Meal planning is one of the most effective ways of ensuring that you eat healthily and save money at the same time.
With a meal plan, shopping gets easier, and you make your week or month less stressful.
Also, you will be giving yourself a chance to avoid unhealthy habits and cravings. You will be in total control of your caloric intake.
However, the task is not as easy as it may sound. Sometimes you can backslide and find yourself going out of the plan.
With a meal planner app, however, you will always be reminded of the efforts you put into it.
Let’s have a look at some of IOS and android meal planning apps that can help you.
Pepperplate
This app has been designed with the aim of making meal planning easier in many ways.
First, it helps you by deflecting all the barriers hindering you from making healthy meal choices.
It also helps organize your recipes both the ones that you have gathered from different platforms as well as those that you find on Pepperplate.
The meal planner can work as a grocery list companion too.
You can work with it as you prepare a meal as you check the recipe instructions.
You can use it to cook the meal as you review the recipe instructions one by one.
Planning meals days or weeks ahead allows you to make recipes that fit certain occasions or mood. The app is easy to understand and use.
Allrecipes dinner spinner
The app allows you to access different meal planning categories from dietary restriction, cuisine to cooking time.
You can easily make a weekly meal plan which in return helps in reducing the stress that comes with overcoming the urge to eat unhealthy meals especially on those dull days when you just cannot decide on what to eat.
It also features some meal planning tools which allows you to print the plan if you wish to make the work easier.
You can then stick the plan on the refrigerator or anywhere in the kitchen and this way, even if you do not have your phone around, you can still access it.
You will also get videos to guide you through the recipe instructions.
Ziplist
Other than accessing a weekly meal plan, you will enjoy the benefits of coupons which helps you save money as you minimize the stress that comes with coming up with creative, healthy meals.
The app comes with numerous features which allow you to come up with unique yet tasty meals quickly.
It has a food site with a variety of options, and you can select a different meal each day.
You can now add new recipes to your list every day.
Even better; it allows you to share recipes. It is a perfect way of getting dinner input selections for a particular occasion.
It is super easy to use and navigate through the app.
Platejoy
This app helps you create a customized meal plan based on your dietary preference.
It is best if you are want to embark on a weight loss journey.
It is available both for iOS and Androids.
It is user-friendly and features beautiful and colorful food photos which will motivate you more to make the meals.
It also features nutrition information under every recipe which makes it easier to achieve your health goals.
You can use it to create a customized grocery list thus ensuring that there is no food waste.
It does so by letting you log the food that is already in your pantry or fridge and therefore you won’t have to rebuy things that you already have.
Another great feature is that it allows you to send your grocery list to Instacart and can be delivered instantly.
Mealtime
This meal planner app has been designed around all kind of family meals and guests and has made meal planning easier than it sounds.
It lets you create profiles of each person you are cooking.
The profile can include likes, allergies, dislikes and other general eating preferences and habits.
If you are preparing for a couple, you can do so. If it is a family, you can still make a plan and do it fast.
After that, you can navigate through the app and get recipes that fit your requirements.
Each recipe has full instructions and can show you all the necessary ingredients to add to your grocery list.
Most of the recipes on this app focus on fast prep meals which is a good way of saving time.
Plan to Eat
The Plan to Eat allows you to organize your favorite recipes thus letting you make meal plans all in one in this easy-to-use app.
It is available both for iOS and Androids. It comes with numerous attractive features to make your meal planning more accessible and exciting.
For starters, it lets you enter recipes manually.
You will then find full information and guidance on nutrition for every recipe, and you can just take notes before deciding which one to go for.
Even better; you can add recipes to your weekly calendar-style planner which automatically makes an organized grocery list.
It is unique as it lets you share your recipes and meal plans with family and friends making it easier to stay on your health journey meal as a team.
It is, however, an excellent choice for users who already have a recipe collection ready or those who enjoy searching the web for different recipes as it does not come with a preset recipe database.
Cook Smarts
This is one of the most advanced meal planning apps.
Although it is easy to use, it is not simple.
It not only provides you with general meal recommendations but also it gives you a comprehensive meal plan recommendation to suit your dietary restrictions and food preferences.
Most of the recipes given recipes emphasize the use of natural products rather than processed ones.
The app features instructional videos and other resources to make healthy eating easier for you.
Eat This Much
As the name suggests, this app is ideal for regulating the amount of food you eat.
It is the best of you are planning on losing weight.
It encourages you to put in preferences in whatever you eat, how much you wish to spend on it, eating schedule and how many calories the meal should contain.
If you love cooking rather than getting takeaway and you want to adopt a healthy eating habit, this app could be what you need.
Yummly
Yummly is a two-in-one; app and website.
You can use it to browse and search for recipes which are made to fit your personal taste and dietary preference.
It works on both Android and iOS, and the best part is that it is free of charge.
The app can filter recipes to fit your preferences, skill level, and allergies.
You can even select recipes that have instructional videos especially if you are looking to improve your cooking skills and techniques.
It has full information for every recipe.
Saving the recipes allows you to save them in different meal categories which include breakfast, lunch supper, and any in-between snacks.
You have the choice to enter and save the recipes that you get from anywhere else manually.
Lose it
This app is more of a micronutrient and calorie tracker.
It is advanced and has premium meal planning features.
It is available for both Android and iOS platforms.
The basic features are free, but you have to pay a little fee to access the premium features.
The price is much cheaper and reasonable compared to other apps.
To use it, you have to enter your personal preference and other activities to establish your target calorie range.
The program is mainly ideal for those who wish to reach a particular weight goal, and after entering your data, it will give you an estimate of the time you will take to achieve the target based on the selected level of calorie.
The free version lets you enter your recipes manually, allowing you to create healthy meal plans but if you want an automatic meal planning, you will have to upgrade.
The app has proven its excellence in monitoring eating habits and weight loss with the main focus being tracking.
Food on the table
This program does not oblige you to select the recipes of the food you want to cook.
Instead, it will deliver the recipes for you every week with a planned meal for every day based on the information entered about your dietary preferences, goals, and restrictions that you set when signing in.
The aim is to make meal planning stress free, unlike other applications where you have to navigate as you look for the perfect recipe.
Also, the app comes with grocery lists and recipe guide which helps you save time and money.
Love food hate waste
This app is almost similar to mealBoard.
The aim is to help you make good use of leftovers during your meal planning.
It uses these leftovers to give you suggestions on what to eat next.
Besides being cost conscious, this app will help you make healthy decisions and still guide you into preserving the environment by avoiding waste.
You do not have to cook every single day or night.
This is especially excellent for busy people such as business professionals who may not have time to cook every meal and are not into takeaways.
The program comes with step-by-step instructions for every meal.
What’s more?
It guides you on portion control which ensures that you are on the right path to healthy living.
Evernote Food
This is one of the most popular meal planning apps. Evernote food not only allows you to collect and
save recipes but also lets you save pictures of some of the meals if you love them and wish to make it some other time. The program has been created for multiuse and understands that you may not find time to cook every day. This way, it got you covered even when you decide to eat out with friends. You will find tips on some of the best takeaways to take on different occasions.
Fooducate
The app goes beyond tracking your calorie intake.
If you are working towards weight loss and fitness goals, this food coach is the solution for you.
It guides and teaches you how to ear real food and avoid processed junky meals. It comes with instructional recipes to navigate you days or weeks of breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Try out any of these meal planning apps and watch your lifestyle improve drastically.
Having a meal plan will help you watch what you eat. It also makes cooking easier and exciting.
You will be looking forward to it every time you see a recipe that looks yummy and appealing, and you cannot wait to try it.
The best part is that most of these apps are free and easy to use regardless of what device you are using, be it Android or iOS. Just go to your apps store, search for your most preferred among them, download, install and get started.