PlateJoy 4+

I tried everything to try to get myself out of restaurants and in the kitchen without wasting time or money. I tried meal planners like emeals which is nice but locks you into their schedule and doesn’t account for previously purchased bulk items and I didn’t always love their recipes. Other meal planning apps are specific to a food philosophy. PlateJoy is adaptable and you can change what type of plan to follow anytime.

I’ve also tried meal kit delivery like Blue Apron, Purple Carrot, Sun Basket, and Hello Fresh. Delivery was always a giant hassle and I felt like I was contributing to a lot of waste. Also you never got to develop a spice rack or bulk items just being sent sesame oil and vinegar by the tablespoon. It just felt expensive for a lot of work.

This is the app you want. If you buy olive oil and yellow onions and carrots and a big tub of oatmeal you’ll get recipes next week to use these again. It’s brilliant. And I finally have a kitchen full of food, enough for various recipes, on my own shopping schedule, with limited waste and not being locked into a food style. This is better than I could have hoped for. Worth the yearly fee for sure.

I first used this app two years ago and back then somehow you had more options for recipes and dietary restrictions. I dont even understand how the app lost features since Ive came back to it. So thats my first concern. Secondly I think this app is really misunderstanding their best market. Instead of focusing entirely on martha stewart moms who already know how to cook and what to buy at the grocery store they should start catering to college kids and bachelors that dont know what they’re doing. Because this app is GREAT for us. I just moved and one of the recipes calls for black pepper. I dont have it bc i just moved and it wasnt in the shopping list. You can say that I probably should and youre right, but this is what I use the app for. You also should probably alwyas have cooking oil in your home but they remind you to buy that.

maybe its just bc im a young bachelor with an allergy but I wish the app focused more on that (especially when it comes to cheaper meals) bc we have way more to gain from this app then a suburban mom thats been cooking every day for 10-15 years already.

With all that being said the idea behind this is amazing and makes me life A LOT easier.

My husband and I have been using this app for over a year now. It has helped us to eat healthier, and makes meal planning super easy. I love the grocery checklist that I can use from my phone while shopping. I also really love the options for amount of meals you want to make, the ability to note foods that you do not want to eat/cook with, and the dietary options (weight loss, keto, paleo, etc). We recently started the 30 Day Cleanse program, based off the Whole 30, and I am so happy with the meals and the weight loss. We are 23 days in, and I have lost 9 lbs, and my husband has lost 17 lbs. I love learning new recipes and preparing foods in ways I never would have before. But my favorite thing about this app is that I never have to stress about “What’s for Dinner”. 😀

There is always room for improvement, though. The prep time always seems a bit unrealistic, so be sure to add at least 10 extra minutes to that. I also wish that there would be some sort of star or other identifying character for recipes that require prepping things ahead of time (like freezing something overnight).