Best Meal Planning Apps of 2023

This app lets you save and organize recipes, create grocery lists, and even scale ingredients based on serving sizes. It’s ideal for meal prep enthusiasts who love trying new dishes. These meal plan apps will help you save time, eat healthier, be more organized, and stick to your diet if needed. I’ve split my list into free and paid options to help you meal prep.

There are smart design features, too, like the ability to split screen while you cook, so you can see the recipe up to three ingredients and steps side by side. The app has an uncluttered cooking experience that lets you focus on the recipe at hand. Additionally, it includes a user interface that lets you check off items while you cook, eliminating the need to constantly check whether you’ve added salt. Additionally, you can add your own favorite recipes and save ideas from the Internet as well.

They deliver all throughout Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, and the Maritimes. Their meal kits come with pre-portioned ingredients, helping you save time and reduce food waste. It goes without saying that meal prepping doesn’t always mean cooking everything from scratch.

Best Meal Kit Subscription Services in Canada

When you sign up, you’re asked a series of questions about your dietary restrictions and preferences (like if you prefer to eat meat or not). Once you’ve got your food preferences nailed down, the app also asks about access to prep and cooking supplies, like a pressure cooker or a blender. Meal planning can be a struggle—especially when you’re already juggling so many things! Thankfully technology has your back with these easy-to-use meal prep apps. They’re all designed to make meal planning as https://www.aarp.org/health/healthy-living/weight-loss-foods/ straightforward as possible. With recipe ideas, grocery lists, and exciting features (like ingredient prep checklists!), there’s something for everyone.

Clean Food Dirty Girl Meal Planner

With PlateJoy, you can say goodbye to scribbled notes and forgotten items, and hello to a streamlined shopping experience. Your personalized lists are tailored to your unique preferences, taking into account any dietary restrictions or allergies. This means you can shop with confidence, knowing that the ingredients you’re buying align with your health goals.

AnyList – Sync Meal Plans & Shopping Lists Across Devices

A good set of measuring cups helps add the perfect portions every time. There a couple free apps for meal planning, but keep in mind that you get what you pay for. There aren’t a lot (if any) personalization options, and resources are typically limited with a reduced bank of recipes to choose from. You can add your grocery list right into the app and sync it with your Google Calendar so that your schedule is always up-to-date with your grocery shopping lists.

Factors We Considered When Reviewing the Best Meal Planning Apps

The app will create a weekly plan of lunch and dinner (plus breakfast and snacks if you want them) from its collection of recipes. While the app focuses on lunch and dinner, you can easily add breakfast and snacks. The app will generate custom meal plans from its database using your preferences and calorie goals as a guide. It also allows users to import recipes from the web or manually add them. It’s also a calorie tracker with a database of popular restaurant dishes and packaged foods, which you can add to manually or with a barcode scanner. Paprika is our top pick because it gives you tons of flexibility and customization with the free app option.

Meal Prep Tools, Apps, and Services to Reach Your Goals

They allow users to choose specific meal plans and recipes, create shopping lists, and track nutritional information, all from the ease of a mobile device. Mealime is widely recommended in forums for meal planners and caters to busier people because it’s full of recipes that can be made in under half an hour. You can filter recipes by dietary restrictions or preferences, generate a grocery list, and get on with your day. It’s a little bare-bones beyond that, but as a picky eater, I appreciate the ability to eliminate recipes that include the things I don’t care for.

  • Yummly automatically adds ingredients from your chosen recipes, and you can check off items as you shop.
  • Many vegan meal planner apps even account for your dietary preferences, allergies, and time constraints.
  • A unique feature of this app is that you can share your recipes or meal plans with friends and family which may make it easier to stay on top of your health goals as a team.
  • Meal planning apps, by nature, offer opportunities to plot out meals.
  • While choosing simpler recipes was a priority, we certainly didn’t skimp on nutrition (or flavor).
  • Having that buffer keeps the plan from feeling too restrictive and is the key to making it a habit that actually lasts.

We chose it because its custom meal plans use your preferences and calorie goals as a guide. Some vegan meal planners can’t be tailored to your preferences. That can work just fine if you want to step outside your comfort zone and let someone else decide your weekly menu. While this meal plan is free of allergens like dairy, eggs, and fish since it’s entirely vegan, those with nut and seed allergies may need to get extra creative. Since the weekly meal plans aren’t customizable, it is up to you to find substitutions for those ingredients.

There’s no doubt that a well-considered meal plan can help you eat healthier throughout the week and lighten the load of mealtime decision fatigue. But creating a weekly meal plan can be a lot of work, and hiring a nutritionist to do it for you can be expensive. The recipe organization feature allows you to filter and search for specific recipes, making meal planning a breeze. The List Optimization feature further refines your list, grouping similar items together and suggesting substitutes for out-of-stock products. With the Plan to Eat Meal Planning App, you’ll enjoy a hassle-free shopping experience, freeing you to focus on what matters most – cooking and enjoying healthy, delicious meals.

Yes, ingredients can be excluded due to allergies or preference. Any exercise is better than no exercise when it comes to losing weight, and ultimately, you should go when you know you can stay consistent because it fits in your schedule. For some people, that’s first thing in the morning, and for others, that’s in the evening after work. It gets harder every year to keep the weight off — especially for moms (we know a little something about that).

meal prep planner app

MealPrepPro Planner & Recipes

Therefore, it’s probably best for people who can structure a meal plan with minimal support. The app builds your meal plan by taking your diet preferences and food allergies into account during set-up making it easier to follow if you have dietary restrictions. Ideal for budgeting, MealBoard allows you to collect recipes from around the web or upload your own and then input prices for each ingredient to ensure you’re spending what you want. It then builds a digital shopping list and even edits your list of pantry items as you use them. A calendar function allows you to easily drag and drop meals into the week, making menu planning a breeze. Yummly automatically adds ingredients from your chosen recipes, and you can check off items as you shop.

Comparative Data Table: Top Meal Planning Apps in 2025

This 1,500-calorie meal plan has modifications for 2,000 calories to support those with different calorie needs. AI makes meal planning way more accessible, including among people who don’t have access to a registered dietitian. This type of practical guidance can help drive meaningful changes in someone’s approach to lifestyle and nutrition. The app is highly customizable, letting you set dietary preferences, plan for special occasions, and even keep track of your nutritional intake. With Out of Milk, you’ll be liberated from meal prep chaos and free to focus on what matters most reddit – enjoying delicious, healthy meals with your loved ones. With Yummly’s digital meal planner, you’ll feel liberated from meal planning stress, and empowered to take control of your healthy eating goals.

Meal Planning Apps That Save Time and Money

A good meal prep app will easily serve your lifestyle and improve your menu planning flow. Whether you’re looking for a new arsenal of recipes or grocery list optimization, one of these will do the trick. Meal prepping, or planning ahead for several days or even a week’s worth of meals, has plenty of benefits. Downloadable apps can take the guesswork and hassle out of grocery shopping, recipe hunting, accommodating special dietary needs, and more.

What Are the Benefits of Using a Meal Planning App?

Don’t make it more overwhelming than it needs to be for yourself — it’s just food. And if you don’t know how many calories your body needs, AI-generated recommendations could amount to more or less than you need. “A dietitian can help figure out how much food and what kind of nutrients you need based on your weight, height, activity level, and health goals,” Crum said. Meal prep has never been easier with our seven-day meal plans, suitable for a range of tastes and dietary needs.

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