#141: Back to the Podcast: Summer Meal Planning, Planning Tools, and App Updates

We're back! In this episode, we recap our summer meal planning, what shifted for each of us, and how we're resetting our approach heading into Fall. We make a case for doing a pantry clean-out now, why Fall is actually a smart time to stock up on holiday baking staples, and how to use what you already have to stretch your grocery budget a little further this season.

We also geek out a little over our favorite planning tools, from paper planners to sticky notes, before wrapping up with a rundown of everything new in the Plan to Eat V4 app, including new customization features, recipe photos on the planner, and some shopping list updates we think you're going to love. Enjoy!

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sept 30th episode
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[00:00:00] I'm Riley and I'm Roni. And this is the plan to eat podcast, where we have conversations about meal planning, food, and wellness. To help you answer the question what's for dinner. 

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Plan to Eat podcast. For Riley and I, this is actually a welcome back. We haven't recorded a podcast in a little while, so we are very excited to be here and excited to talk about our summers a little bit

yeah, if you've been listening all summer, a lot of those episodes we recorded in advance, and then lately we've been giving you guys some replays. But it's like riding a bike, Roni. We're, we're here. We can do this. We know exactly what we're doing. We know how to talk to each other. We never stop doing that,

That's true. That's so true. Yeah, uh, hopefully you enjoyed the last couple of replays. It was really fun to re-listen to those actually, 'cause they were both early episodes. It was, like, episode 15 and 18 or something, and so, like, audio quality maybe not as good as it is [00:01:00] now, and just, uh, in general I feel like we were maybe a little more awkward on the mic.

But, but we gave a lot of good information, so I hope you enjoyed those

And now we're just shooting the breeze all the time.

Anything, anything fun happen over your summer, Riley, that you wanna tell us about?

The leading question. Yeah, so I had a baby. Yes, so that's a little bit why we took a break, a lot a bit why we took a break. Yeah, I had a baby in June, so, uh, that has been great, hard, fun, and challenging.

Yeah. All the things number three

mm-hmm, number three. Yep. It's a girl party over here

I love it

What about you? What'd you do this summer?

You know, we kinda hung out a lot this summer. Like, we didn't have any travel plans. We went to Wyoming a couple times. We have friends that live up in northern Wyoming. But we really didn't have anything, like, big and exciting that happened. My husband started his own [00:02:00] business, so that really took up a lot of his time.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. In general, the summer here I feel like was just super-duper hot, and so kinda, I don't know, a lot of pool days, a lot of inside time in the hottest part of the day, some outside time as early and late as we could do it. And, but in general I feel like the summer went by wildly fast

So fast. I was just telling my husband the other day, I wish we had one more full month of summer. I'm, I love that we live in Colorado and that we have all four seasons. I don't think you can appreciate the summer without having the winter, that kind of dichotomy thing. But I do wish we had just one more month of, like, hot weather and long days, because I'm starting to feel really sad right now that the sun is, like, setting early, and when I wake up in the morning it's kind of dark.

Like, I love the summer. I really do.

I could leave the heat and keep the longer days if that wa- if we're, if we're tweaking and perfecting the schedule, this is what I would

Yeah. [00:03:00] I don't know. I'm kind of like a lizard 'cause I really like the heat. Like, I like going outside on a hot day. It feels really good, so yeah.

And I like a sweatshirt, so like I just want it to be sweatshirt weather all the time. I feel like our seasons, while we have distinct ones, the intro and outro of every season is so, blurry that you don't really know what season you're in.

It's like, well, I wore a sweatshirt this morning, but now it's 90 degrees at noon. And or like, oh, it's cold and rainy, but it's June and it could be March. Like, it, it, there's just this blurry lines between all of them, and that actually kind of frustrates me because I just kind of wanna be in a season instead of like this like back and forth

I agree. Well, especially where we live, like we live at a higher elevation, and so even just the difference for us between like being at our house and then going down into town is like at my house I'll be like bundled up, and then I get into town and I'm like, "Why am I wearing so many clothes? Oh my [00:04:00] gosh."

Yeah, that doesn't really change too much. For those who are listening and you don't know, Roni and I don't live together, but we live about three minutes apart down the street from each

true.

And you're like, "Well, where we

Yeah.

uh, yeah, you get up in the morning and you're cold doing your outside chores, doing...

You're walking the dog, whatever you're doing, and it's freezing. Then you go down to town and it's, you know, t- up to 20 degrees difference

Yeah.

I have seen, I think, up to 20 degrees different. It's wild

It is wild. And well, and so when I lived in town and you were still living up here, I, there were times when you would like come pop down to my house and I'm like, "Dude, why are you wearing like pants and a sweater? It's 85 degrees." And you're like, "Okay, 'cause it's 65 degrees at my house."

it does, it's a little awkward. It's a little awkward. But then on the flip side, there are people in town who wear, like, full-blown parkas when it's 60 in the spring. Like, especially when we get to spring, and you're like, "What are you doing? It's warm outside."

And living in Colorado, we got a lot of [00:05:00] Colorado kids who wear their flippy-floppies all year round.

Yeah.

I got a friend who wears his flip-flops as much as possible, even it's like two inches of snow. Two inches of snow, flip-flops are still access- uh, uh, acceptable is the word I was looking for. Uh, maybe a foot of snow finally puts regular shoes on.

I, I have a friend who wears Birkenstocks like that, and she has, like, summer Birkenstocks and winter Birkenstocks, and the winter Birkenstocks are the Birkenstock sandals that have fleece in them.

Oh.

Have you seen them? They're like fleece-lined sandals, and she just... That's what she does. She just switches to her s- her, her winter Birks.

Wow. And see, I never really understood the market for the sandals with the fleece, but now I'm, maybe I get it.

It does exist.

Oh, that's so funny. Uh, okay, so what were you gonna say?

No, I was gonna ask you how your summer meal planning was. 

That's how, what I was gonna ask you.

cute. Aren't we adorable? 

Okay, so this summer I tried a lot more new recipes [00:06:00] than I think I have maybe tried in the past. When I was doing a lot of my planning, I would go back and be like, "What were we eating last year?"

And then I'm like, "Okay, well, turns out we've been eating the same recipes for the last, like, three summers. Maybe it's time to switch things up a little bit." Been doing a lot of recipe scrolling on Instagram, and we've said this before, but one of the great things about finding recipes on social media is they're often very seasonal.

Sometimes the seasonal happens a little early. Pumpkin spice came out at, like, the end of August this year, and

I was 

is that? 

upset about that. But throughout the whole summer, I feel like there was lots of good things with, like, corn and zucchini and fresh vegetables. And so I tried a lot of new recipes, which was really fun.

And part of the reason, too, is my husband did tell me that he was starting to get tired of some of the tried and trues. So that pushed me to try so many recipes. Let me tell you what. He says he's tired of the chicken meatball with the yogurt sauce,

which is one of my all-time [00:07:00] favorite recipes. I've talked about this recipe on the podcast for, like, two years because it's been a long-time favorite, and he says he's finally tired of it.

He's like, "We can not eat this for another year, and I would be okay." A whole year.

my goodness. I'm so sorry

So like maybe when he goes out of town, I'm gonna have to 

Yeah. Well, the girls night and will eat it.

Yeah, I think so

Oh, that's sad. I... My husband gets to that same exact point, and he's like, "Okay, we're, like, beating a dead horse, okay? Like, let's just be done here." And I'm like, "Oh, but it's so easy. I can make it with zero effort."

I can make it with my eyes closed 'cause I just know it. Yeah, so that was the big thing in my meal planning, was trying new recipes. What about you? 

my meal plan, if I had to sum it up with one word, was survival. Yes. I feel like adding... At let's... Like, adding a third kid has not been the most difficult thing in my world, but adding a [00:08:00] newborn, like adding... What am I trying to say? I think there's, like, some nuance to it, right? Like, a third kid, you know what you're doing at this point to a certain extent, but the thing that I didn't realize is how much into a routine and rhythm I had gotten, like, with my bigger kids because the difference between a three-year-old and a newborn is just tremendous, right?

Like it is... And you don't realize it, 'cause it happens so slowly and over time. And so now I've got this newborn, and I have one arm to do everything, and just, like, you put them down, and you've got like 10 seconds to do 4,000 ta- 4,000? That's a number, right? You got, you know, got 10 seconds to do 40 tasks that you've been thinking about that you know you can't do with two ha- you can't do with one hand, so you've gotta have both hands, and it's this, like, game of strategic planning all the time.

Like, what am I gonna do? And I found myself to be... Uh, I'm sounding like it right now. I found myself to be very ADHD. Like, I have so much to do and so little time, so I'd start [00:09:00] 40 tasks and not complete any of them,

Mm.

that was really challenging, 'cause I don't like that.

Like, at first, we had tons of people bring us food. It was so, so lovely, wonderful, so many good, yummy meals. That was awesome. Um, my husband was home for quite a while, so that was great. And then as we transitioned into him going back to work and, like, either making meal- eating food that I had pre- prepped, 'cause we did a ton of freezer meals, you and I, um, I just found that, like, I had to do so much more meal prep.

Like, things had to be ready, specifically for certain times of the day. Like, breakfast, like, needed to be so easy, low effort, either pre-made or something my kids could make themselves, because by the time I get ramped up for breakfast, like, everyone's too hungry. And so just really kind of figuring out a new rhythm of, like, what...

Like, okay, I've gotta do a ton of meal prep, so what does that look like? When do I do that? What does dinner look like? How easy is it? How hard is it? How pre-made is it? Like, what, what level of things are we doing? So I feel like my summer meal planning, it was just surviving [00:10:00] and figuring out a new rhythm, and I think we're slowly getting there.

But it was definitely challenging for those first, first many weeks. So I said too much. I'm sorry.

You didn't say too much. I, I can't fully empathize with your situations, not having three kids or any kids, but I can just imagine now that, like, you have three people who are just constantly needing things from you, and I'm just envisioning this, like, you only have one hand to give everybody the things that they need.

Like, that sounds really hard

Yeah, it has its challenges. It does get easier. And my six-year-old is so helpful, uh, but she has her own needs too. You know? Like, I just don't put so many things... Like, I try not to let her be the other parent, so. She tries, she tries, but, yeah. I'm grateful for the age gaps. I think that if I had three toddlers, I think...

Like, it just wasn't, it wasn't the right route for me, 

But it's all, it's all good. We're just figuring out. It's just, it's just I've come to that point that so many of our customers come to, which is, [00:11:00] okay, something in my life has changed dramatically, and now my meal planning has to change, or it has to become a thing I actually do.

If you're not a meal planner... Like, this is why so many people come to Plan to Eat, is because something in their life has changed, and they're like, "I have to figure out how to meal plan. What is a meal plan? How do I make one? What does it look like?" Or there's a shift, a dietary shift, or something like that.

In my case, I've been a meal planner for, like, 13 years. But suddenly having three kids was, like, the tipping point that, like, okay, all the ways I've done this in the past, my creative meal planning, my winging it, like, oh, I'm gonna have the... I'm gonna be an ingredient meal planner. Like, I'm gonna just... You know?

Like, none of... Like, I had to change. It has to be more set. It has to be easier. It has to be simple recipes, one pot, Crockpot, sheet pan. Like, I really have to lean into those, like, faster, easier things. Yeah, it just... I just kinda feel like I'm empathizing with our customers even more because I've hit that, I've hit that wall.

of me needing to lock in 

Yeah, I've gotta lock in, [00:12:00] exactly. Yes, have to lock in. 

No, no whimsy meal planning over here 

Yes. Yeah, whimsy meal planning is a great way to describe it because I really like to cook and I like to be creative in the kitchen, and so there's this just like, "Oh, ooh, ah, put all these things together, and oh yum, delish. Oh, cool, yay." And now I'm like, "Nope, gotta be this, and I gotta make it with one hand." And so

Okay, so to stay on the meal planning topic for a little bit, what are some things that you did during the summer? Maybe some things that you figured out during the summer that now all of a sudden you're realizing as you're going into fall and now one of your kids is in school, like, how is some of these thing...

how are some of these things pivoting now that you just maybe got into some routines that maybe have to change?

Yeah. Um, I think that a routine that I've shifted into is, like, Sunday meal prep. Um, and it doesn't have to be Sunday. It's been Sunday around here just because I feel like that's what's been working. But whatever day it is, [00:13:00] just meal prepping in general, having something ready for breakfast. I've been really into overnight oats lately, so, like, prepping those the night before.

, Uh, I've been doing a lot of, like, grilled chicken, roasted vegetables of various kinds, quinoa or grain, and, like, like, actually doing the build a bowl, pre-make it all on a one day of the week and have it all week, thing. Have- I've really had to do that. Yeah, I would say meal prep has been the biggest shift, because there's no, like, extra...

Like, the margins of my day have become more minimal than they used to be.

So yeah. What about you? How are you shifting into fall?

Well, like I said, I tried a lot more new recipes this summer, but, I think this fall, just with the way that grocery prices have been increasing and, it's just, you know, us living outside of town, it's a lot more expensive to drive back and forth to town every day. So I've been trying to do more, like, bulk buying.

And so for me, that means it's probably less [00:14:00] new recipes on the meal plan right now and more, like we're gonna go back to some tried and true things, maybe some things that I just can... More of that, like, ingredient style meal planning where it's like, okay, well, we have some ground beef and we have some frozen vegetables or whatever, and we're gonna just make something with it instead of feeling like there's, quote-unquote, "nothing at home" and I need to, like, make a new meal plan and go to the grocery store.

Like, I'm trying to do a little more, like, planning around what we have and just, like, trying to save a little more money at this point.

Love that On the topic of saving money, one of the things that I forgot that I had done, but I definitely wanna mention, is about, probably about a month ago, I completely reorganized my pantry, and I had a bit of a pantry stash in, like, three different places, and so I consolidated that, and then just reorganized it.

And that, that little thing, which feels like a big thing when you're doing it because it's so mu- you have to pull everything out. You have to reorganize the whole thing. It, it didn't take me that long. I just was [00:15:00] dreading it. Feels like a big thing. There's stuff everywhere. At least in my case, I was really overhauling it.

But it really helps you with the FIFO, like first in, first out. So, like, reorganizing things by date, and I had to throw some stuff away that I had forgotten, that I had pushed to the very back. But also just putting eyes on what you have and reorganizing in a way that makes sense, uh, is so helpful for saving money and also remembering what you have so you can actually use it.

So you save money and you use it, and you actually use the things you've already purchased. But it also helped my meal planning a bit too because I can... I'll be, "Oh, I forgot I have that. I wanna use that. I'm gonna, I'm gonna use that in my meal plan right now." And so that plan... We've talked about this a lot, but planning around what you have, becomes a lot easier when you can see what you have and know what you have.

Um, so highly recommend, like, a pantry refresh, kitchen refresh, like, whatever that looks like for you. Just going through your pantry, canned goods, freezer, all those things are super helpful

Yeah, I think that's a [00:16:00] good, always a good thing to do. Like, and changing of the seasons, I feel like everybody's just kind of in the mood maybe. You know? Like spring cleaning, fall cleaning, you know, like it's like a, just a transitionary period that a lot of people feel like they wanna do that. But I've also been seeing some things on social media about people saying that now is a good time to stock up on the stuff f- the supplies for your baked goods for the holidays, because the prices of those things tend to increase when they know the demand is going to increase, right?

And so, like, if you did a pantry clean-out and you realize, like, "Oh, our baking powder is over a year old," and, you know, maybe we need some new nutmeg and whatever, or, you know, it could just be a time to, like, clear out some of those things that are a little older now, and then replenish them before the prices go up.

I'm assuming probably November-ish is the time when some of those prices start to go up.

Yeah. It's wild how... I mean, [00:17:00] we were just talking about this a little bit ago of just, like, how pumpkin spice stuff comes out, you know, end of August, mid-August. Around here I s- I was seeing it so early. Um, but it does feel like the, like, looking to the next holiday happens so early that I feel like it is okay for us also to purchase early.

B- I mean, I'm thinking about baked goods, I'm thinking about some canned things for maybe Thanksgiving or Christmas or whatever your holidays look like. Okay, it's pumpkin spice season and it's 90 degrees outside. Okay, I'm gonna still match that because I know that as we, the closer we get to, those times, the prices are gonna increase.

So kind of like almost like using the early holiday advertisement as your cue to like, "Oh, I better go get it now," because this is when it's, like, launching and it's on sale. So like all of the, you know, brown sugar and powdered sugar and cinnamon and nutmeg and all the spices, like, gonna get 'em now. It's my cue.

Might be a good cue for people.

Yeah, it's so true, [00:18:00] Because if you go to the grocery store, like, in the days leading up to a holiday like Thanksgiving or Christmas, sometimes you can get there and be like, "Oh, there's no more cranberry sauce. There's no more canned pumpkin," right?

Like, the, some of these items, like even though they try to keep them in stock, if you go on the wrong day, they can be sold out of those things already. And like, those, especially canned goods and staples items for, for baked goods, like, those are gonna... You, it's fine if you buy them two months early.

Nobody's, there's no difference in the taste,

yep, Yep, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I think sometime... I think it's also a good cue to just be on the lookout for sales. There have been times in my meal plan where I've added notes to my shopping list that say, like, "If blank is on sale, purchase it." Or it's a good time to, like, if you get the Costco ad to your house.

Like, I'll go through the off Costco ad, and I'll circle all the things that are gonna be on sale, and then I'll put them in my, Plan to Eat shopping list. And that way, if they, if our Costco actually has those items, I will buy them for that reason, like, just kind of like having it for the [00:19:00] next time I need it or whatever

Totally. I do the same thing, not necessarily with Costco all the time, although I should, but just with our regular grocery store. If I have particular-- I do this particularly for paper coupons. When they send me paper coupons in the mail, I will put the ingredient in my Plan to Eat shopping list, and in the note section I'll say, "Coupon."

So that way I know that I have a coupon to use for it.

yes. Digital coupons have ruined me the paper ones because I go through the apps and add all the coupons, and then they send me the ones in the mail and, like, you can double them sometimes, you know? And I'm like, "Oh, man, I need to be better about that."

Yeah. I, I always leave the paper coupons just in my purse, and then they expire, and then it was just a waste that I even took the time to clip them out. 

I know it, but putting that note really helps.

it really does

Yeah 

Okay, so we wanted to talk a little bit today, other than just shooting the breeze and talking about our meal plans, uh, we did wanna talk a little bit about planning tools.[00:20:00] 

And we felt like this was a good time to talk about it, 'cause again, it's kind of like a transitionary period. Maybe your kids are going back to school, maybe your work is ramping up for the, for Q4 or something, and, uh, maybe your planning tools aren't serving you super well. So we don't have, like, a ton to say on this topic, which was why we decided to blend it with this episode.

We don't have, like, a meat and potatoes kind of an episode on planner. We just maybe have, like, some chicken cutlets to talk about here.

You know, I actually think it's not a ba- I, I, one ... Okay, I have two things. One, I love hearing what other people do for planning. As a planner, I like to hear other people's methods and either one, like be like, "What? That's how you do that? That's crazy," or, "I love that.

I'm gonna steal that." But I think that not having a ton of tools is actually okay. It is actually one of the things I was going to say, is that I try to not have 100 ways that I plan my life, [00:21:00] because that is too complicated. You know? Like I don't, I don't go to work and use a different planner than I use for my life.

I have in the past, uh, but I find that a merged re- a merged planner is actually okay, so I use a bigger planner so I can kind of use it for both things. I personally use the Appointed Paper Planner, for my weekly planning. Uh, it has a ton of space for, it has like daily space for all the things you need to do, for like I add all my to-do lists there.

And then it has a second page with every week for like planning, and I use that often. I use that for work or for random notes that I think of, "Oh, I gotta, I need to think about this" or, or sometimes I'll use it for like, "Oh, I really wanna eat this but I don't have time to do anything but jot down like, 'Oh, use this up,'" you know?

Um, and I use a Google Calendar that I share with my husband, and I never make an appointment without pulling up that, that. Um, I never m- have a coffee date without pulling that planner up. Um, everything is on it, birthdays, [00:22:00] payment due dates, like everything in between, work things, all the things. Um, I occasionally also use my Notes app for things, but that is more brainstorm-y kind of things.

M- I don't like having 10 different places for things. I like just having those few things. And that's, that's what works really well for me, so.

That's awesome. I probably use a few more tools than what you use.

That's okay 

So I have my paper planner. Both Riley and I are mostly paper planners. I find that I don't check in with, like, a digital calendar very well. So, like, with for work, we have, like, a work shared digital calendar where, like, work events and things go on that calendar, or, like, work meetings and appointments and things, but I still write all of those things down every week on my physical planner.

I use a brand called Sterling Ink, and they have, um... It's a [00:23:00] vertical weekly planner, which is, like, the type that I prefer. And then actually at the back of the whole thing, so, like, after the year ends, there's, like, a whole chunk of just grid pages for notes and stuff. And so I really like that setup because, that way I don't have to keep a separate notebook for, like, taking notes for work or, um, and things like that.

So yeah, I really like that setup. I do not like the horizontal, like, block style, I guess, of like a week. Though that's the type of planner my husband uses, and it's just not how I visualize my week. I visualize my week very, like, linearly. So yeah, basically everything goes on my weekly planner.

All of my to-dos for everything, whether it's work to-dos, personal to-dos. While my calendar technically has, like, times in it, you know, like every day has, like, 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM or whatever, I don't really ever write anything... I don't time block. So, like, if I have an appointment in the morning, I write it towards the top of the day, but it's not, like, corresponding with 9:00 AM, you know? 

I [00:24:00] do that exact same

Yeah.

I'll write the time. Like, I, I'll, I'll say like, "9:45, meeting with Roni." Like, yeah

Yeah. And because I write so many things, I write both, like, dated or timed things and just, like, to-dos, I will use a highlighter, and I highlight the things that are timed, so that way it, like, draws my eyes and I know, like, oh, I have this thing at 9:00 AM tomorrow. But I also use sticky notes for things.

So particularly when it comes to personal to-dos, I will use a sticky note, which is basically only because I need to take it with me when I leave the house, right? And so, like, I don't wanna take my whole big planner with me when I leave the house, but I need a sticky note to tell me, like, you're supposed to go to Target and Costco and pick up dry cleaning and go to the gym and then go to the grocery store.

Like, all the things while you're in town. Because if I don't write it down, I'm inevitably gonna forget something, you know? And I also am... I like to be as efficient as possible, so I like to write things down in the [00:25:00] order that I'm going to do them.

Same, same girl.

So that's where the sticky note comes in clutch for me.

I have, I have been known to draft a w- like, the order of events. Like, okay, what does it, what makes sense? Okay, so I'm gonna go from this place to this place. Oh, but you know what? I can pop into that place on the way. Oh, perfect. Okay, then I'll, like, rewrite it so that it is the most efficient.

Yeah, I do the exact same thing. 

Oh, I love it.

It makes me so happy

So but then I also do kind of what I would consider, like, a brain dump, and I don't do this, like, every day necessarily, but a lot of times it's just, like, for the week I'll just write down, like, here are all the things that, like, I know need to happen this week or the things that I'm thinking about this week.

It, it's very... It's, like, super duper unorganized, right? Like, it's just, like, scribbling things down of, like, "Okay, I need to work on this newsletter, and also I need to schedule coffee with Riley." And [00:26:00] just, it's, like, random things and, but it just helps me get everything out of my brain so then I, I can then go organize it after the fact instead of thinking of things randomly and then not, like, having time to write them down or a place to write them down.

So I really like to do that. And then I also have a big wall calendar, which is behind me right here, and that's where I track everybody's, like, birthdays. And, I've been doing this probably for the last four or five years where I have a big wall calendar, and I've kept them all, and it's really fun because I'll put on, like, this was the week that we went on vacation.

You know, like, I, I put, like, events also, uh, life events kind of on the, on the calendar. So it's kind of fun. Like, every year I kind of, like, roll them all up together, and so every year I can kind of, like, go back and look at the ones before. It's also where I track, like, my workouts and I track my writing schedule.

It's kind of like I like to track things in a, a big, like, broad view rather than, like, d- this [00:27:00] week how many times did I go to the gym? It's like, oh, look, over the course of the year I went to the gym 147 times. How good am I? I'm amazing.

That's great. I love that.

I like this, I like the, uh, it's funny because I feel like I find a lot of joy in accomplishing to-dos, and I feel like these little things that we're talking about, like, there's actually... Like, for me, like, we're geeking out over, like, the way we schedule and plan our lives, but, like, how much joy it brings you to, like, oh my gosh, cheer yourself on.

Like, I did this. I'm so happy. I'm so proud of myself. Like, I don't know, I love that

Yeah. I, but also I get a lot of joy just from crossing the things off of my to-do list.

I write stuff down just to cross it off

Amen. Yeah, I actually noticed this yesterday. I went into town with a sticky note, and there was like, you know, I had like done the things and so I was crossing things off the sticky note. I had to cross the last two things off the list before I crumpled up the sticky note to throw[00:28:00] 

It's not done till it's done. 

it away. It, it wasn't done until I crossed it off, exactly. So that's maybe my toxic trait

You know, I do it at night, like, 'cause I have my... I'll go back to my schedule and be like, "Ooh, did that. Cross it off. Ooh, did that. Cross off." Or I'll do it as the day goes on. Sometimes I'm like, "Oh my goodness, I only have one major thing left to do," and it's only 2:00 in the afternoon. Go me. Like, I love it.

Totally. Or I'll be like, look at my day and be like, write down vacuuming, and then I'll cross it off 

Yes. Yes. 

cause I just, uh, I just vacuumed, okay? I needed to put that on my to-do list 

'cause I 

like a r- it's like a s- it's like a dopamine hit

Yeah, I think it is. I think for the pl- I think for the planner personality, crossing things off the list is a dopamine hit. 

Can... I need to hear from others on this topic, so if you're listening, please tell us. An Instagram message, yeah. And maybe we are bec- and but maybe that means just we're just in the exact right [00:29:00] jobs. Mm, yeah. In addition to this, both of us also use Plan to Eat.

Yeah. Oh yeah, we did 

the point, you know? Yeah. By the way

Yeah, by the way, I do also use the app that I work for. Um, but actually I do. I know that some people work for companies and they don't necessarily, like, use the product, or it's just not like a staple in their life, right? Like, they use it just for testing or something.

But genuinely use Plan to Eat every single week for my meal planning. My Plan to Eat app is open every single day whether I'm working or not, because I cook from the recipes and I'm always checking in with the meal plan

Love it. Okay, on that note, I feel like it's a great segue into tell us all about the app up- app updates

Yeah. So if you are getting the Plan to Eat emails, which I hope you are because I make all those emails, and I spend a lot of time and put a lot of love into them, 

They are not AI, they are Roni

they're not AI. That's right. So yeah, we did just [00:30:00] recently release a new version of the Plan to Eatd app. We're calling it V4, because it's the 4.0 of the Plan to Eat app, and, it's a nice refresh, a visual refresh of the Plan to Eat app.

We didn't take away any features that you know and love about the Plan to Eat app. We just did, like, a visual refresh, but we did add some cool new things, and a lot of the things that we added are new customizations for the app, which I really think this is where Plan to Eat excels is just, like, letting the app be what you want it to be for your personal needs because we have so many options for customization.

So in the account page, there are new customizations in the app for things like you can turn off the haptics. So if you don't like your phone buzzing when you tap things off the shopping list, you can turn that off. We enabled a high contrast mode, so if you have, like, any, like, visual sensitivities, you can turn on high contrast.

I just like... I turn on the high contrast 'cause I like it better. I just like to [00:31:00] be able to glance at it and read things easier. You can change your font size just specifically for the Plan to Eat app. We have a spacious versus a compact mode. So if you want your photos of your recipes to be big so that you can look at them, the spacious mode is for you.

But if you like to just be able to see more things on the screen at once, the compact mode is where it's at. In the meal planner, we ha- now have custom colors for your meal times. So this is something that people have asked for for a while. They wanna be able to customize their meal planner to suit their color scheme.

So you can have custom colors. That's in the three-dot menu in the upper, uh, right-hand corner of the planner. And on the shopping list, if you have tried V4, you know that we added, like, check boxes to all of the items for crossing off items when you're in the grocery store. Uh, a lot of customers have had issues in the past with feeling like they could just [00:32:00] accidentally tap things off of their shopping list while they're in the store.

You know, you're, like, kinda fumbling with your phone maybe while you're grabbing things, and you can accidentally tap things off. So we added a, a checkbox for items so that you can, like, more intentionally check things off your list. But if you preferred just being able to tap items off wherever, you can still have that option.

Just go to the three-dot menu in the shopping list, and you can select, we're calling it your purchase gesture, I think. So, like, how you tap things off the app, can be personalized to you. So those are some cool things. We also made it so that when you're planning recipes, like, from the Plan tab in the app, you can select multiple recipes at once.

Like, you could plan your whole day all at once now. So you can select, you know, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and then when you go to the planning screen, you get to select which recipes go on which days. Or no, sorry, which recipes go in which meal times. So you can, like, plan your breakfast, lunch, and dinner all at once rather [00:33:00] than needing to go through the whole planning sequence for each recipe of the day.

So that is super cool, and I think a really big time saver when it comes to meal planning. And yeah, we revamped the menus feature in the app. So I think menus is a lot more visually appealing, and it works more how I've expected the menus feature to work on the app. And I think that if you use menus, you're gonna like them on the app a lot more at this point. So yeah, just overall kind of, like, refreshed, reorganized a lot of things. But those customization features are where it's at.

Yeah, I f- those are things that customers of old have wanted, so that is, those are so exciting.

Yeah, it's been some great changes. Oh, and on the planner we added pictures to your recipes on the planner, and that's also an optional thing. You can turn off the images if you don't wanna see pictures of your recipes. But a lot of people are visual, you know, and you wanna be able to look at your planner and see the picture of what the recipe [00:34:00] was that you planned.

So we have that option on the planner now too, which I think is really cool

Yeah, that's great

Do you wanna talk about what's on your meal plan right now, Riley?

Sounds great. Let's do it. One of the most exciting things that I didn't share earlier is that, my new baby can't eat dairy, so that means I can't eat dairy. But I've done it before, so it's old hat. It doesn't feel quite as, doesn't feel quite as stressful as it has in the past to make that pivot.

So our, our meals have been looking a little bit simple lately just because a lot of customization options. For my family that can still eat dairy, they've still got dairy options, but for me, we go just dairy-less. So I have spicy coconut curry ramen, uh, on my meal plan, which I have been... So I've been doing a lot of bulk grilled items.

And so this is really kind of helping me quite a bit with, Like, I'll use it for dinner or lunch, kind of depending on what's needed. This in particular, the spicy coconut curry ramen, [00:35:00] is... I made it with chicken that I grilled previously, and I just heated the chicken in the broth. And I'm, I'm only making this comment for anybody who's, like, meal prepping and, like, chicken gets weird reheated, so, like, I've got to find creative ways to reheat it that isn't just, like, cooking it again, 'cause

So just as a side note, I used pre-cooked chicken, and I used it, I just heated it in the broth as it simmered. I also have sheet pan kebabs, which I've never made before, but I've seen this quite a bit on Instagram, where you mix your meat with all your spices and things, and then you press it into a pan and kind of pre- pre-roll it, like, with th- like, roll through it with, um, like a pizza cutter to, like, make it where there's strips of meat, um, for a kebab.

I'm w- I don't know exactly how we're going to eat these yet. I don't think we will eat them, uh, like, in a wrap. We most likely will eat them in a bowl because customization again. I am trying a new recipe, a gluten-free Hamburger Helper, gluten-free, dairy-free Hamburger Helper situation. It's another one-pan, [00:36:00] one-pot kind of situation.

Uh, it just didn't have any dairy, and I'll use gluten-free noodles. Um, and then I'm gonna attempt some salmon, but TBD on if I have enough time for that. Some sheet pan salmon with dill and potatoes. Again, all in one pan. Potatoes and the salmon go together. So we'll see how that goes.

That sounds yummy

Yeah. 

I was gonna say that that's when I make ramen, that is oftentimes how I reheat the meat as well, is... And actually, I don't even necessarily reheat it while the, broth is simmering. Like, if I use rotisserie chicken, which is what I do a lot when I have ramen, I'll just, like, put the rotisserie chicken in the bowl, and then I just pour the hot liquid on top of it, because inevitably the broth is 10,000 degrees.

And so if the chicken is kind of cold, it helps, uh, level out the temperature a little bit.

Yeah, that's really, that's really, good. Yeah.

Yeah. Um, so we're going to [00:37:00] try... I'm Gonna try a grilled pizza, which I know you love grilled pizza, Riley. So tonight I'm gonna try a grilled pizza. I've never tried that before. I'm excited to give it a shot. And then we're gonna have smash burger tacos.

Pretty standard around our house these days. Doing a creamy spinach and sausage pasta. Super easy. That's kind of like a one pot dish. Found that on Instagram. It's a good one. And then we have, um, like a buffalo chicken salad on the recipe, on, on the meal plan. And a creamy lemon chicken, which is another one that I found on Instagram that we have liked this summer.

I love a, a lemony dish in the summertime.

Mm-hmm. 

So I'm, I'm trying to hold onto the summer vibes a little bit with this meal plan.

I like that. I, we have our, we are having some very chilly days ahead. Like, and by chilly I mean 60, which is compared to 100, that's very chilly, right? And I have, uh, I'm gonna make zuppa Toscana.

Ooh, yeah 

Yeah. Um, but all I'm gonna do, [00:38:00] all I have to do for that recipe to not have it have dairy is just not add the cream at the end.

Oh, true. 

Yeah

so just I'm, I'm doing my best to really just, like, make dairy-free simple. So if anybody needs ideas, let me know

Yeah, I like that a lot. My husband is not ready for soup season yet.

Yeah. 

He's a He's against the, the always soup. He's an anti-soup season person, so it needs to be a little chillier for us. I might have to wait another few weeks before I start introducing soup into the meal plan

Yeah. As long as I serve it with bread, my family is happy.

All right, that wraps us up for this week. Thank you as always for listening and, uh, we will see you again in two weeks