Are you exhausted from constantly thinking about what’s for dinner every night? You’re not alone. Setting aside just a few minutes each week to plan some meals can remove the stress and guesswork around mealtimes, help you stick to your food budget and improve your overall health and nutrition.
In a quest to simplify meal planning and help you make the most of your time, we’re sharing a roundup of our favorite apps for healthy eating.
Paprika
For seamless recipe organization, grocery list syncing across multiple devices and step-by-step cooking instructions, Paprika has you covered. As with many food prep apps, users manually add their favorite recipes or import them from websites to create customized meal plans that can be reused as needed. The app also tracks your pantry and fridge staples to let you know when you’re running low on items like flour or eggs.
Paprika offers automatic recipe scaling so you can easily cut down or increase how much food to prepare, as well as the option to plan out meals for the week or month. It’s worth noting that while Paprika does sync across devices, users pay for each download.
Plan to Eat
iOS and Android | 14-day free trial and then $5.95 per month
Plan to Eat is another heavy hitter when it comes to an all-in-one meal planning, shopping and organizing app. While this app also doesn’t provide recipes, it does offer nutrition and macronutrients (proteins, carbohydrates and fats) tracking. The app reports that users noted an 85% decrease in anxiety about meals and an almost 50% reduction in the time spent meal planning and grocery shopping, in addition to lower grocery bills.
The layout of the app is visually appealing and organizes recipes using photos, making it easy to navigate and use the three-step planning process to cook, plan and shop. Plan to Eat also makes it easy to export your shopping list for grocery delivery and adjust your menu plan as needed with a simple drag-and-drop calendar.
Mealime
iOS and Android | Free to download, $2.99 per month for the pro version
In addition to easy meal planning and grocery list creation, Mealime provides an extensive library of healthy 30-minute recipes. Users can choose from a wide range of diet options, from classic to low carb, keto and vegetarian. In addition, Mealime makes it easy to filter recipes by allergens and ingredients you dislike, as well as set portion sizes for recipes and set optional reminders to create meal plans.
The recipes included within the app feel elevated and fresh, offering a new twist on old favorites as well as unique creations. The options are organized using photos and can be sorted by meal type, such as breakfast, lunch, snacks or dinner, as well as by cost and time commitment. The app’s pro version is available for an additional fee and provides additional recipes as well as the option to add in your own, along with nutrition tracking and access to your meal plan history.
Eat This Much
iOS and Android | Free, with a premium option for $14.99 per month.
If you’re searching for a nutrition-focused meal planning app, Eat This Much is one to try. The app uses information about your body type, age, weight and goals to provide customized meal plans. Users can choose from several diet types, filter for common allergens and prioritize food preferences for each meal.
With a quick tap on a specific date, the Eat This Much app provides weekly meal plans from an extensive range of recipes tailored to your nutritional needs. You can also search the app’s recipes to manually create your own plan and easily edit and update your preferences. However, grocery lists are only available with the app’s premium version.
Recipe Keeper
iOS and Android | Free for the basic version, $19.99 one-time payment for the pro version
The Recipe Keeper app serves as a great one-stop spot for storing recipes that you can share with others. Users can import recipes from the web, manually add recipes, or scan them in from photos or PDF documents. From there, you can sort your recipes by course, categories, favorites and recents.
Users of the Recipe Keeper app can create meal plans, cookbooks for printing or sharing, shopping lists that sync across devices and use Amazon Alexa for step-by-step cooking instructions.
Want to meal plan on your own? Learn how with the help of OhioHealth experts here.
