Why your grocery trips are taking so long

Before we get to the fix, let’s talk about what’s slowing you down in the store. 

Grocery shopping can feel like a major time suck; you end up wandering the aisles, backtracking when you realize you forgot something, and stalling over what to make for dinner. Or you stand in front of the pasta sauce for way too long, wondering if you already have some at home. You leave with a cart full of random things that you only have a vague plan for how you’ll use.

Shopping like this wastes time and money every week. Between random purchases, food that goes to waste, and repeat trips for the one thing you forgot, the costs add up faster than you’d think.

The one habit that changes everything

We surveyed our users and found that when they created a meal plan, the average time spent grocery shopping and planning dropped from 140 minutes per week to 73. That’s over an hour back in your week, every week!

When you know what you’re making, everything else falls into place. Your grocery list is focused, and you move through the store with a purpose. You get in, get what you need, and get out!

3 simple ways to get started

If meal planning feels overwhelming, or you’ve fallen out of the habit, here’s how to keep it simple.

Get your recipes in one place. Hunting through bookmarks, Pinterest boards, and old screenshots is its own time drain. Having the recipes you actually like and use all in one place makes the planning part so much faster.

Plan around your real week. Not checking your schedule when you create a meal plan is a quick way to sabotage the entire endeavor! A busy Tuesday calls for something quick and easy, while a relaxed Sunday might be a good night to try something new. When your meal plan reflects your schedule, you’re much more likely to stick to it.

Have an organized list. This is where things get really efficient. A messy, handwritten list slows you down, but one that’s ordered by the aisles of your store means you can go from one end to the other without a single backtrack! Plan to Eat automatically generates a grocery list from your planned meals, organized by category, so you can get through the store fast. It takes one of the most tedious parts of the process completely off your plate.

There aren’t very many habits that actually get you back time every week, but meal planning is something special. You can get back 60+ minutes, feel more organized, and be prepared when dinner comes around. 

And if you want to use the best meal planning app on the market, try Plan to Eat today!

The post How to Cut Your Time Grocery Shopping in Half appeared first on Plan to Eat.

Today, we’re sharing some of our takeaways from the summit and highlighting what we learned from the incredible speakers. We left the summit feeling like we learned something new from each speaker and it was a challenge to select only one highlight from each!

Here’s what we learned for the dinner table:

1. One thing we heard about multiple times during the summit was the Division of Responsibility in Feeding. This is an idea developed by Ellyn Satter around the different responsibilities parents and children have at meal times. Parents have a responsibility to provide the What, When, and Where of food, while a child’s responsibility is How Much and Whether or Not to eat. This approach offers parents a way out of power struggles, tantrums, and frustrations at eating times, so they can focus on supporting their children and building trust. The fact that multiple speakers mentioned this concept reinforced how important it is for families and parents to become aware of it at meal times. 
2. Diana Rice taught us about consistency with meals and how that leads to a trusting relationship between parent and child. Children (and most adults) thrive on routine, so keeping consistent meal times, even in the summer, helps them feel grounded and secure. 
3. Katie Kimball joined us to talk about picky eating and how to transition our kids away from it. She spoke about leaving at least 90 minutes between meals and snacks for kids to not sabotage hunger cues at meals. One of her best quotes was, “Hunger is the best seasoning”. 

Here’s what we learned for the grocery store:

1. Author Carol Ann Kates shared some of her grocery store secrets on how to get the most out of the food we buy. She mentioned that marinated meat at the store is often close to being past its prime, so it’s best to cook it as soon as possible after purchase for the best experience. 
2. Food waste expert, Pam Mercer, reminded us to choose loose produce over pre-packaged to reduce wasteful packaging and save money at the store. And going to the store with an organized grocery list reduces impulse buying and wasted food.

Here’s what we learned for the kitchen:

1. Hannah Van Ark spoke about the importance of scheduling your meal planning and protecting that time because of how beneficial it is for a calmer life. Make meal planning an agenda item and don’t skip it! 
2. Debbie Brosnan shared that beginner home cooks can focus on a few basic things to improve their cooking abilities, like meal planning and being ready to cook, reading recipes in full before cooking, and practicing the same recipe multiple times to gain confidence in new skills, because cooking a new recipe for the first time doesn’t always go as planned. 
3. Meal prep expert, Maddie, gave us food storage tips like hardier veggies like carrots and celery do well to be washed, prepped, and stored in glass containers in the fridge. While leafy greens do well to be washed and stored in tea towels in the fridge. 

We’re heading into summer with a clearer plan for the grocery store, more confidence in the kitchen, and a better understanding of how consistent meals can make a real difference for our families, and we have these incredible speakers to thank for that.

If you joined us for the summit or watched the replay, we hope you gained so much knowledge from our panel of experts! If you missed the summit, subscribe to our YouTube channel for more highlights and valuable insights. 

The post Our Best Takeaways from the Summer Ready Meal Planning Summit appeared first on Plan to Eat.

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! 

Support the Plan to Eat Podcast by sharing with your friends and subscribing on your favorite streaming app like Apple Podcasts, YouTube Podcasts, Spotify, and more.

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: 

1. High-Protein Ham and Cheese Biscuits from Gathered Nutrition
2. Easy Reese’s Chia Pudding from Healthy Kitchen
3. Peanut Chili Noodles from @clairesharrynroberto (Instagram)
4. Sheet Pan Meatballs with Chickpeas, Cauliflower, and Butternut Squash from SkinnyTaste
5. 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

The post What’s New at Plan to Eat: May 2026 appeared first on Plan to Eat.

Quick Tips for Thawing Meat

The safest way to thaw meat quickly is with a cool water bath. Place the meat in a sealed bag and submerge it in cool water, changing the water every 20 to 30 minutes until thawed.

While the meat thaws, go ahead and prep the rest of the recipe. Chop vegetables, mix sauces, or get side dishes started so dinner comes together quickly once the meat is ready to cook.

It’s not ideal, but you can also use the microwave to thaw meat in a pinch. Just beware that some parts, especially the edges or corners, may start cooking while the center stays frozen.

How to Pivot the Meal Plan

Sometimes the best solution is a quick change of plans. Here are a few easy ways to adjust:

• Keep a pantry or backup meal on hand. This could be pantry staples or a freezer meal.
• Swap meals in your meal plan and make a different one tonight that doesn’t require thawing.
• Use a faster-cooking protein instead, like eggs, pre-cooked sausage, shrimp, canned beans, or rotisserie chicken

A flexible meal plan makes a mid-week pivot simple!

How to Not Forget Next Time

One trick is to add prep notes directly to your recipes in Plan to Eat. You can include reminders like “thaw chicken” or “prep slow cooker ingredients”. These notes will show up on your Planner, but you can also sync your plan with your preferred calendar app to get reminders and notifications!

It also helps to check in with your meal plan each day, either in the morning or before bed. A quick glance can help you stay connected to the week and avoid last-minute surprises at dinnertime.

The post What If You Forget to Thaw the Meat? appeared first on Plan to Eat.

It’s cool, creamy, bright, and make-ahead friendly – basically everything a summer dessert should be. Fresh blueberries are cooked into a thick, glossy compote that brings out their natural sweetness and gives the cake that gorgeous deep purple swirl. Lemon keeps everything lifted and fresh, so the whole dessert feels rich without being heavy.

And then there’s the cream layer. A mix of cream cheese and whipped cream gives this icebox cake a little cheesecake energy, but without turning on the oven or fussing with a water bath. Bless.

Why This Recipe Is a Seasonal Win

This dessert is made for summer entertaining. You assemble it the day before, tuck it into the fridge overnight, and let time do the heavy lifting. The graham crackers soften into tender, cake-like layers while the lemon cream and blueberry compote settle into each other.

It’s the kind of recipe that looks impressive when sliced, but is secretly very low-stress. My favorite kind of party trick.

You’ll also love it because:

• It’s make-ahead. In fact, it needs the overnight chill, which makes it perfect for cookouts, dinner parties, or weekend gatherings.
• It uses fresh blueberries beautifully. Cooking them into a quick compote concentrates their flavor and gives the cake that jewel-toned color.
• It’s bright, creamy, and not too heavy. Lemon juice and zest balance the richness of the cream cheese and whipped cream
• It has a cheesecake-like texture. Cream cheese adds body and a subtle tang, while whipped cream keeps it light and luxurious.

A Few Tips Before You Start

Make the compote first. It needs to cool completely before layering, so getting it done early (even the day before) saves you from waiting around. Spread it on a sheet pan or wide plate to speed up the cooling process.

Don’t skip the lemon zest in the cream. It’s a small thing that makes a big difference. The zest carries the real citrus flavor; the juice alone won’t give you the same brightness. If your kitchen is warm, chill the lemon cream mixture for 10 to 15 minutes before assembly. This helps it stay sturdy as you build the layers.

Different pans – different prep. For the cleanest unmolding, use a 9-inch springform pan. It makes releasing the cake much easier after it has chilled and set. A regular cake pan or loaf pan can also work, but you’ll want to line it with plastic wrap first so you can lift the cake out later.

Use whole graham crackers. Break them as needed to fit your pan, filling gaps where you can (and a little overlapping is totally fine). The more coverage, the better the texture throughout.

A piping bag helps. For the cream layers, a piping bag (or a zip-top bag with the corner snipped) makes spreading even layers much easier than a spatula, especially around the edges.

Be patient. The overnight rest is non-negotiable. Eight hours minimum. Ten or twelve is even better. This is a make-ahead dessert by design, so plan accordingly and let the fridge do the work.

The Kind of Recipe Worth Saving

This Blueberry Lemon Icebox Cake is summer dessert at its easiest: juicy blueberries, sunny lemon, creamy cheesecake-like layers, and zero oven time. It’s simple to assemble, beautiful to slice, and perfect for making ahead while blueberries are at their best.

Peak blueberry season, we are ready for you.

Linda Feller has been a Plan to Eat superfan since 2013 and will gush about the app with anyone who expresses the least bit of interest. She is a recipe developer, food photographer, and the gal behind Sip + Sanity, recipes for celebrating every. little. thing!

www.sipandsanity.com

FB | Instagram | Pinterest: @sipandsanity

Print Recipe

Blueberry Lemon Icebox Cake

Source: Sip + Sanity | Linda Feller for Plan to Eat

Course: Desserts

Prep Time: 30 min

Cook Time: 11 min

Total Time: 41 min

Yield: 10-12 slices

Serves: 10 Scale Update

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons lemon juice divided
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 18 ounces blueberries plus a few more for garnish or reserve a couple tablespoons of the compote
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons water
• 8 ounces cream cheese softened
• lemon zest from one lemon
• ¹⁄₂ cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream cold
• 13-14 whole graham crackers (about 52-56 individual crackers) plus some crumbs for garnish

Directions

1. For easy un-molding, use a 9-inch springform pan; line the bottom with a circle of parchment. Alternatively, you can use a regular 9-inch cake pan or 9×5-inch loaf pan, but line the bottom and sides with plastic wrap so there’s a generous overhang.
2. In a small bowl, combine 1 tablespoon of lemon juice with the cornstarch until smooth. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the blueberries with granulated sugar and water. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 7 to 8 minutes. Stir in the cornstarch mixture and continue cooking for another 2 to 3 minutes until it becomes thick and jammy. Remove from heat and let cool completely. Refrigerate until ready to assemble.
3. Tip: to speed up the cooling process, spread the blueberries in a shallow layer on a small sheet pan or plate.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer using the whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese and lemon zest together until smooth, about 1 minute.
5. Tip: Scrape the whisk as the lemon zest often clings to the wires and is hidden under cream cheese.
6. Beat in the powdered sugar, vanilla, and remaining 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Add the heavy cream and mix on low, gradually increasing the speed to medium-high. Beat until stiff peaks form.
7. Tip: If it’s warm in your kitchen, chill this cream mixture for 10 to 15 minutes before assembly.
8. Spread one-third of the lemon cream across the bottom of the prepared pan (this will be the top of your cake after turning it out). Add a layer of graham crackers, breaking pieces as needed to fill any gaps. Spread half of the cooled blueberry compote on top. Repeat the layers — 1/3 of the cream, cookies, the remaining compote, and the last of the cream. Finish with a final layer of crackers (this will become the bottom of the cake).
9. Cover the top with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight to allow the crackers to soften and the layers to set.
10. Run a knife around the edge of the pan as extra insurance, then release the springform collar and lift it away. Invert the cake onto a serving plate and remove the pan’s bottom. Serve as is, or decorate with extra blueberries and crushed graham crackers.

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Chocolate is a favorite in our house, so I wasn’t surprised when my oldest daughter requested it for her birthday. I didn’t want to use my old go-to recipe, and I’m so grateful now that I branched out! I had never made a cake with sourdough discard, so I was curious how that would work in cakes. After a little recipe research, I found that it is fairly common and easy to do. And, not so surprisingly, it’s absolutely delicious. The flavor of sourdough does not necessarily come through, but I think it makes this cake rich and moist and adds depth of flavor to the chocolate.

To begin, prep two 8-inch round cake pans. I always prepare my pans the same way, and thankfully, my cakes never stick! First, lightly grease the bottom and sides of the pan. Then line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper that is cut to fit snugly into the bottom. Next, grease the pan once more on top of the parchment paper. Lastly, lightly flour the bottom and sides of the pan and dump out any excess flour. It seems like a lot of steps, but I promise it is worth it for your cake to release smoothly from the pan after baking. Once the pans are prepped, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

For the cake, first combine the dry ingredients – flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, & salt – in a bowl and whisk them together. Set the dry ingredients to the side for a moment. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the softened butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. At this point, the batter will closely resemble wet sand.

Next, add in the sourdough discard and oil and mix until incorporated. You will probably have to stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl several times throughout this process. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until combined. Then, add in the buttermilk and vanilla and mix together. Gradually mix in the dry ingredients. Last, add the hot water, which should be about 190-200 degrees F. Using hot water will help the cocoa to “bloom” or intensify in flavor.

Pour the finished batter evenly into the two prepared pans and bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes. Let the cakes cool in the pan on a wire rack for about 10 minutes. Carefully remove them from the pans and let them cool completely. 

Once the cake layers are cooled and the buttercream is made, stack the cake and serve. This cake should keep for several days in an airtight container, but I doubt it will last that long! It is SO good!

When I make a cake, I usually split the work up over two days. On day one, I make the cake layers. After they have cooled completely, I wrap them in plastic wrap and place them in the freezer until needed. On day two, I make the frosting, stack and decorate the cake. When the cake layers are frozen and firm, they are much easier to work with, and it makes stacking a cake so easy. This method allows me to spread the work out or to work on a cake ahead of time and still have a fresh cake! 

I’m already looking forward to making this one again soon. I hope you enjoy!

Anna

Print Recipe

Sourdough Discard Chocolate Cake

With wonderful depth of flavor, this cake is moist and rich but not overly sweet, and it pairs beautifully with homemade chocolate buttercream. This is the perfect chocolate cake!

Source: Anna Reid

Course: Desserts

Prep Time: 30 min

Cook Time: 30 min

Total Time: 1 hr

Serves: 1 Scale Update

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• ³⁄₄ cup cocoa powder
• 1 ¹⁄₄ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¹⁄₂ cup unsalted butter softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ³⁄₄ cup brown sugar
• ²⁄₃ cup sourdough discard (145 g) room temperature
• ¹⁄₂ cup oil
• 2 eggs room temperature
• ²⁄₃ cup buttermilk room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• ¹⁄₂ cup hot water (~190 F)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prep two 8 inch round cake pans by greasing, lining with parchment, and lightly flouring.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the softened butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. The mixture will resemble wet sand.
4. Add in the sourdough discard and oil and mix until combined. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl when needed.
5. Mix in the eggs one at a time. Add in the buttermilk and vanilla and mix until combined.
6. Gradually mix in the dry ingredients followed by the hot water.
7. Pour the batter evenly into the two prepared pans and bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Let cakes cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely.
8. Frost with Chocolate Buttercream & enjoy!

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Meal planning involves deciding what to eat for the week ahead and shopping for ingredients. You don’t need to plan every meal, but you do want an idea of what you’ll be cooking and eating throughout the week. Often breakfasts and lunches don’t need recipes planned because they revolve around staple items like eggs, cottage cheese, and sandwich makings. 

A meal plan doesn’t mean making recipes from scratch or even always cooking; some dinners can be planned as “leftover night” or “pick up pizza”. Eating leftovers, pulling pre-made foods from the freezer, and getting take-out all count as part of a meal plan.

Grocery shopping is important too because that’s what ensures you have all those staple items and ingredients for your planned recipes. A comprehensive and organized list helps you have one grocery trip for the week, and it reduces even more decisions you have to make! When you shop with a list, you have a direction of what to buy at the store, rather than deciding at the moment what looks or sounds good. 

How meal planning reduces decision fatigue. 

If you’re deciding what to eat every night at 5 pm, you’ve already spent so much mental energy during the day on work, parenting, emails/texts/calls, scheduling, etc., that figuring out what to eat is hard. With a meal plan, you make the choices up front, so when it comes time to make dinner, you can simply follow the plan and not think about it. 

Meal planning not only reduces fatigue around deciding what to eat, but it also reduces the other “micro-decisions” around food, too. These are questions like, “Do I need to stop at the grocery store after work?”, or “Do I have time to cook this tonight?”, and “Will anyone eat this?”. Those questions go away because you’ve taken the time to plan around your schedule, pick recipes your family likes, and you went grocery shopping to get everything you need. 

Decision fatigue can lead to more impulsivity because your decision-making muscles are drained. So waiting until the end of the day to decide what to eat can lead to getting takeout and fast food more often than you’d like. People often make different choices when tired than they would have made earlier in the day, or earlier in the week! Having a plan means you don’t have to make a rushed decision on what’s for dinner because you decided ahead of time. 

Get the most out of your meal plan.

To keep the planning process simple, repeat meals you know your family loves and sprinkle in a couple of new recipes every month. There’s no reason to stress about having variety in your plans – the goal is to get food on the table! If you do like to keep variety in your meals, changing your meal rotation with the seasons is a great way to keep things simple while reducing boredom. 

You can also try assigning themes to each night of the week to guide your planning. You can use themes based around a protein or main ingredient, cuisine, or fun alliterations like “Taco Tuesday”, “Meatless Monday”, and “Sandwich Saturday”. Choose themes that help you pick a recipe without much deliberation. 

You also don’t have to meal plan alone! Involve your family in the planning process to offload some of the decisions and get new ideas for recipes. Or text a friend and ask them for some recipe inspiration. 

Finally, it’s a good idea to keep the meal plan visible and easy to reference. Having the meal plan written down at home on a whiteboard or sticky note makes it hard to manage and check in. Use a meal planning app, like Plan to Eat, that you can share with your family and have access to right on your phone!

We can’t take away all the decisions we have to make during the day, but we can take action to reduce our mental load around food and meal times. Creating a meal plan and grocery shopping for what you need saves your brain from having to start from scratch when dinnertime rolls around. Rather than scrambling and feeling flustered, you’ll feel calm and prepared, knowing you already made those decisions and have what you need to follow through on the plan.

The post Feeling Mentally Exhausted? Meal Planning Can Help appeared first on Plan to Eat.

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.

What problem are you trying to solve with a planner or new system?

A good planning system actually solves the problems you’re experiencing, whether that’s decision fatigue, mental overload, or lost and forgotten tasks. To find the right system for you, start by naming what you want to accomplish with planning. 

Is it simply having a system for remembering a busy schedule with appointments and activities? Do you also need to track home or work tasks like chores or deadlines? Many people like to track their habits and routines, and marking that checkbox every day gives them a lot of satisfaction. You may also need to consider your weekly meals and grocery lists and how you’ll manage those. 

This is where planning is more than just a notebook and becomes a full system because each of these pieces needs different energy and attention paid to it. Simply jotting down appointments and school schedules will only take a few minutes of your time, but planning out a week’s dinners involves a bit more thinking and coordinating.

The point of planning and creating a system is to reduce your load, so try not to let these pre-planning questions overwhelm you! Simply identify which of these ideas and questions weighs on you most during the week and focus on solving that problem first. 

What information needs to be planned to create calm?

A similar sentiment to the first, but slightly more tactical. What are the actual things that make your life feel calmer and more organized when they’re planned? For me, this is meals and grocery lists, as well as scheduled events and a task list. Having a place for all that stuff to live, that’s not my brain, gives me a lot of peace. 

Structure: more or less?

Structure can get a bad wrap as being too restrictive, but most people find at least some amount of structure gives them a feeling of freedom. This is because it helps us set expectations. When things feel predictable, we know how we can allot our time and energy. But, for some people,  too much structure does hinder them and cause inconsistency. As the adage goes, “Know thyself”. 

When it comes to picking a planner or calendar for your system, this is where you decide what’s important to include and what isn’t needed. Do you like to have timeslots for hour-by-hour planning, or do you prefer to have a weekly overview? Is digital better for you, or do you like a paper planner?

While I like a weekly vertical planner with hour markers, I don’t need a planner that includes a water tracker or meal planner, or a daily win section. I like a minimalist planner with sections for notes and to-do lists. 

You can structure your system however you like. If you want to time-block and be more strict with how you spend your time, you can set your planner to match that. Or you can simply have a list-driven system that uses daily or weekly priorities to ensure important tasks are completed. 

You may need to think about how involved the rest of your family needs to be in your planning system. Will a shared calendar where everyone can see what’s happening suffice? Or does each person need to be able to manage their own schedules and tasks separately?

This is also a good time to think about what needs to be tracked and managed daily and what can be done weekly. Most planning can be done on a weekly basis, but having daily check-ins and reviews will make the planning process more successful. 

Experiment with what suits you best! Planning needs to work best for your real life, not an ideal version of it.

What makes planning sustainable in the long-term?

I have found that most people need to start small in order to find success. This is hard for those people who identify as an “all or nothing” person, but taking things one step at a time leads to greater long-term sustainability than jumping in headfirst. 

A new planning system is a new habit, and the habits work because of consistency. If you want to be a better planner and feel more organized, consistency matters much more than perfection. As I said before, test out different methods and systems to find what works for you. You might naturally gravitate towards one style of planning, even though everyone says something else is the “best way”. The only “best way” to plan is the way that you’ll use and stick to week after week. 

What are the signs your planning system is right for you?

If you’re going through the experimentation phase, you’ll know when you’ve found the right method when your brain feels less cluttered. Planning doesn’t mean that life slows down or gets less busy, but a solid system helps you feel clarity without pressure. With a good system, you don’t feel like you’re scrambling anymore. 

The right system will also help you have a better sense of your capacity because you understand the expectations on your time and energy. When you know exactly what needs to get done and how much time you have to do it, you’re able to adjust your energy and push through a rough patch, knowing there’s a break on the other side. 

And, of course, a good planning system is the one you keep coming back to each week. 

A 15-minute planning routine in 4 steps.

If you’re not sure where to get started, here’s a simple 15-minute routine you can use today to get yourself a bit more organized. You’ll need some type of calendar or notebook to keep track of a few things before you get started. 

Step 1: Review your week

Time: Approximately 3 minutes
Take a few minutes to write down any appointments, deadlines, family commitments, errands, or anything out of the ordinary in the week. You can make a list or add each time to a timeslot in your schedule. A couple of things to consider as you review your week: When will this week feel busiest? What absolutely needs my attention?

Step 2: Choose some priorities

Time: Another 3-ish minutes
Pick 3-5 tasks or to-dos that will make the week feel successful once completed. Remember, not every task deserves equal energy, so try not to pick five high-demand tasks. 

Step 3: Make an action plan

Time: 2-3 minutes
From your list of priorities, chunk bigger tasks into smaller steps. If you wrote something like, “get organized”, break it up into action items like “schedule doctor appointments for kids”, “make grocery list”, “clean the hallway closet.”

Step 4: Take one small action now

Time: Remaining time
Take one of your smaller steps and accomplish it now! Create tomorrow’s to-do list, prep something for dinner, tidy your desk, and schedule an appointment. This is for creating momentum and not just letting the plan sit around as a “good idea”.

The post How to pick the right planner system for you appeared first on Plan to Eat.

New Podcast Episodes

#130: The Truth About Why Dinner Feels Exhausting

This week, we’re talking about why meal planning can feel more exhausting than other household chores. Tasks like vacuuming or folding laundry can usually wait, but feeding yourself or your family happens every single day, multiple times a day! We explore the invisible work behind feeding a household, why thinking about food can feel so relentless, and how the emotional and mental weight of meal planning makes it different from other chores.

#131: A Flexible Family Meal Planning System with Hannah Van Ark

Hannah Van Ark joins the show again to talk about family meal planning and creating systems that make feeding your family easier. After becoming a mom, Hannah realized that most families don’t need more nutrition knowledge; they need practical systems that reduce stress and get balanced meals on the table. 

#132: Stop Avoiding Your Meal Plan: Simple Ways to Get Started

From busy schedules and mental load to perfectionism, habits, and not knowing where to start, we break down the real reasons meal planning gets pushed off. We also share practical ways to get unstuck, including starting small, lowering expectations, using templates, and building a system that actually works for your life.

Support the Plan to Eat Podcast by sharing with your friends and subscribing on your favorite streaming app like Apple Podcasts, YouTube Podcasts, Spotify, and more.

Recent Blog Posts

What is a Meal Rotation?

Meal planning doesn’t have to mean you’re starting from scratch every week. One of the best ways to make meal planning simpler is to stop reinventing the wheel entirely with a meal rotation.

Stop Overspending: Real-Life Tips to Save Money on Groceries

Here are some practical, foundational ways to save money at the grocery store while still putting nourishing meals on the table.

3 Ways to Make Natural Pink Food Coloring

You can make natural food colors at home. Here are three ways to make a pretty, natural pink color you can use in frosting for cakes, cupcakes, and cookies!

Why You Should Plan Fewer Meals Each Week

To have a successful meal plan, you don’t need to plan every meal of every day, and you might find a simpler approach more effective. If you’re constantly wasting food or not sticking to your weekly plan, we suggest starting smaller. 

New on YouTube

Follow us on YouTube to get quick meal-planning tips and program tutorials!

Extras

Meal Planning Summit: We’re hosting our very first Meal Planning Summit on May 29! This free, one-day virtual event will bring together experts in meal planning, grocery shopping, meal prep, picky eating, and cooking basics to help you set up simple systems before summer begins. We’ll be sharing more details and opening registration soon, so keep an eye on your inbox.

#LifeSkillsNow Season 5: The Life Skills course from Katie Kimball’s team is back this summer with courses on cooking skills for teens, gardening, personal finance, chores, and even leadership! This is a free, fun, and educational way for your kids to spend a few days this summer, and registration is live!

April’s most popular recipe imports: 

1. Garlic Butter Crispy Chicken on Creamy Beans from Pinch of Yum
2. Creamy Cottage Cheese Basil Pasta from NYT Cooking
3. Yellow Curry Meatballs with Peanut Shallot Crispies from Pinch of Yum
4. Sheet Pan Mediterranean Meatball Bowls from SkinnyTaste
5. One Pan Garlic Parmesan Chicken Dinner from AllRecipes

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 3.7.7:

• You can now choose which day of the week your planner starts on from Planner Settings.
• We improved shopping list organization so similar items are grouped together more consistently.
• We improved iPad multitasking support so you can now use the app in a split view or slide-over window.

Desktop:

• The recipe search now ranks recipes with the keyword in their title above recipes that only mention it in the description, ingredients, or directions — so searching “chicken parmesan” surfaces a recipe titled “Chicken Parmesan” before a “Weeknight Bowl” that happens to mention chicken parmesan in its directions.
• The recipe search now matches partial words in titles. Typing “Apple Muff” finds “Apple Muffins” without having to type the full word.
• Your shopping list just got smarter! Similar ingredients are now automatically grouped together — so all your cheeses, pastas, breads, and more appear in one place instead of scattered throughout the list.
  • Within each group, you can expand or collapse varieties to see exactly what you need. For example, all your Parmesan items collapse into a single row showing the total quantity across recipes.
  • New “Expand All” toggle lets you expand or collapse all grouped items at once. Your preference is remembered across sessions.
  • You can now drag an entire ingredient group to move all its items to a different store at once.
• Shopping list items are now more accurately assigned to the correct grocery category, even if you’ve customized your category names or added emojis.
• We improved recipe clipping for paywalled and login-protected sites — if our server can’t access the page, the clipper extension’s copy of the page is now used as a fallback.

Highlighted Reviews

The post What’s New at Plan to Eat: April 2026 appeared first on Plan to Eat.

Between social media, cookbooks, screenshots, and browser tabs, recipes end up everywhere with no way to use them. The good news is, saving recipes to your Plan to Eat account is quick and seamless. Whether you’re browsing Instagram or flipping through a cookbook, you can keep all your recipes in one place.

Here are the two most popular ways people save recipes to their account so they’ll actually use them later:

Save Recipes from Anywhere with the Recipe Clipper

If you find most of your recipes from social apps or online, this is your go-to tool.

The Recipe Clipper lets you pull recipes directly into your Recipe Book without copying and pasting anything.

How it works:

1. Tap the 3-dot menu or share icon in your browser or social app.
2. Select Share (sometimes Share to)
3. Tap the Plan to Eat app icon

That’s it. The recipe is saved straight to your account.

Why people love it:

• No manual entry or formatting
• Works with blogs, Pinterest, and social media apps
• Organizes ingredients and instructions automatically
• Go from “that looks good” to “I’m making it this week.”

Instead of bookmarking recipes you’ll forget about, build a library of recipes you’ll actually use.

Turn Cookbooks into Digital Recipes with Photo Scanning

Some of the best recipes are in your favorite cookbooks, handwritten cards, or clipped magazine pages.

Turn your physical recipes digital by scanning them into your Plan to Eat account! You can snap a photo of any recipe and add it directly to your account.

How it works:

1. Go to the Cook tab in the app
2. Tap + Add Recipe
3. Select Take a Photo
4. Snap a picture or upload one from your phone’s photo library

From there, the app turns that image into a usable recipe.

Why people love it:

• Brings cookbooks and family recipes into your digital library
• Preserves your family’s heirloom recipes 
• Keeps everything in one searchable place
• Makes older recipes easier to plan and shop for

This is especially helpful if you’ve been meaning to “digitize your recipes” but never had the time.

Why This Matters for Your Weekly Plan

We don’t struggle to find recipes (there’s actually an overwhelming amount of them). We struggle to make them!

While bookmarking or saving a recipe is easy, it’s much harder to remember where it’s saved. That makes meal planning harder than it should be.

Keeping all your recipes in one place prevents you from scrolling endlessly to find a recipe or having 25 tabs open, so you don’t lose something you wanted to try. With a digital recipe book, your meal planning is easier, and you can get to the grocery store faster. It’s a way to work smarter, not harder, when it comes to dinner. 

Use the above methods to save all those delicious recipes in one place and actually start getting them on the table. And if you aren’t using Plan to Eat yet, get started today with a free trial!

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