PlateJoy Customized Meal Planning Review and Giveaway!

This post is sponsored by PlateJoy and I was compensated with a free membership for my honest review.  

Have you struggled with consistently planning and preparing healthy meals for you and your family?  I have and still do!

That’s why I’m excited to share my review of PlateJoy, an online service that provides you with healthy meal plans each week!  If you’re looking for meals that you know you’ll want to eat and a system that will keep you accountable, this is it!

And even better, one lucky winner will win a FREE 6 month membership to PlateJoy!  Keep reading to find out how!

[bctt tweet=”Learn about the @platejoy meal plan service and how you can win a FREE membership!” username=”Janelle_RWNR”]

The Struggles of Meal Planning

If you’ve been a regular reader here at Run With No Regrets, you know that I have been struggling for a long time to create a consistent meal planning routine.

A couple of years ago, I used to regularly share my weekly meal plans on the blog and it was a great way to keep myself accountable and motivated, but I could never stick with it…the last time I’ve posted one was at the end of January 2016!

It’s always so easy to make the excuse that I’m “too busy” to meal plan.  The crazy thing is that I love being organized and set on a schedule, but since I’m relatively new to cooking whole, healthy meals, it still takes so much effort to get started.  Can you relate?

What is PlateJoy?

You would not believe my excitement when I was contacted by PlateJoy to try their online meal planning service.  I was always curious about these types of programs, but was leery of the price:  if I paid for it, would I even use it consistently?

But PlateJoy is really cool!  You’re able to create your own customized meal plans based on your personal preferences, and it really gets down to the details.

When you start out, you designate the size of your household, the portion sizes each family member would eat, and any dietary restrictions.  For example, you can indicate whether you are diabetic, dairy-free, gluten-free, low FODMAP, Paleo, vegan, and more!

But that’s just the beginning!  There are also questions about how much time you’d like to prepare dinners, whether you like to repeat meals or eat the same thing, and much more!

PlateJoy Recipes

Once you put in your preferences, you can create a new menu.  You have the ability to review the meals before they are selected for you as part of your meal plan – if there’s something you definitely don’t want, you can remove it from your queue. I love this feature because you’re still in the driver’s seat of your meal plan.

Once you get your meal plan, you can review each recipe that is selected for you. You can check out the ingredients and instructions, but what I really love is that you can see the nutrition facts for each meal plus how to serve portions for each person in your family.

The Digital Pantry

And of course, you need to make sure you have the right ingredients to prepare these delicious meals!  PlateJoy really makes it easy to check what you need to buy and I like that you’re using the same ingredients for different meals, making shopping much more cost-effective.  For example, I used pitted dates for my breakfast and snacks for the week.  The digital pantry keeps track of what items you have in stock and which ones you need to pick up at any given time.  It definitely comes in handy!

My Experience Using PlateJoy

I’ve had a couple of weeks to try out PlateJoy and I’m happy to report that I’ve had a great experience using it!  The meals I made were tasty, the instructions were easy to follow, and it’s satisfying to know that I’m taking good care of myself and my family.  Here’s what I made last week – you can see my thoughts in the photos below!

• Breakfast:  Salted caramel breakfast smoothie
• Lunch:  Turkey, apple, and fresh mozzarella sandwich
• Dinner:  Parmesan cilantro turkey burgers
• Dessert/snack: Dark chocolate and pumpkin seed energy bars

I set it up so that I would create a new meal plan each Sunday, then I could pick up any groceries I needed for the week.  It gave me so much peace of mind to know that I didn’t have to come up with any recipes myself.  Even though I love Pinterest, you can waste a LOT of time trying to find a good recipe!  It was always a source of stress – Bret can confirm that!

And as a result of using PlateJoy, I really enjoyed being in the kitchen again.  Ever since I moved into my new home, I hadn’t taken advantage of the nice-sized kitchen. Thanks to PlateJoy, I’m reinvigorated!  This is exactly what I was hoping for with a meal planning service!

Pros:

• The meals are creative and delicious!  I can honestly say that I’ve enjoyed all the recipes that I’ve made.  While the breakfast smoothie wasn’t my favorite, it was still pretty good and it was nice to try something outside of my comfort zone.  There’s such a great selection of meals to choose from!
• You can change your preferences anytime.  When I first looked at my menu, I saw a lot of ingredients that I wasn’t familiar with, and that made me a bit reluctant to try making them.  So I went back to my personalized settings and opted for “familiar and family-friendly flavors” with a simple click!
• You can have as many or as few meals as you like.  I’ve had struggles with meal planning because I’ve tried to make too many meals in one week.  My boyfriend cooks too, and he will NEVER use a meal plan.  So this works great for us because I can make dinner a couple of nights for us and make my own breakfasts and lunches for the whole week!  It’s so flexible.
• You can connect your FitBit or Jawbone to track your calories.  I just realized this was a feature – very cool if you’re watching your diet!

Cons:

• Shopping can become more time-consuming.  If you’re not used to shopping for groceries every week, this may be a change of pace for you…well at least I can speak for myself!  As a matter of fact, I’ve got a few things that I need to pick up from the grocery store this week!
• There’s no mobile app.  I didn’t realize that I could simply use PlateJoy on the web and go through my shopping list (duh!), as it looks great on my cell phone.  However, I think if there was a dedicated PlateJoy app it would be much easier to use while on-the-go!

6 Month PlateJoy Membership Giveaway!

I’m so excited that PlateJoy has given me the opportunity to give you a chance to win a free 6-month membership!  What’s better than trying out PlateJoy for yourself, for free?  The giveaway will be open until August 17, 2016, so get your entries in and spread the word on social media!  Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I’ve really enjoyed using PlateJoy so far and look forward to it becoming part of my regular routine!  I highly recommend it, and if you don’t win the giveaway, stay tuned for a special discount for my readers that I will share in the next couple of weeks!  Thanks so much for PlateJoy for the opportunity!

[bctt tweet=”Enter the giveaway for a free membership to @platejoy custom, healthy meal plans!” username=”Janelle_RWNR”]

Have you ever had struggles with meal prep and meal planning?  

I’m linking up with Jill Conyers for Life, Fitness and Happiness. Annmarie, Nicole, Jen, and Michelle for Wild Workout Wednesday, Ilka and Angela for Sunday Food and Fitness, and Running with SD Mom and Erica Finds for the Wednesday Giveaway Roundup!