automate your meal planning

Holy recipe planning, Batman!

We have all been there.

We look for online recipes to make something exciting for dinner this week. We finally find a recipe and take a screenshot of the ingredient list from our phone.

Later, we take a stroll to the grocery store and run back and forth from each aisle to find everything we need. An hour later we jump in the checkout line and are ready to head back.

This process may seem normal, but only because we haven’t tried to automate meal planning with AnyList.

What is AnyList?

AnyList is an automated meal planning app that our good friend, Stephen Ayers, turned us on to.

He showed us with a click of a button, how he can automate the process of organizing any recipe’s ingredients on a master grocery list. Then he showed me how easy it was to sync this list with family and friends!

The meal planning app will also categorize the ingredients by department automatically so you don’t have to circle the store multiple times looking for the items.

How’s that for automation?

anylist automated meal planning

How to Meal Plan with AnyList

1. Download the App

To Automate meal planning with AnyList, you will need to first download the app from Google Play or the App Store.

2. Find a recipe

Search for any mouth-watering recipe online and ‘share’ this page to the application. It may be a different process depending on the type of device you have.

3. Choose the ingredients you need

Once the recipe is sent to the AnyList app, it will give you the option to choose which items you don’t have at home. Remember, this will automate the ingredients onto your recipe list by category of where to find them at the store!

For example, your list will automatically divide the ingredients by produce, grains, condiments, and so forth.

4. Sync with family and friends

Don’t automate meal planning alone! invite your significant other or roommate so you can work off of the same list when that person goes to the grocery store.

I currently have synced my AnyList app with my wife so she always knows what I would like her to pick up from the store without me having to ask her (and vice-versa).

Automated Recipe Bank

A lot of times we catch our selves aimlessly searching for recipes from a google search.

Instead, we can automate the recipe gathering process by creating an RSS feed “bank” where recipes are automatically sent and stored for when you need them.

RSS stands for really simple syndication and that’s exactly what it does. If there are a few favorite blogs or sites that you always go to for information, you can set up RSS feeds to a centralized hub to see all your favorite things.

There are many options for organizing recipes, but our favorite content hub for pulling RSS feeds is called Feedly. You can create a free account and add feeds for the type of food you are looking for.

For example, you may want to follow a handful of vegetarian, budget-friendly, or healthy recipe blogs to ensure that you have plenty of inspiration within this one hub.

 

Don’t Stop there! There are plenty of other gadgets to help automate meal planning and other tasks for the kitchen.