www.bustameal.com
I can't say I ever thought I'd be this impressed by what is basically a glorified recipe website, but I am.
Here's the gist: They have a big database of recipes which you browse and add to your list of planned meals. From this, a shopping list is created for you, which is organized by aisle, and accessible on your iphone so you can use it in the store and cross things off. I believe it costs $1.99 per week, although I am currently using a free month by being referred by a friend via facebook.
Other sweet features: You can set up "my diet" where you can have it suggest low fat/low cal/low carb meals exclusively or just more frequently. You can have it exclude recipes with certain ingredients, such as shrimp since my wife is allergic. You can narrow recipes by <6 ingredients or <XXmins of prep time. You can set how often you want to eat red meat, chicken, seafood, turkey, vegetarian, etc. You can view the shopping list before you go to the store to cross off ingredients that you already have. You can add misc things to the shopping list, for instance, aluminum foil, which you need to remember to buy.
Before finding this, I was basically useless for grocery shopping. I can improvise a meal from the pantry in 30mins or less usually (bread crumbs+tuna+egg = tuna burger!), but at the grocery store I tend to gravitate toward frozen meals, kit-in-a-box meals, etc, and hardly ever buy fresh produce, meat, i.e. actual INGREDIENTS. Last night we had Moroccan chicken and couscous. It was really easy: cut up some zucchini, tomatoes, garlic, salt, lime juice, dried ginger, pepper, cilantro, and some chicken breast. Cook it in a big skillet. Cook the couscous on another burner, and done. It was delicious, made from fresh ingredients, and healthy. Tonight is mahi mahi filets with a salsa made from red onion, avocado, and orange with rice. Our grocery bill for the week was less than we are used to seeing, too.
I can't say I ever thought I'd be this impressed by what is basically a glorified recipe website, but I am.
Here's the gist: They have a big database of recipes which you browse and add to your list of planned meals. From this, a shopping list is created for you, which is organized by aisle, and accessible on your iphone so you can use it in the store and cross things off. I believe it costs $1.99 per week, although I am currently using a free month by being referred by a friend via facebook.
Other sweet features: You can set up "my diet" where you can have it suggest low fat/low cal/low carb meals exclusively or just more frequently. You can have it exclude recipes with certain ingredients, such as shrimp since my wife is allergic. You can narrow recipes by <6 ingredients or <XXmins of prep time. You can set how often you want to eat red meat, chicken, seafood, turkey, vegetarian, etc. You can view the shopping list before you go to the store to cross off ingredients that you already have. You can add misc things to the shopping list, for instance, aluminum foil, which you need to remember to buy.
Before finding this, I was basically useless for grocery shopping. I can improvise a meal from the pantry in 30mins or less usually (bread crumbs+tuna+egg = tuna burger!), but at the grocery store I tend to gravitate toward frozen meals, kit-in-a-box meals, etc, and hardly ever buy fresh produce, meat, i.e. actual INGREDIENTS. Last night we had Moroccan chicken and couscous. It was really easy: cut up some zucchini, tomatoes, garlic, salt, lime juice, dried ginger, pepper, cilantro, and some chicken breast. Cook it in a big skillet. Cook the couscous on another burner, and done. It was delicious, made from fresh ingredients, and healthy. Tonight is mahi mahi filets with a salsa made from red onion, avocado, and orange with rice. Our grocery bill for the week was less than we are used to seeing, too.
