How to use Say Mmm, a free, online meal planner and shopping trip organizer.
Start by adding recipes. Instead of typing out the actual recipe, I just link to the recipe online (most of mine are on this site, or others like allrecipes.com). I would start with adding about 10 recipes, and playing around with it a little bit. Add 10 things you will be planning to make in the next week or so, so you can get a realistic picture of how this works.
After you save the recipe or link, it will take you to the "other info" page. Fill out as much as you want here. The CRUCIAL thing is that you do the shopping list part. Items in that recipe that you usually have on hand, or things you need to buy for that recipe specifically, this is very quick, and so important for the ease of menu planning and shopping!
Also make sure you add recipes like Oatmeal, and Pb&J's...not that you need a recipe, but you want to enter the food items needed (oats, bread, jam etc) to show up on your shop list!
Then from the Home tab, create a checklist, under the shop/my lists section at the top. You can only create one list unless you pay to get the advanced program. (I find the free one quite sufficient). I called my list Weekly, but call it what you want. Start adding items to that list that you buy on a weekly or monthly (ie: frequent) basis. Like butter, milk, coffee creamer, eggs etc. (you can add non-food items too, like razors and toothpaste). You will use these when compiling your shopping lists.
Once you have a few recipes to pick from, start your weekly meal plan. Click on the plan tab, and start adding meals for lunch, dinner, breakfast, snacks, etc. When a week is showing at time, click on the date to see all 5 meal slots for the day, click on cook, and the My Ideas link, which will pull up a list of your meals, recipes, or places (fave restaurants). Once you've added everything for the week (quick and easy!), you're done!
Click on the shop tab, and select the week you are working with for the correct lists. Your shopping list is ready and waiting!! On the "buy" side, delete items you don't actually need to buy this time, and by clicking on an item from the "check on" side, it will add it to the "buy" side. All of your meals should be listed with all ingredients needed!!
Towards the bottom of that screen is where you can add items from your checklist, simply by clicking on them.
When you print your list, it organizes everything into sections/aisles, to make your trip more efficient.
This is only a basic guide to get you started. As you do this, you will get familiar with it all, and figure it all out - there are MANY nifty features (dining out, costs for food, assigning food items to specific stores), that you can play around with!
