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School is out, we’re planting our vegetable gardens, and the vibrant colors and smells of summer are upon us. Summer is a beautiful season of growth and sunshine and juicy, ripe strawberries, but your meal planning might look a little different. Make sure to leave some flexibility for afternoon picnics and cookouts with friends. And if you’re traveling, here are some tips to get back into the swing of things when you’re back home.
New Podcast Episodes
#133: How We Actually Make Dinner in 30 Minutes
We’re breaking down how to actually get dinner on the table in 30 minutes. We talk about quick recipes, but also systems we use that make weeknight cooking faster and less stressful. We discuss what slows dinner down, common mistakes, and how to simplify your approach. From using convenience ingredients to prepping ahead and building a go-to list of fast meals, this episode will help you think about how you approach meal planning and cooking so it works for your busy life.
#134: How to Decide if Meal Prep Is Right for You
We’re talking about the pros and cons of weekend meal prep vs. weeknight cooking. We’re breaking down the different ways people make dinner work for their schedules, energy levels, and preferences. We talk about food fatigue, leftovers, decision fatigue, unpredictable schedules, and why there’s no “right” way to meal plan. Whether you love prepping meals on Sunday, prefer cooking fresh every night, or fall somewhere in between, this episode will help you figure out which approach best fits your real life!
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Recent Blog Posts
How to pick the right planner system for you.
Planning is meant to be a stress reliever, not a source of frustration, so let’s talk about what makes a good planning system and how to find the right one for you.
Feeling Mentally Exhausted? Meal Planning Can Help
Meal planning is the solution to eliminating decision fatigue around food and reducing your overall mental load.
Sourdough Discard Chocolate Cake Recipe
The depth of chocolate flavor is wonderful; it’s not overly sweet, the cake is moist and rich, and it pairs beautifully with my homemade chocolate buttercream.
Blueberry Lemon Icebox Cake
Peak blueberry season is just around the corner, and this Blueberry Lemon Icebox Cake is exactly the kind of dessert I want waiting in the fridge when the weather turns warm.
What If You Forget to Thaw the Meat?
Before you panic or order delivery, here are a few ways to save dinner and stick to your meal plan.
New on YouTube
Follow us on YouTube to get quick meal-planning tips and program tutorials!
Extras
#LifeSkillsNow Season 5: The LifeSkillsNow summer camp is completely free and packed with 95+ hands-on, brains-on workshops covering everything from emotional regulation and organizing their space to making veggie-packed muffins and managing money. These short video workshops are designed to spark great conversations and build real confidence, for your kids and for you. Register here!
May’s most popular recipe imports:
- High-Protein Ham and Cheese Biscuits from Gathered Nutrition
- Easy Reese’s Chia Pudding from Healthy Kitchen
- Peanut Chili Noodles from @clairesharrynroberto (Instagram)
- Sheet Pan Meatballs with Chickpeas, Cauliflower, and Butternut Squash from SkinnyTaste
- Asian Noodle Salad from Every Last Bite
Program Updates
The development team is working hard to make updates, squash bugs, and add new features to both the desktop and mobile app versions of Plan to Eat!
App:
We released app version 3.7.8:
- Cooking View now follows your recipe’s Concise Mode toggle.
- “Beginner Mode” is now “Concise Mode” — tap it on any recipe to rewrite long, wordy directions into a tight, easy-to-follow list of steps.
- We fixed a bug that could erase ingredients you’d already typed into a new recipe.
- We improved recipe loading on slow connections, with fewer “Unable to load” errors.
- We smoothed out friend-recipe and background syncing so the app feels faster and more reliable.
Desktop:
- “Beginner Mode” is now “Concise Mode” — tap it on any recipe to rewrite long, wordy directions into a tight, easy-to-follow list of steps.
- You can now purchase gifts and update your saved card with Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Link, in addition to entering a card manually.
- Cleaner ingredient parsing when importing or pasting recipes whose ingredient lists use bullet points — more bullet styles are now stripped instead of being left in the ingredient name.
- We fixed an error that could stop your recipe list from loading if it included a recipe whose owner account had been removed.
Highlighted Reviews
“I love this app! It’s such a lifesaver for a busy schedule. It keeps all my recipes so organized with little effort. Anytime I see a recipe online, I share it to the app and it does the rest! No more searching my bookmarks, screenshots, or emails for recipes. It also automatically organizes recipes by category which saves so much time. 10/10 recommend.”
“We have been using this app for so long that I can’t remember life without it! We store all of our recipes and easily plan meals each week. The grocery list is so easy to use too!”
