5 Super Menu Planning Sites
Menu planning can be an extremely useful way to prevent wastage of both food and money, but the task of planning your meals for the first time can sometimes appear a little daunting.
I’ve been checking out some of the sites which offer menu planning tips and plans, and it seems there are a vast array of differing options available.
Here are my favourite menu planning sites:
Veggie Meal Plans
Veggie Meal Plans is a personal meal plan blog written, and beautifully photographed, by Cassie Young. Cassie provides weekly meal plans, suggested shopping lists, and delicious recipes specifically for vegans, but anyone can enjoy!
Organizing Junkie
Laura from I’m an Organizing Junkie believes that menu planning is one of the best places to start if you’re trying to become more organized. If you’re looking for suggestions from other avid menu planners, this is the site for you! Currently 264 ladies share what’s on their menus for the week ahead, and everyone is welcome to join.
Laura says, “It’s a wonderful opportunity to keep your menu planning efforts on track week after week not to mention the many great ideas and recipes that come from reading the menus of the many other participants.”
Meals.com
At Meals.com you can find ideas for dinner throughout the week, for special occasions, or even what to do with leftovers. By registering for your own account you can add recipes to your very own meal planner.
Meals Matter
Meals Matter has been produced by the Dairy Council of California, with the aim of assisting in family meal preparation. You can plan your own meals, and create shopping lists, by setting up your own free account.
Menus 4 Moms
Menus 4 Moms is a fab online resource for busy moms, run by four great women, Mary Ann, Chrissy, Heather, and Michele. This impressive team offer a free weekly menu plan, including recipes, and a shopping list for five dinner options, amongst other great tips and advice.
If you’d like to find out more about menu planning, check out my other articles, How to Be an Organised Food Shopper, Five Tips for Successful Menu Planning, and 25 Ultra Practicle Tips to Reduce Waste and Save Money.
If you have a menu planning site, and you’d would like it to be included here, I’d be more than happy to consider it. Feel free to contact me with your suggestions.
Best wishes!
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Feb 28, 2008
Pretty good list, I have stumbled across Menu 4 Moms before and liked a lot of the meals they have. I will have to forward on the Veggie meal plans to my friend who has a whole family of Vegans and they are always looking for new ways to plan meals.
He tells me they use meal mixer, which lets them add or browse vegan recipes, or choose to have meal plans generated for them by specifying that they are vegetarian.
Might be another good one to check out?
Feb 28, 2008
Hi Dan,
Thanks for commenting! I hadn’t come across Meal Mixer before, it does look pretty comprehensive, and at $1 dollar a week, it seems reasonably priced.
I’ll add it to the list, thank you!
Feb 29, 2008
Lots of recipe-archive software includes menu-planning features, that will automatically generate shopping lists from the recipes you add to your menu plans. I’ve seen these features in MasterCook and BigOven.
I’m intrigued by the meal mixer idea. Wouldn’t it be fun to have a little application that would randomly populate the next 2 weeks with 80% “favorite” main courses, 20% “try soon” main courses, and then fill the whole thing in with appropriate sides?
Mar 3, 2008
Hi Family Nutritionist - yeah that would be a fun idea!
Have you ever tried out a paid subscription menu planning site? I haven’t, I’m just wondering what percentage of time it would generate recipes which the family didn’t like. I suppose most have the option of altering suggestions to suit your preferences.
Mar 13, 2008
Hi Melanie,
I have written an e-book with 100 days of menu planning already done for you. Hope you can add us to your list
Mar 13, 2008
Hi Ruth,
Thank you for letting me know about your wonderful ebook, I checked out your site and it looks great. I will add it to the list ASAP.
Mar 17, 2008
Thanks for including my site on your list, that’s fantastic! Menu planning has been a lifesaver for me and I often wonder now how I ever managed without it!
Laura
Mar 18, 2008
Laura,
Thanks for commenting, it was my pleasure to add your great site to the list!
I know that you mean about menu planning, I’ve been planning over the last few weeks, and it’s working out so well for my family!
Mar 26, 2008
I noticed your reply about Meal Mixer. I’ve been using it for a while now and it’s quite nice and full featured. I was wondering about your “unreasonably priced” comment. For me, $1/week is very cheap for what I get from it (dieting, entering my own recipes, shopping list). Just wondering if you had mistyped.
Mar 27, 2008
Hi Jan,
Thanks for your comment - yes I did mistype, I’m glad you pointed that out. Thanks also for letting me know what you think of Meal Mixer, it’s good to know what others are using, I’ll be updating this list soon.
May 4, 2008
Hi all… For menu planning/menu planning I actually use http://www.themenuplanners.com - it is a paid menu planning site, but you choose the meals - they don’t just send you random meals - you log in, and select what your family likes, and how many serves you need…. soooo easy - they have over 200 recipes at the moment and are growing all of the time.
Hope this helps…
May 5, 2008
Hey Karen,
Thanks for letting us know about Menu Planners, i’ll check it out.