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Stuck in a meal planning rut? I’ve been there! Actually, I get to that point a few times every year where every recipe feels like something we’ve eaten a dozen times. But getting unstuck takes a few small shifts in where you look for ideas. Here are four simple ways to break out of a recipe rut and get excited about meal planning again.
Look back at past meal plans
One of my favorite ways to get recipe inspiration is to look back at what we were cooking in previous years during the same season. Often there are recipes we used to love that fell out of rotation, and it’s a treat to put them back on the plan.
In Plan to Eat, you can select specific months to go back to on your meal plan and see what you were planning and enjoying previously. Your meal plans are never erased, so even if you’ve been using the app for multiple years, you can look back at past meal plans and pull inspiration from them.
Phone a friend
A meal planning buddy is one of the best ways to get out of a recipe rut, because someone else’s family might make meals that are totally different from what you’d normally cook. You get to step outside your usual cuisines and flavors while still using someone else’s tried-and-true recipes. A recipe recommendation is more trustworthy when it comes from a friend rather than a stranger on the internet, so text a friend and ask what’s on their plan for the week!
Scroll on socials
Speaking of strangers on the internet, social media is covered in recipe content! The best part about finding recipes there is that they often feature seasonal ingredients. If you’re looking for the best way to use fresh summer produce like peaches, cucumbers, zucchini, and beets, saving recipes from social media is a great way to go.
Find a random recipe
If you’re like me, you have hundreds of recipes saved to your Plan to Eat account, and you’ve never tried half of them! I default to the same recipes season after season but keep saving new ones because they look so good.
On the website version of Plan to Eat, you can find recipes at random with the Random Recipe button. Add any filters you like, hit the button, and the program will give you a random recipe that fits. It’s a fun way to revisit recipes you saved, thinking they’d be amazing, but never got around to planning.
Whether that’s revisiting old meal plans, borrowing a friend’s go-to dinner, scrolling social media, or letting Plan to Eat surprise you with a random recipe, there’s an easy way to spice up your next meal plan! Try one (or all four) next time you’re staring blankly at your meal plan, and you’ll be back to feeling inspired in no time.
