Hands Down, Best Meal Planning Product EVER!
I'd been looking for a meal planning software product for about 6 months when I came across Plan To Eat, and wish I would have came across it sooner. Last year, I tried Cathe.com's Nutrition Planner, and didn't like it since it didn't have easy way to import recipes and that grading system was constantly making me feel incomplete. I'd tried the free version of MacGourmet, looked at and considered Yummy Soup and Shop to Cook, and had been using Sparkpeople, The Daily Plate, and Meals Matter to help me with meal planning. None of those places really "did" it for me. I always found myself spending too much time entering in recipes or preparing a shopping list. In the end, I became very frustrated with each of those products/programs, and found that they were hindering my time, instead of helping me get more time (which is what meal planning should do: save time and money).
I have been using Plan to Eat for almost 30 days now (10 total hours, yes, it keeps track for you!) and I LOVE IT. I love it so much that I signed up for a year. It has and does everything I want it to do. I can import recipes from my favorite websites with just a few clicks (Whole Foods, Cooking Light, Kraft, etc) or if a recipe is on a blog that I like (Tosca Reno's Kitchen Table, Gluten Free Goddess, etc), I can simply use the bulk imput to copy and paste. Then, all I have to do is drag and drop the recipes to my planner and my shopping list populates itself with everything I need for those recipes. I notice that if I try to keep my ingredients the same name when entering recipes, they will combine on the shopping list, so I won't have duplicate lines for one item on the shopping list. I also like how the site "remembers" my categories, so I don't have to remember what category each ingredient goes in! And the best part is that everything is customizable! I can add, change or delete categories to my liking. Also, being web-based, I can access from anywhere with internet, which is a super BIG plus.
I went shopping yesterday and used the shopping list from my phone (Blackberry Curve 3G). As I went through the store, I checked the items off on my phone as I added them to my cart. When I got home and checked my shopping list again online to see what happened to those checked items, I was THRILLED to see that they were automatically added to my Pantry with a note under each item: purchased about 4 hours ago. WOW! I was so happy, I could cry. Tears of joy, of course!
The more I use Plan to Eat (which we nicknamed P2E around our house), the more I love it. This is they easiest, simplist and most convenient meal planning and recipe management product that I have ever used!
Cheers to P2E!
bigbadbrandini
2 Posted by Peela on 17 Feb, 2011 01:15 PM
Yup! I have to agree. I have searched for something like this for years.
I havent learned how to use it all properly yet (only 5 hours here!) but I just love it.
3 Posted by hazbaby on 10 Mar, 2011 05:42 AM
Seems kind of sad, but Plan to Eat has actually changed my life. :-)
4 Posted by brightman73 on 24 Nov, 2011 12:40 AM
I love that it remembers my category changes too! I love combining the names of an ingredient so it won't repeat. It's such a well thought out software.