Each New Year, my resolution has been to get better organized. One major aspect which I really wanted to organize is how cooking and shopping for what I cook can be done better. What my family eats daily is decided by the helter skelter method of looking at the fridge and asking ?what do you guys want to eat today?? Well, there is an app for that. Menu Planner is an app that lets you input recipes and plan your breakfast, lunch, dinner menu, and organize your shopping lists (and budget) if you want to.
Menu in the Cloud
If that?s not enough, you can back your menu onto the cloud and access it from your PC or any other iOS device. To better explain, here is how I managed to complicate or uncomplicated the eating process in my home.
Step 1: Input Recipe to Create a menu Database
Here I type in all the types of food that is available (stuff I generally cook). You may choose to input the recipes or just the general header (since I am the only one cooking in the house I put in the Food item instead of the actual menu)
Step 2: Set up Menu
You can set your menu in advance of as many days as you wish. I set it up for a week in advance.
Step 3: Share Menu
With the help of a simple setup procedure to log in ? I can share the menu on other iOS devices with my wife. The menu setup can then be rearranged/deleted/edited on the go. The updates will then be synced to other devices that have the Menu Planner App.
Alternatively, if I have guests for dinner, I can email the menu to them.
Optional
Viewing in Groups ? You can categorize the Food item types (Mains, Side Dishes, Soups etc. etc.) and view them from that perspective.
Pantry Option ? Lets you see what you have in your pantry and what is not to plan your shopping.
Shopping Prices
Plan the costs of your grocery shopping. This entails inputting the prices of the menu ingredients. Too much work for me.
Here is the entire list of Menu Planner?s features:
? Key Features:
? Plan out your meals exactly how you like them, as far out as you like
? Create a shopping list automatically based on the meal plans you’ve created
? Set item prices per store for comparison shopping and estimating your total bill
? Import recipes from popular recipe websites, and add your own favorite recipes
? Access your data through the Menu Planner website (www.menu-planner.com) using your home computer
? Keep track of what you have in your pantry to make meal planning and shopping lists simple
? Universal app that runs on iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch
? Additional Features:
? Mark items as favorites to quickly add them to your shopping list
? Add your own images to recipes
? Sync your data between multiple devices
? Supports multiple stores for your shopping lists
? Easily swap meals from one date to another.
? Add your own meal types (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, etc).
? Organize food and recipes by creating your own categories
? Add notes to meals
? Move individual meals to a different date
? Copy individual meals to a different date
? Email meal plans
? Email shopping lists
? Email recipes
? Free online backup and restore of your data
? iPhone version includes a barcode scanner for quickly adding new items
? Print a monthly or weekly meal plan directly to an AirPrint compatible printer (iPad version only at this time)
Menu Planner is a universal app available on the iPhone and iPad for $2.99.
