Dinner can seem like a never-ending chore. Having to come up with a meal for every single night of the year can be downright daunting. Especially when you want to find healthy meals that everyone in the family will eat. As easy as it is to make mac and cheese or pick up a pizza from the local place, you don’t want to do that every night.
You can make mealtime more enjoyable for everyone with the help of a healthy consuming family app. You can be the best cook and you’ll still eventually run out of ideas. Or your mind will go blank and won’t be able to come up with what to make with what’s in the pantry. There’s an app for everything and your family’s dinner lineup will benefit from these.
Mealime
- Basic version is free
- Plan healthy dinners in 30 minutes
If what’s holding you back from making healthy meals is a time crunch, then you should try the Mealime app. You can customize your lifestyle and specific family tastes (those picky kids) and the app will help you find recipes that you can throw together in 30 minutes.
You can get a weekly plan so there’s no last-minute panic about what’s for dinner. Not used to cooking? That’s fine. The recipes come with step-by-step instructions so you don’t have to stress about it.
Paprika
- There’s a free version
- The best overall kitchen tracker app
If you want to keep track of your grocery list, your pantry ingredients, your family’s favorite meals, the recipes to make them, and have the ability to plan out the week’s meals, the Paprika app can do it all. It’s basically a kitchen assistant. Who would say no to one of those? You can even download any recipe you find online onto the app.
This app is super helpful because it will help you adjust the ingredients depending on what serving size you want. Search by ingredient or food category to narrow down your choices. The best part is if you’ve downloaded a recipe you don’t need the internet to bring it back up.
MealBoard
- Basic app is free
- This one is great if your family has recipes they love
If your family has their go-to meals every week, the MealBoard app can help you branch out a bit. You’ll be able to see what other users are making for dinner using similar ingredients. That’ll help add other options for you to put on the menu. Keep track of what’s in your kitchen and the app will help you think of ideas with what you have on hand.
This app is awesome but will honestly take some time to set up. Once you put all of your pantry and recipe information in, then it’ll be a breeze. It’ll keep track of what you have and what you need to make dinner. This will also help cut down on food waste, which is important when buying groceries for a family.
Yummly
- Free basic app
- Great if you love recommendations
If you love to cook but aren’t that great at coming up with new healthy recipes for everyone all of the time, then the Yummly app is going to be your best friend. This app will learn your preferences of ingredients and recipes and suggest ones that it thinks you will like.
This app will also help you keep cook time to 30 minutes or less, so it’s great for busy parents who don’t have all night to cook. A super cool feature is the filtering. You can filter recipes down by time to cook, dietary needs, allergies, and more so you can always change things up without looking through hundreds of recipes.
Forks Over Knives
- Basic app is free
- This one is for the plant-based diets
If your family is plant-based, finding different and delicious recipes can be difficult after a bit. Instead of having the same five meals rotated, let Forks Over Knives help you try new weekly recipes to keep things fresh.
Even if you aren’t strictly plant-based, this app will help you find interesting recipes to try. Keep track of what groceries you have and what you need to cook any of the 600 meals in the app. From easy-to-follow instructions and high-quality pictures to ensure your meals look (sort of) like a chef made it, you won’t run out of healthy recipes to serve up.
Eat This Much
- Free basic version
- Great for a family on a budget
Feeding a family can be hard to do on a budget. Feeding a family healthy options on a budget can be even harder. With the Eat This Much app you can put in what food your family likes and your budget so you can stay on track.
You can also put in any family preferences. If you have anyone who follows a vegan, vegetarian, or Keto diet you can add that in as well. Though this program can be used as a weight-loss app, the general meal planning and shopping list features are great for any family. Plus, if there’s a recipe that your family gives a thumbs down to you can swipe it away and it will give you a different option.
If your family has special dietary needs, a budget to stick to, or can’t seem to get your meal planning started, you should turn to these helpful family meal apps. You can save time and frustration trying to figure out what you’re going to cook. You’ll also reduce your food waste which is best for your budget and the environment.
You might find you enjoy mealtime and cooking dinner a lot more when you have things better organized. You won’t want to shudder the next time someone hollers out “what’s for dinner?” when you download one of these family meal planning apps.
