How We Use the Paprika App to Plan Meals

How We Use the Paprika App to Plan Meals

Our Kitchen System

My husband, Jim, does most of the cooking around here, not because I don’t like to cook, but it gives him a break from his real estate work.

Generally, I choose recipes for us from my Paprika app (which you should check out if you collect recipes — I get nothing for recommending it), email them to him and he shops for the ingredients, brings them home and cooks the meals.

He cook two or three nights each week, then we have leftovers or something quick and easy the rest of the time. I’m a stickler about eating vegetables and only healthy foods, so I’m picky about the recipes.

I’ve written about a couple of restaurants we’ve visited, but I decided I’d write about our system, so to speak, as it’s working pretty well for us.

First, I created a category in the Paprika app called Try. This is for recipes we haven’t tried yet, but want to. It’s where I look first for planning each week’s meals.

paprika app

I use the Meals feature in Paprika to plan the week’s meals. I generally choose a couple of new meals from the Try category and one we’ve had before.

paprika app meals

Here’s how to add a recipe to the Meals calendar. Click the gray plus icon at the top, then select the date and click Save.

paprika app recipe

I have Paprika on my phone as well, so I can see and add recipes from anywhere. It’s easy to email the recipes from the phone. Just tap the three dots at the top right.

email recipe

The email contains the whole recipe — so he knows what he’ll be preparing and has the ingredients list. There’s also a grocery list function, but for us it’s just simpler for me to send him the recipes.

recipe app

After we try the recipe, one of two things happens. I created two categories in the Paprika app for recipes we keep. One is called Rotation/Main, the other is Rotation/Veg.

Here’s what I do after we decide a recipe is a keeper. Go into the recipe and click or tap Edit. Then I give it five stars and move it out of the Try category and into Rotation/Main or Rotation/Veg. I also add any notes Jim suggests for next time.

If we don’t like a recipe, we just delete it. There are so many recipes available online we just move on to something better. That’s why all the recipes we prepare and like have five stars — if it’s not worth five stars, why keep it?

Getting Recipes Into Paprika App

There’s an easy-to-use bookmarklet available once you’ve purchased the app. Then you just click the icon in your browser toolbar to add the recipe. It automatically adds the photo if there is one, and formats it as a recipe.

By default, the recipes that get added via the browser go into a category called Uncategorized. When I have a few minutes to spare, I go through the uncategorized recipes and add the ones that look interesting to the Try category.

I’ve tried several other recipe management apps in the past, and this one is the best. It’s not free, but it’s worth it.