If you’re just getting started with meal prepping, I know – it kind of sucks, especially if you’re just cooking for one. But, damn – this app changed everything. Originally designed to help eliminate food waste, this app completely upleveled my meal prep game and – if you’re just getting started on planning and cooking for one, I can guarantee this will help get ya’ started.
The name is Joy. PlateJoy. Ok – the dumb jokes are done for now. But all joking aside, this app really is great. Although I’ve gone off a bit on my own lately, I used this app religiously to meal plan for years. Here’s how it works:
Step 1: Answer a few questions about your eating and cooking habits
When you create an account on the app, you begin with answering a few questions about your eating habits, cooking habits, and goals. This includes your diet (for example: paleo, clean eating, vegetarian, vegan, etc.), listing any allergies or food preferences you may have, telling the app what cookware you have (so you don’t get an InstantPot recipe if you don’t own an InstantPot), whether or not you want to lose weight, how long you have to make each meal, whether or not you want to batch cook…
There are a lot of questions, but they’re there to help tailor your meal plan to something attainable for you. From there, it basically creates a little bank of recipes so you can see what’s coming up in your meal plans. If you decide you don’t like something, you can completely remove it from the menu!
Step 2: Decide how many meals you’re making that week
From there, there is a little slider you’ll use to tell the app how many of each meal you plan on making in that plan. I usually plan by the week, but how often you create a menu is completely up to you. Generally, it asks what day of the week you plan on grocery shopping and it will remind you to create a new meal plan before then.
This is a great feature because, as we all know, sometimes you may need a bigger list in one week than another depending on what you’ve got going on. Generally, I opt for 2-3 breakfasts, 3-4 lunches, and 3-4 dinners.
Step 3: Complete your pantry
Before it gives you a grocery list, it’ll ask you what you have in your pantry. These are generally common items, like olive oil, salt, other spices, rice… you know, bulk items. If you have them, it’ll remove them from your shopping list.
Once your shopping list is generated, it will tell you how much of each item you need and what recipe that item goes in. The meal plans are specifically designed to eliminate food waste, so don’t be surprised if you see an ingredient being used two weeks in a row or being used in multiple recipes.
Step 4: Go grocery shopping!
The shopping list is separated by grocery store section, so the app really helps speed up the grocery shopping process by grouping items together for you. If you’re one of those that hate grocery shopping, the app also integrates with InstaCart (Get $10 off with the code KORTEZ1111A8) so you can send your items to the app to get delivered right to you!
Step 5: Get cooking!
The meal plan, as I’ve mentioned, is specifically designed to eliminate food waste, so it tells you when to cook, when to eat leftovers, and how much to make. Follow the instructions closely, because I’ve definitely used a whole item on accident when I was only supposed to save part of it for another recipe!
Start the process over!
Overall, this meal prep app is great for planning for one. It might create some funky shopping lists, but it’s intention to eliminate food waste makes it great for using up ingredients on hand and making portion sizes that either save well or can be used in other recipes.
Try it out for yourself by clicking HERE!
