This post is sponsored by Gatheredtable
We are always happiest in our house when we meal plan – we eat better and don’t waste food. You’ve probably heard me mention Gatheredtable a few times over the past few weeks. I’ve been trying out the meal planning and recipe site and have been eating some awesome meals!
Each week a meal plan is generated for you based on a bunch of preferences that you set: number of meals per week, dietary preferences, how much time you have to cook. etc plus you can mark ingredients you want to avoid (like pork, gluten, etc). The weekly plan includes dinners based on your preferences, and then you can add recipes for breakfast, lunch and snacks to your weekly plan if you like. What I like most about Gatheredtable is that everything is customizable and editable. The Planner calendar allows you to drag and drop meals around, search, add side dishes and more and then creates a grocery list based on your choices. All of the recipes in the database are chosen and tested by Gatheredtable, but you can also add meals you clip from the web using the recipe clipper!
When you’re planning your recipes you can search through the Featured Collections which are organized by recipe style. This was so great when I was in the mood for a slow cooker meal or lighter recipes after Christmas.
And they have a bunch of side dishes you can add too! We loved the coconut rice we tried with our baked chicken.
Gatheredtable has an app too (Android // iOS), which made the grocery shopping particularly easy. What was neat about it is it put things in the quantity you need to buy. For example, the list assumes you don’t have any butter and will write “a stick of butter” on the list even if you just need 2 tbsp – but if you know you have something on hand already you can check “pantry” and it will list just the amount you need. Smart! You can also cross things off the list you know you already have (spices, etc) and they disappear until you’re ready to cook. It’s a really awesome grocery list because it does so many things: sums up ingredients, incorporates replenishables, tracks pantry week to week, and can be created for any date range you like.
So here are some of the meals we made!
Sheet Pan Salmon And Broccoli With Chile-Caper Vinaigrette
{And the Mazen version plus sweet potatoes!}
Turkey Sausage, Spinach And Cheese Mini Frittatas (We subbed turkey for local chorizo that was SO good!)
But the kale caesar really stole the show! LOVED this recipe and will make it again!
Sheet Pan Chicken With Cherry Tomatoes And Garlic plus Caribbean Coconut Rice Pilaf
This was like our favorite chicken + bean bake! And the rice we made in the rice cooker – loved all the flavor combos!
Slow-Cooker Spinach And Ricotta Lasagna {This recipe was soooo easy and fun to make in the slow cooker!}
Served with leftover veggies from the chicken night dinner –
White Bean Chicken Chili {We used the rest of our chorizo instead of ground chicken!}
All of the recipes were so good that we planned more for the week after and made these too:
Stuffed Baked Sweet Potato With Turkey Sausage And Broccoli
And the Quinoa-Stuffed Acorn Squash featured in this post along with Spicy Silken Tofu
We are always happiest when we have a solid meal plan for the week, so our experience with Gatheredtable couldn’t have gone better! I was most impressed with the recipes, all of which were creative and easy to make. The cost for the service is $86/year or $10 a month, which if you swap out one take out or dinner out in exchange for cooking in you’ll quickly save. Here’s a video with even more info on the service.
As a special for KERF readers, anyone who signs up for an annual subscription will get 15% off and ONE lucky person will win a free year of Gatheredtable. Just sign up through this link to enter and get started on a free 10-day trial.
Thanks to Gatheredtable for sponsoring this post and inspiring some delicious meals!
Melissa says
Wow, this looks like an incredibly helpful and intriguing service and the recipes sound great!
Hannah at Home says
These look so awesome! I’ve been playing around with several meal planning sites and am going to try Gatheredtable for sure!
We love making lasagna in the crockpot too – its soooo much easier to me 🙂
Eve says
How does this compare to cooksmart?
KathEats says
I like them both! Gatheredtable has more flexibility in the planner and I love the app – makes grocery shopping even easier. I like that Cook Smarts has more dependencies and the focus in on teaching best cooking practices. They are both great!
Candice says
I was going to ask the same thing!
mary @ minutes per mile says
me too. sounds like gatherdtable lets you pin/clip recipes from elsewhere online which is cool — but i love that cooksmarts lays out five meals that coordinate perfectly in terms of leftovers, shelf life, etc. i fear that if i had too much power to customize my meal plan i would waste more food, maybe? still, this sounds fab and i’d love to give it a try and compare the two!
Amelia Ames says
Thanks for the comparison! I’m not familiar with Cook Smarts–what are “dependencies?” I’ve been meaning to sign-up for a service, and really like the option of having help with grocery lists. I always seem to forget an ingredient!
KathEats says
Dependencies are ways to do the work once and reap the benefit twice – so roasting a squash and eating it as a side dish one night and then using the leftovers in burritos the next night.
Elizabeth E says
What do you mean dependencies? That’s not something I’ve heard in a kitchen context.
KathEats says
One recipe is dependent on another -so you make an olive tapenade and use it in 2 different recipes or make a huge pot of rice and use it twice.
Leslie says
What a great idea and the choices you presented look awesome!
Jeff says
Very cool! Some of my goals this year are to be more organized and plan ahead more. I’m going to check this out, thanks Kath!
Amanda says
That acorn squash- yummm!
Kelli @ Hungry Hobby says
Organization for the win!
Katie @ Peace Love & Oats says
I’m glad the recipes are easy, I’m not the best cook so that’s helpful! Looks very cool!
Shel@PeachyPalate says
Love the look of the chili…salmon forever though! 🙂 What phone do you use? I just got a Samsung for the first time trying to get to grips with it!
KathEats says
Currently iPhone 6s!
Shel@PeachyPalate says
Ah ok! I duno why I thought I remember you saying you had a Samsung!
KathEats says
I used to!! Got iPhone in October when I shattered my Android
Melissa says
How long do the meals take to prep? I have a 5 week old who won’t let me put him down along with my 2 year old and 4 year olds. I need SUPER fast prep. Even Cooks
Arts is too much for me right now.
KathEats says
It depends on what you pick!
Jillian says
Melissa- you can choose the hands-on time and the total time, from 30 to 90 minutes.
Cayley says
Ooh I love this! Thanks.
Kelsey says
Wow this looks so helpful! I love the mobile grocery list!
Lauren Deegan says
I always have this problem when I am cooking for myself and I don’t know what to cook. So I think Gatheredtable will be a huge life saver for someone like me.