The Plan to Eat Blog

Monthly Meal Planning

Today we launched one of the most requested features for Plan to Eat. You can now plan your meals using a Monthly Meal Planner.

New Monthly Meal Planner

As you can see above, there is a new "Meal Planner" page and your recipes are listed on the left side and the meal planner is on the right. To add recipes, drag them to any day on the planner. To add other items not in your Recipe Book just click on any calendar day to view that day's detail. Once added, you can rearrange the recipes and other items (in blue) to any day or order in the day.

New Weekly Meal Planner

We also changed the way the weekly meal planner works. We have removed the "Add Recipes" buttons and the "Add other items..." fields to save valuable space. Now when you want to add recipes to the weekly meal planner, just drag them from your recipe book the planner. And if you want to add other items not in your recipe book, click on any day of the planner to bring up the detail for that day and input the other items (see picture above). It works like the monthly meal planner and we think it works better.

So head over to www.plantoeat.com to login (or signup for a free 30-day trial) and try it out. We hope you like the changes and we welcome your feedback on the new monthly meal planner and the changes to the weekly meal planner.

So what's next?

In the next week or so we will add the ability to filter your recipes on the meal planning page by keywords and tags. We'll also distinguish the calendar days by Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner and allow you to add events for the day and order them just like the recipes. We also want to integrate with other calendar software so you can see your events on Plan to Eat, and see your recipes on your favorite calendar software.

Meal Planning Should Be Easier

That's what my wife thought a few years ago, and that's why I started working on a meal planning website called Plan to Eat that would help our family decide what to eat when, and then create a categorized shopping list from our meal plan. It was a simple idea, but at the time I couldn't find anything online that did what we wanted. A lot has happened since I started working on Plan to Eat, and over the past year it has grown from a simple meal planning tool for our family and few friends, to a full featured meal planning, recipe sharing website with hundreds of people using it each week.

We have added many new features since our official launch only three months ago on June 1st. Some of them obvious and some not at all.

In June we added user profile settings with pictures and the ability to see your friends information. We also added the ability to easily update serving sizes for your recipes on the meal plan.

Then in early July our local paper, The Coloradoan, wrote an article about Plan to Eat. Then a few weeks after that I was finally able to redesign the site too look at little more modern and hopefully more enjoyable to use. Then we added the ability to print your meal plan for the fridge, and export it as a .csv file for Excel. 

In August we launched a referral program that allows paying subscribers to earn commission of $1 for every $4.95 monthly subscription and $6 for every $39 monthly subscription. You can easily track your referrals and use a special link to advertise on blogs/websites and emails. We also added bulk ingredient input when creating new recipes. We have already heard from a few of you that this makes it much easier to add recipes from sites we can't import from or from your own documents. Then we added a simple iPhone version of the site that allows you to view your shopping list and recipe book while at the grocery store.

This month we added the ability to order/sort your planned recipes on each day of your weekly planner. Just drag the recipes around like you normally would. We also moved some things around. Now you can easily update the date range your recipes and ingredients are pulled from your weekly planner, at the top of the shopping list page. And you can now Save/Load meal plans, update serving sizes and set options like start day and Time Zone, all from the Weekly Planner.

We have a lot of new ideas as well, and in my free time (which is currently not much, with 3 little ones and a full time job), I will continue to work hard to add things like a full monthly planner (with a place for daily events and separation of Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner), shopping list categorization by shopping store, and maybe even a real iPhone app that doesn't require internet to access your recipes and shopping lists.

Plan to Eat was created, and is supported by a me, a Dad trying to help his family and yours eat healthy meals at home and save money in the process.We sincerely appreciate all of you that have (or are planning to) subscribe to Plan to Eat. Without your subscriptions we would not be able to pay for our web hosting and other expenses. We hope to continually improve the site and add value to your investment. Thank you so much for your support.

If you have never used Plan to Eat before, visit www.plantoeat.com to sign up for a free 30-day trial.

Old Fashioned Zucchini Bread

 

Oh, it is summer and the zucchini plant is going crazy! We are getting more than we can eat from our one plant. For those of you who don't have a zucchini plant, remember to gracious accept the excess from your friends that do, so we don't feel like we are wasting what we can't eat! What you choose to do with them after you take them is your business. Here is a great recipe for zucchini bread to use up some of the extra. As always, it is best to use freshly ground flour for any baked good. You can use any combination of flour, but half whole wheat and half pastry flour will make the bread feel more like a muffin, very moist and sticky. It will be a bit more dry with all whole wheat flour, but still good. 

Old Fashioned Zucchini Bread

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup olive oil 
• 1 1/3 cup sugar 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda 
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 
• 1 1/2 cup fresh ground whole wheat flour 
• 1 1/2 cup fresh ground whole wheat pastry flour 
• 2 cups grated zucchini, unpeeled 
• 1 cup chopped walnuts  

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly oil 2 bread pans. 
2. In a large bowl or mixer, mix eggs, oil, sugar, soda, salt and vanilla. 
3. Mix 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of zucchini into the egg mixture. While mixing add remaining flour and zucchini. Beat until blended. Add walnuts. Mix well. 
4. Bake at 350F for 50-60 minutes. Test after 40 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Marinara Sauce

I love a good marinara sauce!  This one is very easy and very versatile.  We have this a lot.  It is really great with fresh tomatoes.  It would probably be best if the tomatoes are peeled, but I never take the time.  It works well with canned tomatoes too.  You can throw in anything that is ready in the garden or whatever needs using up in the refrigerator.  I like to add chopped carrots, zucchini, spinach or kale, mushrooms, etc.  You can also add ground beef or sausage.  Here is the basic recipe, it easily serves 8-10 and freezes well.

Marinara Sauce

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• any desired garden veggies such as carrots, squash, mushrooms etc.
• 3 32 oz. cans diced tomatoes (look for fire roasted or with italian herbs) or 5 lbs. fresh Roma tomatoes (peeled if desired, chopped and seeded)
• 1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
• 1 4 oz. can tomato paste
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 cups fresh basil, chopped 

In a heavy bottomed pot, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the onion and stir until softened.  Add garlic and veggies and cook another 5-7 min until softened. Add diced tomatoes or fresh and tomato sauce. Use the tomato paste to adjust the thickness. Season to taste. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to simmer. Prepare desired pasta according to package directions. Add fresh basil just before serving. Serve with a garden salad, some Italian bread and a good red wine. Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Waffles

Whole wheat waffles are one of our favorite dinners, or breakfasts or lunch for that matter.  Especially in the summer when the berries are abounding!  This is a super easy recipe that can be adjusted for the number of people eating.  If possible, use freshly ground whole wheat flour, it makes all the difference!  I grind a bunch at a time and freeze it to preserve the freshness.  For waffles, the flour can be used cold.  We use a professional style Belgium waffle maker so one big waffle is enough for one person.  I split one in half for my little girls.  The recipe will make 3 large Belgium waffles.  We make this recipe with a milk alternative (soy or almond milk) with great results.  You can use this basic recipe to make pancakes as well, but you will need to reduce the amount of leaven.  Either reduce by half the baking powder or if you are increasing the amount, use half as many eggs.

Whole Wheat Waffles

• 1 cup freshly ground whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 1/2 cups milk  (approximate)

Mix together the dry ingredients.  Beat the egg and add about half the milk.  Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture, adding milk until it reaches the desired consistency.  You can add fresh or dried blueberries or chopped nuts as well.  You may have to experiment with your waffle iron to determine the correct thickness.  Top with butter, maple syrup, fruit, etc. 

In Celebration of Sweet Peas

We grew sweet peas for the first time this year.  My little girls are just amazed to see the peas that normally come out of bag from the freezer coming out of a pod off a vine.  We recently harvested our crop, although we were a little late, so our peas were not quite as sweet and tender as they could have been.  None the less, we made a yummy pasta dish from our peas that is also very good made with frozen peas.  For my little girl with a milk allergy, we make one dish without ricotta for her.  This is a very kid friendly dish.  This recipe is slightly modified from "Real Simple".

Pasta with Smashed Peas

• 1 pound fettuccine pasta
• 1 16-ounce package frozen peas, thawed or fresh if in season
• 3/4 cup ricotta
• 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

Cook the pasta according to the package directions.  When you drain it, reserve about 1/3 cup of the pasta water.  While the pasta is boiling, boil the peas for about 5-7 minutes until tender.  Drain the peas and place in a food processor or blender reserving a handful of peas for garnish.  Pulse until they are chopped but not pureed.  Add ricotta, salt and pepper and pulse until blended.  Transfer pea mixture to the pot you boiled the peas in.  Add the 1/3 cup reserved pasta water to make it more like a sauce.  To serve, place the pea sauce over the pasta, put a dollop of ricotta on top and garnish with whole peas and chives.  Drizzle olive oil over the top and serve. Yummy!

The Meal Planning Process

I like to plan things.  It gives me the illusion of control.  I don't like standing at 5 pm at the refrigerator wondering what I am going to feed my family.  I don't like going out to eat, at least not all the time, or having oatmeal for dinner...again!  So I started planning our meals.  My process is rather cumbersome and time consuming.  I sit down with all my recipes in books and on random pieces of paper, my calendar,  a chart I made on the computer with the days of the week on it, and another chart I made for a categorized shopping list.  Then I decide what I will make for each meal on each day based on our schedule for the week, then make a list based on the weeks menu, then check it against what I already have.  It works really well, but it takes a lot of time that I just don't have with three little girls running around.

So my very gifted computer literate husband has created a program that does what I do to create a meal plan based on our schedule.  It then makes a shopping list from that weeks menu that is categorized by departments in the grocery store so I don't have to run all the way back across for the one thing I forgot in produce. The address is www.plantoeat.com.  Try it out, and let us know if you have suggestions.

How it works:

On the recipe book page you can add your favorite recipes and see your friends recipes.  We intentionally did not make this a database of recipes because there are plenty of those already.  This is designed to be a place to store the recipes you already know and love.  Once a recipe has been added, you can drag it to the calendar at the bottom of the page.  Any recipe that is on the calendar will be added to the shopping list.  

On the shopping list page, all the individual items from each recipe on the calendar will appear separated by category.  You can add items, delete items, or move them to a separate list if you have them in your pantry already.  

The pantry page is designed to help jog your memory for staple items that you want to always have on hand.  Once customized, any item can be moved to your weekly shopping list when you run out.  

There are several new features on the way, but for now, Plan to eat has all the steps I use to plan our families meals for a week.  We are excited to see what you think!

Check it out:  www.plantoeat.com