My New Meal Planning System

For those of you who know me, you know I have been through multiple iterations of figuring out the meal planning approach for my life. My last iteration was amazing for our family, until I stopped going to the grocery store and started using Instacart. Instacart is a godsend for us, given where we are in our lives right now. I actually spend less money (I guess because I’m not tempted by things that aren’t on our list). 

My online meal planning system was kind of annoying because it meant that I had to go back and forth between tabs. It also meant that I no longer needed to organize my list by aisle of the grocery store. 

So instead, I now input my recipes into my Instacart account, using the “List” feature. I still keep the actual recipe in a binder (I hate cooking off of my phone or iPad, which constantly turns off), so I only input the ingredients. When I need to select meals for the week, I click on which meals we want and then select “Add All.” All of the ingredients are automatically added to my cart. I also have a “Standard” list for our regular ingredients. Now meal planning and food ordering are completely integrated. Voila!