Use Springpad for Weekly Meal Planning
Many of our users find Springpad useful for saving recipes they want to remember, and then they use those recipes to plan out their weekly meals. Let me show you how it’s done!
Create a Notebook called “Meal Plans”
First, create a notebook to keep all of your meal plans organized. This will give you one place to look in Springpad to plan & reference your coming meals. (learn more about notebooks)
Pro Tip: Notebooks and their contents can be accessed on the web & on the Springpad mobile apps
Save Recipes to Springpad
There are lots of ways to save recipes to Springpad:
- Use the Springpad Chrome Extension to save recipes from popular sites
- Use the Springpad Clipper to clip recipes from any blog
- Let Springpad search the web for popular recipes (Click +, then Look it Up, then search for a recipe)
- Type in a family favorite (Click +, then Save by Type)
- Spring a recipe from your friends in Friends Stuff
Pro Tip: When you save recipes from the web, a list of ingredients will be added to Springpad, with a link back to the original source for the instructions.
Add All of Your Recipes to the Meal Plan Notebook
As you save recipes to Springpad, add them to your new Meal Plans notebook. If you already have multiple recipes in your Springpad, find them in All My Stuff & use Bulk Edit (available on the web only) to add them to the notebook. Or, as you save new recipes with the browser extension or clipper, save them directly to the desired notebook.
Pro Tip: Any item in Springpad can be added to multiple notebooks, allowing you to reference the same item for many different uses.
Add Recipes You Are Planning to Cook to the Board
Each notebook has a section called the board, where you can visually organize your stuff. To make a meal plan, add labels for the days of the week you’d like to plan, then drop in recipes you’re planning to make. If your week calls for a “Leftover Night” or “Pizza Night”, those can be added as labels – which will be visible on the board, but not referenced in All My Stuff.
Pro Tip: The board is accessible on Springpadit.com via HTML5-enabled browsers. We suggest using Chrome to access Springpad on the web.
Create a Shopping List for Your Recipes
When you open a recipe in Springpad on the web and look under Quicklinks, you will see “Add to shopping list” which allows you to create a new list or add to an existing list. Create one new shopping list per week, then access each recipe you plan to cook that week & add the items you need to that list. If you open a recipe from your Meal Plans notebook and create a new shopping list, that list will be added to the notebook and can then be dropped onto the board.
Pro Tip: Title your shopping list by date & store name, making it easier to sort through your lists
Access Your Shopping List at the Store
Everything you add to Springpad automatically syncs between the web app and the mobile apps. So, when you’re at the store, you can access your weekly shopping list with no trouble!
Pro Tip: Before you head to the grocery store, sort your list by aisle or department. Drag & drop to re-order on the web, or re-order on the iPhone/iPad app by selecting Edit. The order of your list will sync across all of your devices.
Cook! Then Repeat…
When it comes time to cook your meals for the week, you now have one place to find them.
Pro Tip: Add cook notes to your recipes each time you try them, making note of any modifications you made & how the meal turned out!
45 Responses to “Use Springpad for Weekly Meal Planning”
Leave a Reply
LoisS says: Where do you create a notebook? The page linked to says the feature is coming but this article implies it is already available.
Lois – To create a new notebook, go to your Springpad home screen, then click the giant +
Amanda says: I have created a shopping list on the web, but I haven’t been able to access it on my phone. Any suggestions? Thanks!
-
Amanda – Can you tell me more about this issue? You may be having sync issues: brittni@springpartners.com
Rebecca – Lots of questions! I’ll do my best to answer.
1) No way to print right now, sorry about that.
2) You can create either a task, event or alarm. All those are date-based. Alarms have the ability to repeat, so you can try those. You can also set reminders on any note types, even recipes, and you can choose to have an email sent to you when the reminder is up.
3) Not sure what you mean about this one, the method of “Add to Shopping List” has not changed within Springpad, unless you mean you would like it to work the way it did in the Meal Planning App.
4) You can attach them as files on a note if that’s how you have them saved. You can also drag the file onto a Board if you are using the Google Chrome web browser.
dallen says: This is a decent workaround however I prefer the weekly meal planning menu over this option. This takes quite a bit longer especially when creating the shopping list. I LOVE Springpad but I really miss the old app!
Rebecca says: I really enjoy using Springpad.
Unfortunately, using a Notebook board instead of the (old) weekly menu planner just isn’t as robust. The board is very pretty, and allows a lot more flexibility in how you place things and how it looks (which I do appreciate), but:
1. How do you print the results. I know, I know, this might not be part of your target demographic, but I’m still reliant on paper.
2. How do you link a date to a set event. I cook for events. People coming over, dinners out – etc. Having those dates and events pop up automatically on their set days helps me better plan my meals. Right now I’m using notes; which aren’t a great way to set repeating events.
3. Can I have the old way of adding recipe items to the shopping list back? The process by which you add to your shopping list is more time consuming and cumbersome compared to the old way. Minor quibble I admit. Shopping lists still look great and work great. (Although, why does my notebook tell me I have 1 shopping list, but the option to add ingredients from my recipe list all the shopping lists I have?)
4. How do I store my old menus? I actually do go back and review at least some of my menus from time to time. I use the history to tell me how often I’ve cooked a dish, if I’m falling into a habit (hrm … chicken Tuesday?), or what I planned the last time the guys were over (events again).
Help.
LoisS says: One of the things I don’t like about the redesign of the site is that you’ve lost the intuitive operation that was present before. Label things…make it clear…that’s the hallmark of good usability.
Dusty says: How do I get my recipes to appear as long strips like you show in the image above? Whenever I add something to my board it shows up as a box.
Thanks.
-
Hi Dusty – hover over the recipe on the board and click the yellow button at the top left that appears.
Becky says: Nice, but I LOVED the old meal planning app. I’m glad that you still have access to the old stuff on an older site, but this was one of the things that originally sold me on SpringPad over Evernote. Would love to see apps like that in future updates, cause it was REALLY cool.
Christine B says: Thank you for trying to reintegrate a recipe interface into the new springpad, but I still prefer the old weekly meal planner app. Please don’t ever shut down access to the old app, or I would probably die haha. Now, if you could incorporate some sort of long-term calendar feature into the meal planner, that would be fab…
[...] Topics: Use Bulk Edit to Update Multiple Items in Springpad How to Implement GTD in Springpad Use Springpad for Weekly Meal Planning Use Springpad for Holiday [...]
Jan says: I’m a new user and using the menu planning blog to experiment with/educate myself about the
app. Questions:
1) What is your timeframe for introducing a iMAC/Ipod version supporting “the board”.
2) While inputing tasks or lists, I would really like to be able to indent tasks left or right. Does your app allow for this, or am I missing something?
3) Can I put a notebook within a notebook?
4) Do you plan to allow for printing? If so, what is your timeframe? It would be helpful to print a recipe or shopping list.
5) How can items/notes – ie a recipe – from one “box” (recipes) to another (weekly menus)?
6) Creating a shopping list from a recipe is cumbersome. Right now, I copy items, one line at a time onto my shopping list. Is there a way to streamline things?
-
Hi Jan –
1) No timeframe on a board for iPod, but you can view on a mac in any support browser (like Chrome)
2) Not exactly sure what you’re looking for but I can’t think of anything that would support this.
3) No notebooks inside of notebooks right now.
4) Printing your notes can be found under the quicklinks section when you are viewing your things
5) You can move items to other notebooks by clicking the notebook icon on the items or use the bulk edit button to move.
6) Moving recipes to shopping lists can be also found under the quicklinks section of a recipe.If you have anymore questions please email brittni@springpartners.com I’m happy to help!
[...] already using Springpad to save recipes that you want to remember, why not make a weekly meal plan? With a few simple steps, your household will benefit from your new-found organizational [...]
Amparo says: At the moment I’m using Springpad only for meal planning on my IPad. Is it possible to create a shopping list in the IPad app? Do I have to use the web? Because on the IPad app there is nothing in the Quicklinks section.
Do you have plans to develop a shopping list, similar to the web one, for the IPad app? Thanks!
-
Amparo – you can create shopping lists by tapping the + button, then add by type. The feature of adding ingredients from recipe to a shopping list is not yet available on the iPad unfortunately.
Brandi says: I was using Springboard on my ipad to do my weekly menu planning, but things on my board would not stay in place. I labeled the recipes so I had the days listed, but they would move “off” the board, and I couldn’t get them back on. Any ideas how to stop this?
Tasha says: What if the recipe is in a cook book…how can I add it?
-
Tasha – most recipes are available online, first try google’ing it. If you can’t find it you can go to Springpad, click the + then add by type -> recipe -> type it in. You’ll have to manually type it in.
Victoria says: I was trying to create a mealplan by adding recipes, etc. but there were no types to add except bookmark, note, and checklist. How do you get all the different types to show up so you can add them?
-
Victoria – If you go to a notebook or My Stuff and click the + then add by type, you can find recipe. Also if you’re on a recipe site, try using the web clipper http://bit.ly/i1RB9H
S – We’re working on a back up feature right now! Should be available soon!
S says: Meal planning is great!
But, I do not want to go through the work of manually entering my favorite recipes *unless* I can export them easily.
How do I do this?
dallen says: How do I change the view of my board to look like the one above? I figured out how to do it inside my notebook however the board still looks like a thumbnail view.
Jenny says: Hi, I’m trying to make a weekly meal planning out of my recipe notebook. But when I try to visualize my recipes they look like polaroid pictures, not like yours…
-
Jenny – click the little yellow button on the recipe when you scroll over it on the board. Then it will look like the one in the picture above.
dallen says: Exactly what I was asking too. Thanks for replying Brittni!
Kaitlyn says: How do I add a recipe to my shopping list? When I look under “Quick Links”, it only says Send via email and Print note.
-
Kaitlyn – Please be sure that your recipe is actually saved as a Recipe type, not a Note or Bookmark…
Fred says: How do I view labels on the board via iPhone app? All it provides when I view is just the item only.
albuss says: Here’s how I do menu planning with SpringPad.
1. In my recipes notebook click filter results then choose flagged
2. Click the rss icon in the upper right
3. Choose the reader to subscribe to the feed, I use My Yahoo!
4. Flag the recipes for this week’s menu, make sure they are public! I create my shopping list as described above.
5. As I cook each meal I toggle the flag off.
Cole says: Is there a way to share the board and/or the shopping list? I’d love to share it with my husband, but not have it open to the public.
Thanks!
-
Cole – Our suggestion for this use is to share you account with your immediately family.
Rayna says: Are you able to have more than one board in a notebook? I want to be able to keep the past boards up as reference.
This seems like a very useful application especially for busy mothers who are health conscious. Planning meals is great because you can plan not just the meals but the nutrition your family will be getting.
Tammy says: Hi, I am trying to make a label on my board but I can’t fugure out how to add the typing to it. LOL
-
Hi Tammy – When you add a label to a board, you should see a flashing line indicating that you can type text. If that doesn’t show, try clicking on the label. If that doesn’t work, let me know: dbramhall@springpartners.com
Tammy says: Okay, Thank you so much. I finally figured out the labels LOL.
I think that moving the label before I write on the label was causing problem for me. I really wish I had the board feature on my Android devices. I am sure that is in the plans though…just need to be patient.
I am really loving Springpad! Hubby however… not loving quite as much. Perhaps that is due to the new honey-do lists. 
LOL
Just Kidding. Hubby loves spring too. The sprindpad is actually becoming quite handy for our small business.
-
Hi Tammy – I hear you on the boards for Android tablet. Don’t have a timeline for that just yet, but hopefully soon! Maybe sometime you can write a guest post for our blog about how you use Springpad for your small business?
Stephanie says: I plan my meals one month at a time. Will this work with this application?
-
Hi Stephanie – You can use the notebooks/boards to plan however you like
We are showing the example of a weekly meal plan, but you can plan as far in advance as you wish!
James says: There should be a one click way to alphebetize my lists. If I have a long list and I try to drag and drop an item from the bottom of the list to the top the list I have to drop it at the top of the window then move the list down with the bar and then drag again and repeat this over and over. When dragging an item up or down a list the list should automaticaly move up or down by itself when it reaching the top of the window.
-
Hi James – You’re right, it’s a pain that checklists cannot be alphabetized easily. We hear you on this and while we don’t have specific plans to work on checklists right now, we hope to make some improvements in future releases. In the meantime, sorry!
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Where do you create a notebook? The page linked to says the feature is coming but this article implies it is already available.
Lois – To create a new notebook, go to your Springpad home screen, then click the giant +
I have created a shopping list on the web, but I haven’t been able to access it on my phone. Any suggestions? Thanks!
Amanda – Can you tell me more about this issue? You may be having sync issues: brittni@springpartners.com
Rebecca – Lots of questions! I’ll do my best to answer.
1) No way to print right now, sorry about that.
2) You can create either a task, event or alarm. All those are date-based. Alarms have the ability to repeat, so you can try those. You can also set reminders on any note types, even recipes, and you can choose to have an email sent to you when the reminder is up.
3) Not sure what you mean about this one, the method of “Add to Shopping List” has not changed within Springpad, unless you mean you would like it to work the way it did in the Meal Planning App.
4) You can attach them as files on a note if that’s how you have them saved. You can also drag the file onto a Board if you are using the Google Chrome web browser.
This is a decent workaround however I prefer the weekly meal planning menu over this option. This takes quite a bit longer especially when creating the shopping list. I LOVE Springpad but I really miss the old app!
I really enjoy using Springpad.
Unfortunately, using a Notebook board instead of the (old) weekly menu planner just isn’t as robust. The board is very pretty, and allows a lot more flexibility in how you place things and how it looks (which I do appreciate), but:
1. How do you print the results. I know, I know, this might not be part of your target demographic, but I’m still reliant on paper.
2. How do you link a date to a set event. I cook for events. People coming over, dinners out – etc. Having those dates and events pop up automatically on their set days helps me better plan my meals. Right now I’m using notes; which aren’t a great way to set repeating events.
3. Can I have the old way of adding recipe items to the shopping list back? The process by which you add to your shopping list is more time consuming and cumbersome compared to the old way. Minor quibble I admit. Shopping lists still look great and work great. (Although, why does my notebook tell me I have 1 shopping list, but the option to add ingredients from my recipe list all the shopping lists I have?)
4. How do I store my old menus? I actually do go back and review at least some of my menus from time to time. I use the history to tell me how often I’ve cooked a dish, if I’m falling into a habit (hrm … chicken Tuesday?), or what I planned the last time the guys were over (events again).
Help.
One of the things I don’t like about the redesign of the site is that you’ve lost the intuitive operation that was present before. Label things…make it clear…that’s the hallmark of good usability.
How do I get my recipes to appear as long strips like you show in the image above? Whenever I add something to my board it shows up as a box.
Thanks.
Hi Dusty – hover over the recipe on the board and click the yellow button at the top left that appears.
Nice, but I LOVED the old meal planning app. I’m glad that you still have access to the old stuff on an older site, but this was one of the things that originally sold me on SpringPad over Evernote. Would love to see apps like that in future updates, cause it was REALLY cool.
Thank you for trying to reintegrate a recipe interface into the new springpad, but I still prefer the old weekly meal planner app. Please don’t ever shut down access to the old app, or I would probably die haha. Now, if you could incorporate some sort of long-term calendar feature into the meal planner, that would be fab…
[...] Topics: Use Bulk Edit to Update Multiple Items in Springpad How to Implement GTD in Springpad Use Springpad for Weekly Meal Planning Use Springpad for Holiday [...]
I’m a new user and using the menu planning blog to experiment with/educate myself about the
app. Questions:
1) What is your timeframe for introducing a iMAC/Ipod version supporting “the board”.
2) While inputing tasks or lists, I would really like to be able to indent tasks left or right. Does your app allow for this, or am I missing something?
3) Can I put a notebook within a notebook?
4) Do you plan to allow for printing? If so, what is your timeframe? It would be helpful to print a recipe or shopping list.
5) How can items/notes – ie a recipe – from one “box” (recipes) to another (weekly menus)?
6) Creating a shopping list from a recipe is cumbersome. Right now, I copy items, one line at a time onto my shopping list. Is there a way to streamline things?
Hi Jan –
1) No timeframe on a board for iPod, but you can view on a mac in any support browser (like Chrome)
2) Not exactly sure what you’re looking for but I can’t think of anything that would support this.
3) No notebooks inside of notebooks right now.
4) Printing your notes can be found under the quicklinks section when you are viewing your things
5) You can move items to other notebooks by clicking the notebook icon on the items or use the bulk edit button to move.
6) Moving recipes to shopping lists can be also found under the quicklinks section of a recipe.
If you have anymore questions please email brittni@springpartners.com I’m happy to help!
[...] already using Springpad to save recipes that you want to remember, why not make a weekly meal plan? With a few simple steps, your household will benefit from your new-found organizational [...]
At the moment I’m using Springpad only for meal planning on my IPad. Is it possible to create a shopping list in the IPad app? Do I have to use the web? Because on the IPad app there is nothing in the Quicklinks section.
Do you have plans to develop a shopping list, similar to the web one, for the IPad app? Thanks!
Amparo – you can create shopping lists by tapping the + button, then add by type. The feature of adding ingredients from recipe to a shopping list is not yet available on the iPad unfortunately.
I was using Springboard on my ipad to do my weekly menu planning, but things on my board would not stay in place. I labeled the recipes so I had the days listed, but they would move “off” the board, and I couldn’t get them back on. Any ideas how to stop this?
What if the recipe is in a cook book…how can I add it?
Tasha – most recipes are available online, first try google’ing it. If you can’t find it you can go to Springpad, click the + then add by type -> recipe -> type it in. You’ll have to manually type it in.
I was trying to create a mealplan by adding recipes, etc. but there were no types to add except bookmark, note, and checklist. How do you get all the different types to show up so you can add them?
Victoria – If you go to a notebook or My Stuff and click the + then add by type, you can find recipe. Also if you’re on a recipe site, try using the web clipper http://bit.ly/i1RB9H
S – We’re working on a back up feature right now! Should be available soon!
Meal planning is great!
But, I do not want to go through the work of manually entering my favorite recipes *unless* I can export them easily.
How do I do this?
How do I change the view of my board to look like the one above? I figured out how to do it inside my notebook however the board still looks like a thumbnail view.
Hi, I’m trying to make a weekly meal planning out of my recipe notebook. But when I try to visualize my recipes they look like polaroid pictures, not like yours…
Jenny – click the little yellow button on the recipe when you scroll over it on the board. Then it will look like the one in the picture above.
Exactly what I was asking too. Thanks for replying Brittni!
How do I add a recipe to my shopping list? When I look under “Quick Links”, it only says Send via email and Print note.
Kaitlyn – Please be sure that your recipe is actually saved as a Recipe type, not a Note or Bookmark…
How do I view labels on the board via iPhone app? All it provides when I view is just the item only.
Fred – the full board is not available on the iPhone app.
Here’s how I do menu planning with SpringPad.
1. In my recipes notebook click filter results then choose flagged
2. Click the rss icon in the upper right
3. Choose the reader to subscribe to the feed, I use My Yahoo!
4. Flag the recipes for this week’s menu, make sure they are public! I create my shopping list as described above.
5. As I cook each meal I toggle the flag off.
Is there a way to share the board and/or the shopping list? I’d love to share it with my husband, but not have it open to the public.
Thanks!
Cole – Our suggestion for this use is to share you account with your immediately family.
Are you able to have more than one board in a notebook? I want to be able to keep the past boards up as reference.
Rayna – sorry this isn’t possible right now.
This seems like a very useful application especially for busy mothers who are health conscious. Planning meals is great because you can plan not just the meals but the nutrition your family will be getting.
Hi, I am trying to make a label on my board but I can’t fugure out how to add the typing to it. LOL
Hi Tammy – When you add a label to a board, you should see a flashing line indicating that you can type text. If that doesn’t show, try clicking on the label. If that doesn’t work, let me know: dbramhall@springpartners.com
Okay, Thank you so much. I finally figured out the labels LOL.
I think that moving the label before I write on the label was causing problem for me. I really wish I had the board feature on my Android devices. I am sure that is in the plans though…just need to be patient.
I am really loving Springpad! Hubby however… not loving quite as much. Perhaps that is due to the new honey-do lists.
LOL
Just Kidding. Hubby loves spring too. The sprindpad is actually becoming quite handy for our small business.
Hi Tammy – I hear you on the boards for Android tablet. Don’t have a timeline for that just yet, but hopefully soon! Maybe sometime you can write a guest post for our blog about how you use Springpad for your small business?
I plan my meals one month at a time. Will this work with this application?
Hi Stephanie – You can use the notebooks/boards to plan however you like
We are showing the example of a weekly meal plan, but you can plan as far in advance as you wish!
There should be a one click way to alphebetize my lists. If I have a long list and I try to drag and drop an item from the bottom of the list to the top the list I have to drop it at the top of the window then move the list down with the bar and then drag again and repeat this over and over. When dragging an item up or down a list the list should automaticaly move up or down by itself when it reaching the top of the window.
Hi James – You’re right, it’s a pain that checklists cannot be alphabetized easily. We hear you on this and while we don’t have specific plans to work on checklists right now, we hope to make some improvements in future releases. In the meantime, sorry!