut Oats for the Whole Family

overnight oatmealAs of two weeks ago, our youngest daughter is now on a gluten-, casein- and soy-free diet. While in many ways the transition has been easier than I expected, I’m still on the hunt for meal and snack ideas so that she doesn’t feel like she’s missing out. It’s hard to explain to a two-year-old why everybody else gets this or that and she doesn’t!

In my search, I came across this genius idea for overnight steel cut oats, and it has quickly become a staple in our home. We adjusted the recipe and serving sizes to make enough for everybody, but it’s made oatmeal almost as simple as cereal for those busy mornings when we’re running around the house and trying to get everybody fed and dressed so that we can get out the door in time.

We reuse glass peanut butter jars for our oatmeal because they’re the perfect size to serve all four girls from one jar (with a generous helping of fruit added to each of their bowls), and because the wide mouth makes it easy to ladle the hot oatmeal into the jar.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups steel cut oats
  • 4.5 cups water
  • large pinch of salt
  • (2) 26 oz. jars, washed and dried

Directions

  1. Bring water, salt and oats to a boil.
  2. Simmer for 3 minutes.
  3. Ladle into jars and cover tightly. Be careful while making this because I did burn myself the first time as I was trying to ladle the almost-boiling liquid into a pasta sauce jar with a smaller mouth.
  4. Leave on the counter overnight.
  5. In the morning, serve one jar and refrigerate the other for later in the week.

Serve with honey & fruit for a delicious and hearty start to the day!

What is your favorite way to serve oatmeal?

New Print Preview Feature

I’ve always said that one of the things I love about Plan to Eat — besides the fact that it simplifies one of my most dreaded tasks — is that as a company they are constantly rolling out new features based on the feedback they get from users, and this latest feature is so very cool.

You can now print your recipes in a variety of different formats, including different size fonts, the ability to select which information to include and page layout.

I could try to explain all the options, but it’s so much better to see them for yourself.

Just look:

print-preview

The default view includes all of the recipe information in full-page format and a 12pt font, like the example above.

print-preview

You can also be more selective about which information you include so that your recipe all fits on one page.

print-previewPrint it in a standard 3×5 recipe card size, using a smaller font to help it fit on one or two cards.

print-preview

Or choose the slightly larger 4×6 format to make room for more information and/or a picture.

This is a great way to print recipes for your own kitchen as well as to share with others, giving you control over how they look and what information is included!

Which format is your favorite?

Plan to…Craft?

craft suppliesPhoto by AForestFrolic.com

My mom and I recently held a marathon crafting session to prepare for an upcoming Christmas series that I’m hosting at Life…Your Way. We made DIY ornaments, cards and more, and as you can imagine, we had to purchase and organize a significant amount of supplies in order to do so.

As I was planning our crafting days, I realized that Plan to Eat was the perfect solution for organizing these projects as well as my weekly menu plan.

Using the new bookmarklet, I added the “recipe” for each project to my Plan to Eat account. I chose to leave the course and cuisine blank, but I added tags to the various projects (handmade cards, DIY ornaments, etc.) so that I could quickly sort through them.

Once I had all of these added to my account, I dragged them all onto the planner for a date in the future (to avoid any planned menu items from interfering with the shopping list) and then created my shopping list based on that date.

Use the category feature for each “ingredient” to set up categories for your supplies (scrapbooking, sewing, woodworking, etc.), and what you end up with is a perfectly organized supply list.

From the planner page, I then printed out my “meal plan” for the week in question and selected the option to Print Recipes so that we’d have a paper copy of each craft’s instructions as well.

This really simplified the planning process, and it got me thinking about other creative uses for Plan to Eat…for your Christmas list (setup each person as a “recipe” and list their gifts as ingredients)? Party planning? Moving and decorating? School shopping?

What creative ways have you used Plan to Eat?