Meal Planning

[Giverny]

Hi folks! I'm currently working on a solution to make meal planning a far easier process than it currently is.

The current intention is to design an app/website that allows you to specify various nutritional targets/limits, preferred foods, foods you’d like to avoid, any allergies/intolerances that you have and the amount of time you want to spend on cooking (to name just a few of the many possibilities). and it'll pick out selections from our DCUK recipe bank to fit you and your specifications.

If you have time, I'd love to hear what would make a meal planner useful for you. Below, I've listed a couple of talking points:

• Are nutritional values your first priority when planning a meal?
• Do you plan your meals based on what's already in your cupboard or would it be useful to have a shopping list generated for you?
• Would you benefit from using preset values (e.g. ketogenic preset, which would automatically generate a meal plan with less than 50g carb intake daily, with the option to adjust as you see fit)
• Which of the nutritional values are the most useful to you when cooking, and what order would you like to see these listed in?
• What is the most important part of your weekly meal planning routine? / do you even have one?
• How likely are you to prioritise ingredients you like over ones that fit your nutritional preferences?
• Are you interested in contributing any of your recipes for others to use? We'll fully credit you (as long as it's your own recipe!) within the app and you'd be helping others manage what can be a pretty daunting and troublesome process.
  

Any feedback is much appreciated - looking forward to collaborate with the community to build the ultimate meal planner! If anything's unclear in this post, let me know and I'll do my best to explain in more detail.

Thanks

 

[Avocado Sevenfold]

Hi folks! I'm currently working on a solution to make meal planning a far easier process than it currently is.

I didn't think it was difficult Good luck!

 

[Giverny]

I didn't think it was difficult Good luck!

You'd be surprised! A lot of people seem to have no idea what they can eat in order to control their blood glucose levels and/or weight, and those choices can often be complicated by other issues such as allergies or disliking certain ingredients. Others just aren't the best chefs and have trouble adapting recipes to suit their tastes/requirements.

 

[Avocado Sevenfold]

@Giverny this is how I plan
Only buy ingredients you like and that you know are healthy for you
If you don't buy rubbish, you can't eat it
Keep a good stock of spices and herbs
Eat what you fancy on the day
Try at least one new dish a week
Interesting = sustainable

 

[himtoo]

Hi folks! I'm currently working on a solution to make meal planning a far easier process than it currently is. cool idea !

The current intention is to design an app/website that allows you to specify various nutritional targets/limits, preferred foods, foods you’d like to avoid, any allergies/intolerances that you have and the amount of time you want to spend on cooking (to name just a few of the many possibilities). and it'll pick out selections from our DCUK recipe bank to fit you and your specifications.

If you have time, I'd love to hear what would make a meal planner useful for you. Below, I've listed a couple of talking points:

• Are nutritional values your first priority when planning a meal? total daily carb intake plays a part , but I don't focus on that , I focus on things I like to eat or my wife likes to eat.
• Do you plan your meals based on what's already in your cupboard or would it be useful to have a shopping list generated for you? a bit of both on this one -- i shop for food every 3 days or so to eat the freshest fruit and veg we can
• Would you benefit from using preset values (e.g. ketogenic preset, which would automatically generate a meal plan with less than 50g carb intake daily, with the option to adjust as you see fit) would be worth a try if a moderate to low carb option offered (90-140 carb)
• Which of the nutritional values are the most useful to you when cooking, and what order would you like to see these listed in? carbs first - don't often worry about other values
• What is the most important part of your weekly meal planning routine? / do you even have one?not weekly - most I ever plan ahead is buying a sunday joint on a thursday for example
• How likely are you to prioritise ingredients you like over ones that fit your nutritional preferences?that will be hard to say until I see what recipes pop out of the magic box you are designing
• Are you interested in contributing any of your recipes for others to use? We'll fully credit you (as long as it's your own recipe!) within the app and you'd be helping others manage what can be a pretty daunting and troublesome process. possibly

Any feedback is much appreciated - looking forward to collaborate with the community to build the ultimate meal planner! If anything's unclear in this post, let me know and I'll do my best to explain in more detail.

Thanks

replies to your question in blue within your post
good luck !
all the best !
himtoo

 

[Giverny]

@Giverny this is how I plan
Only buy ingredients you like and that you know are healthy for you
If you don't buy rubbish, you can't eat it
Keep a good stock of spices and herbs
Eat what you fancy on the day
Try at least one new dish a week
Interesting = sustainable

The main idea of the meal planner app would be to help people find new recipes while keeping their diet under control I do very much agree with the sentiment that interesting = sustainable!

replies to your question in blue within your post
good luck !
all the best !
himtoo

Thanks for the helpful feedback!

 

[AndBreathe]

OK, so I am going to both respond and pose a few more questions, if I may.

• Are nutritional values your first priority when planning a meal? Having got myself into a fairly decent place, I tend to know what works or might be trickier for me, so whilst I do like to track the nutritional content of what I eat (I still use MFP every day), I do tend to look back on the day, rather than be governed by it when thinking about what may be on the menu. That differs if I know I will be facing a carb-tastic challenge, say later in the day, if we're going out to friends, for example. So, values are important, but I wouldn't want any app/site to "prevent" me choosing to eat anything, if it meant I went over the usual parameters.
• Do you plan your meals based on what's already in your cupboard or would it be useful to have a shopping list generated for you? We are fortunate enough to run an excellent store cupboard and freezers at home, and for staples, once they get low, or used, they immediately go onto the list for the next appropriate shop. I use the BBC Food website fairly regularly, and do appreciate the list generator, even if I already have most of the store cupboard items. It makes me check, at the least.
• Would you benefit from using preset values (e.g. ketogenic preset, which would automatically generate a meal plan with less than 50g carb intake daily, with the option to adjust as you see fit) It would have been useful, earlier in you journey to have had some profiles to choose from - whether that be reduced carb, keto, GI or whatever based. For those trying it, it could be useful to have a profile for the ND or 8 Week Sugar diet, say? That's neither exclusive on inclusive, just further examples of forum "popular" choices.
• Which of the nutritional values are the most useful to you when cooking, and what order would you like to see these listed in? Personally, the carb, fat and calories are helpful, although others may feel protein to be crucial.
• What is the most important part of your weekly meal planning routine? / do you even have one? Before planning the forthcoming week's meals (and we've always done this), we discuss diary events, any current preferences, any offers, or produce/products we may have see along the way, anything the other fancies, and take it from there. A menu is the created, and a list created. As a matter of note, we will plan the appropriate number of meals, but rarely are we too specific about which day anything in particular will be eaten.
• How likely are you to prioritise ingredients you like over ones that fit your nutritional preferences? We need to eat food we will enjoy, so constant suggestions for kidney (for me), of mushrooms (for MrB - inconvenient though it may be!) will usually mean we would be discussing a substitute ingredient or different meal option, so maybe that indicates it would be useful to be able to reject a suggestion, but still be able to get another one?
• Are you interested in contributing any of your recipes for others to use? We'll fully credit you (as long as it's your own recipe!) within the app and you'd be helping others manage what can be a pretty daunting and troublesome process. I think there are some fabulous recipes on the various threads on here. I'm unsure I have anything too radical to offer, as MrB is our chief cook and alchemist. I would love to see some of our poster meals on there though as they look so excellent.

Thanks for that. I bet you wish you hadn't asked now.

 

[Brunneria]

Hi folks! I'm currently working on a solution to make meal planning a far easier process than it currently is.

The current intention is to design an app/website that allows you to specify various nutritional targets/limits, preferred foods, foods you’d like to avoid, any allergies/intolerances that you have and the amount of time you want to spend on cooking (to name just a few of the many possibilities). and it'll pick out selections from our DCUK recipe bank to fit you and your specifications.

If you have time, I'd love to hear what would make a meal planner useful for you. Below, I've listed a couple of talking points:

• Are nutritional values your first priority when planning a meal?
• Do you plan your meals based on what's already in your cupboard or would it be useful to have a shopping list generated for you?
• Would you benefit from using preset values (e.g. ketogenic preset, which would automatically generate a meal plan with less than 50g carb intake daily, with the option to adjust as you see fit)
• Which of the nutritional values are the most useful to you when cooking, and what order would you like to see these listed in?
• What is the most important part of your weekly meal planning routine? / do you even have one?
• How likely are you to prioritise ingredients you like over ones that fit your nutritional preferences?
• Are you interested in contributing any of your recipes for others to use? We'll fully credit you (as long as it's your own recipe!) within the app and you'd be helping others manage what can be a pretty daunting and troublesome process.

Any feedback is much appreciated - looking forward to collaborate with the community to build the ultimate meal planner! If anything's unclear in this post, let me know and I'll do my best to explain in more detail.

Thanks

I think the first thought when I read this post is that you need to be very clear who you are targeting.

Assuming that it will be aimed at people who aren't really interested in cooking, and have no background in putting together nutritional meals, and don't have extensive cooking skills, then I think it could be very useful - including shopping lists.

I can cook, but I rarely want to bother with anything complex or time consuming. Much of what I cook is one-pot, or a home made equivalent of a ready meal, and I often cook for several meals and then refrigerate or freeze the extra portions. But not everyone has the storage capacity.

When I am tired, speed and minimal effort are my ABSOLUTE priorities. I know from decades of experience that if I am a fraction too tired, or my bg has dropped below the magic number, then I will eat ANYTHING IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE, and sod the blood glucose consequences.

Being able to prioritise carb, fat, protein, calories, lacto free, veggie, vegan, soy free, and avoid particular ingredients like garlic or mushrooms would be very important. And yes, the keto preset appeals!

Carb reduction (keto) is my priority, but others will differ (sometimes a lot! )

A shopping list generator would appeal the most to me. I am often put off recipes by the fiddly little extras like a dried herb or a particular veg that is not on my 'familiar stock cupboard' list.

Most of my fave recipes have now been posted on the forum, so you are welcome to use any of them. lol.

I suppose my ideal dream would be a selection process:

way of eating choices:
- keto
- lacto free
- yes, I like everything except (insert xxxx)

feeding how many:
- single
- couple
- family of (insert xxx)

A list of recipes is then generated
I select a number of main meals + veg that appeal, plus lunch and brekkie options

The system crunches its little grey cells and produces a shopping list tailored to the number of people I say I am feeding.

This may not be anything like what you have in mind, @Giverny but it is what I would find most useful.

Of course, if you could arrange my local supermarket to take the list and deliver the next day, I would like it even more...
and yes, I AM that lazy.