by Lori Cunningham
One of the very first articles I wrote for WellConnectedMom.com was called, Do You Love to Plan But Never Seem to Have a Plan for Dinner? I’ve reprinted a portion of it below, you can follow the link at the bottom of this article to read the full version.
Lately, my favorite recipe database, AllRecipes.com, has upped their game. They recently came out with their Meal Planner. I have been collecting recipes in my free AllRecipes.com account since 2003. I now have over 900 of them. However, planning out the meals I will make for the week is tedious and I never seem to take the time to plan and shop for all that I will need ahead of time.
With AllRecipes.com’s new Meal Planner, this task is well, rather fun. With simple point and click movements, I can move recipes from my recipe box into the new planner and plan out my meals for the whole week, one day, or even a big Holiday meal. I typically plan out my meals by the date, say May 30th for the 4 meals I will make for that week. I can easily add main dishes, side dishes, salads, soups, desserts right into my planner. And you want to know the next best thing? AllRecipes automatically creates a shopping list for you! Sweet!
I can’t say enough about the new Meal Planner. You may recall that I wrote about the Meal Planner in the review I did for the MSI All-In-One Computer I reviewed earlier. I sent the article to AllRecipes.com and they were thrilled. They asked me to create a video to show AllRecipes.com users how to use the new Meal Planner*. I decided to post the video here so you can see it too. Oh, there is one thing I should mention. To take full advantage of the Meal Planner, you need to become a Supporting Member of AllRecipes.com. A one year introduction prices is $17.50. I opted to buy the 2 year introduction price at $22.95…it’s a better deal! I’ve gotten so much value…and compliments on my meals…because of AllRecipes.com, I felt I already have received value for my $22.95.
Here’s how easy it is to use the AllRecipes.com Meal Planner:
Here’s my original review on AllRecipes.com….
Do You Like To Plan But Never Seem to Have a Plan for Dinner?
If you’re like me, you have to-do lists everywhere – on your refrigerator, cellphone, in your office, in your purse, etc. I plan my next steps for my daughter’s upcoming class party, taking my mom to the doctor, buying school supplies, getting groceries for the week, ensuring I have presents for the upcoming birthday parties this weekend, calling back so-and-so, so-and-so, and so-and so, calling T-Mobile to correct my bill, following up with the doctor to get back results, you name it, I have a list for it.
But, before I know it, it’s dinner time. Uh-oh. No plan for that. Gulp. Quick, what’s my plan? Had I only thought ahead, I could have defrosted some chicken. Now what do I do? Here’s a plan…I use a website that helps me tremendously in this area….although I’m not going to lie. I still find myself without a plan for dinner. But when I do use this website for weekly planning, it’s great!
The website I use is called http://www.allrecipes.com/.
Allrecipes.com is a free website to get and post recipes. It’s well established and focused on recipes and the people who use them. They also offer premium services for an additional $17.50 a year, but unless you’re a foodie with a burning desire to blog about recipes and give personal reviews, its’ not needed.
I’m a HUGE fan of this website for many reasons:
- Tons of recipes – it has a huge recipe database with everything you’d want to make. In fact, every recipe is scalable to whatever number of servings you desire.
- My own recipe collection – I can create my own recipe database showing my favorite recipes from their database as well as add my own private recipes (for my eyes only).
- Recipe ratings – other people rate each recipe to tell you whether they liked it or not. Each recipe has a rating from 1-5 stars. I only choose the recipes that have 4 or above stars. I feel so comfortable with these ratings that I have often cooked things for guests without trying the recipe first. People almost always rave over the recipe.
There’s a lot more to this article! See the rest….Do You Like to Plan But Never Seem to Have a Plan for Dinner?
* Allrecipes.com provided me with a Visa gift card to create the video for them.
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