Everyone agrees: sitting down to a relaxed meal with family members is nourishing in every possible way. Of course, behind that image of serenity, there’s often a frantic parent scrambling to plan, provision, and prepare the food.
Now an avalanche of apps promises to simplify these tasks. Most of the sites below offer recipes, menu planning, and even instant grocery lists. Zeroing in on the one that will work for your family is almost as challenging as finding a recipe everyone likes, so the following list is organized around your most urgent needs. Would you like to have someone else magically plan your meals? Are you looking for inspiring new recipes? Are you cooking to satisfy special needs?
Many of the websites and apps are free, and even the subscription plans tend to offer free samples. Before making a commitment to any particular program, check out a meal or two to be sure they are a good match with your family’s tastes, lifestyle, and budget.
Give me a plan!
Get organized. Howdoesshedoit.com, a website designed by a husband-wife team, is especially easy to use. Make a collection of recipes you like, taking their suggestions or importing your own ideas. Drag meals into the menu plan. Hit a button and get a grocery list. The website is free to those who sign up. An iPhone app called PlanShopEat costs $2.99.
Keep it simple. Thefresh20.com e-mails a weekly plan for five dinners that use only 20 fresh, in-season ingredients. Choose from classic, gluten-free, lunch, or vegetarian-vegan plans. Cost is $5 per month, although Groupons are often available.
Use what you have. Supercook.com encourages you to look in your pantry and put ingredients — and leftovers — into a search engine. Then it generates a list of recipes that use what’s already in the house. Filter recipes to eliminate those that include nuts, gluten, meat, dairy, fish, or shellfish.
No time to cook. Thescramble.com is firmly grounded in the realities of family life. Subscribers get recipes for five dinners a week with an emphasis on seasonal produce. A helpful newsletter includes tips about problems ranging from picky eaters to tight food budgets. After a two-week, free trial, subscriptions cost $7 a month for three months or $3 a month for three years.
Need inspiration. Relishrelish.com sends subscribers 15 tasty, upscale dinner recipes. You pick what looks appealing and create an instant grocery list. For $7 per month or $60 a year, you also get a mobile app that generates grocery lists, scales recipes, and includes nutritional information.
Shop the sales. Foodonthetable.com asks users to specify the foods they like to eat and the stores where they like to shop. Then the program creates a meal plan that takes advantages of specials at local supermarket.
Recipes galore
Master list. Ziplist.com doesn’t plan your menus, but it does provide one-stop access to thousands of recipes from other websites. Once you’ve made your meal plan, one click adds the ingredients to your shopping list. Free app for iPhone and Android.
Love to cook. BigOven.com draws its 170,000 recipes from the social network of the same name. Joining the community is free and allows you to build a “Try It Soon” list and comment on recipes. For $20 annually or $2 a month, you get access to an ad-free version with a grocery-list generator, nutrition information, and the “Leftover Wizard.” A free app for virtually every interactive device means recipes can be saved and synched wherever you are.
Filebox on a phone. PepperPlate.com helps you create your own collection of recipes by uploading favorites from a wide range of websites and tagging them with your own search terms. A planner encourages you to schedule three meals a day for an entire month. The grocery list can be organized to follow your path around your favorite market. Free for iPhone, iPad, and Android.
Down-home cooking. AlltheCooks.com is a social bulletin board where passionate cooks post their favorite recipes, ala Pinterest. The app connects you to the forums on the website, so if you have a question about a recipe or a preparation technique, you can post it and get friendly advice — usually within minutes. Free on Android and iPhone.
Professional advice. Myrecipes.com features tested recipes from popular cookbooks and magazines. Use the My Pantry feature to identify recipes built around ingredients you have on hand. Sign up to receive weekly or daily menu ideas, as well as special features that let you save, organize, and review recipes, create shopping lists and get alerts about deals at the local supermarket.
Surprise me! Dinnerspinner is an addictive game-like app from Allrecipes.com. You fill in different variables — what you have in the fridge, how long you have before dinner — and then shake your phone to find recipes recommended by other home cooks. Free for iPhone and Android. Dinnerspinner Pro ($2.99) lets you share recipes and generate grocery lists.
Step by step. Cookingplanit.com is ideal for parents who need a cooking refresher course. Each recipe is broken down into simple steps and coordinated with other things you’re making, so everything gets to the table hot and delicious. In addition to recipes, the site suggests well-balanced meals and creates shopping lists based on your choices. Website and basic app free. Premium app $2.99 for iPhone and $4.99 for iPad.
Special circumstances
Special needs. eMeals.com sends menu plans and shopping lists built around dietary preferences ranging from gluten-free and clean eating to low-carb and paleo (a diet that mimics that of our ancestors). Plans start at $58 for a year of dinners. You can pay extra for lunch and breakfast menus.
More veggies! Superhealthykids.com is run by two moms with an infectious enthusiasm for getting more fruits and vegetables into their kids. In addition to menus, recipes, and shopping lists, the subscription fee pays for nutrition information and bonus items like a list of best grocery prices and a food and veggie intake tracker. The price is $10 a month or $100 per year.
Less processed food. The app 100daysofrealfood.com encourages parents to “take the pledge” and feed their families more natural foods. Calculated for a family of four, the meal plans include breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner for under $170 a week. Grocery lists don’t include any food that has more than five ingredients on the label. Four free weeks when you like the site on Facebook.
Mass production. Onceamonthmom.com offers guidance to cooks who are willing to invest eight to 12 hours to have meals for an entire month. For $72 a year or $8 a month, you get menus, instructions, grocery lists, and even labels, so you won’t lose track of what’s in the freezer.
Grade your food. Fooducate.com rates foods based on ingredients, calories, and allergens. An “alternatives” tab suggests better options when your first choice gets a low grade. Free apps for iPhone and Android allow you to scan bar codes in the store.
Translation, please. Chemical Cuisine, created by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, makes sense of unpronounceable ingredients. The app instantly tells you whether an ingredient is benign or should be avoided. Apple and Android are 99 cents.
If there’s an app that peels vegetables, we couldn’t find it. Still, the apps listed here definitely make it easier to give healthy and delicious answers to the age-old question: what are we having for dinner?
Carolyn Jabs, MA, raised three computer-savvy kids including one with special needs. She has been writing Growing Up Online for 10 years and is working on a book about constructive responses to conflict. Visit www.growing-up-online.com to read other columns. © 2013 Carolyn Jabs. All rights reserved.
