Tired Of Girl Dinner? Try The Mealime App For Tasty Meal Plans And Recipes
This article was written by The Zillennial Zine’s summer editorial intern Raven Minyard. Find her on Instagram at @raven.minyard. If you would like to share an article with The Zillennial, send us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com.
You’ve probably heard of the somewhat controversial “girl dinner” trend on TikTok where people throw together random snacks and ingredients to make a meal. After a long day, it can be hard to have the energy to prepare a proper meal or even think of what to make. What if I told you there was an app that allows you to meal plan and grocery shop all in one? If you’re looking for easy, tasty meals, look no further than the Mealime app. Stop wasting time preparing to cook and enjoy a real girl dinner. Read on for this Mealime review.
What Is Mealime?
I learned about Mealime a few months after I first moved out on my own. Gone were the days of my mother’s home cooking or the somewhat-hot and ready meals from my college’s dining hall. Exhausted from working full time and generally trying to function as an adult, I stuffed my freezer with meals from Walmart’s frozen section and became a frequent DoorDash user. I wanted to eat healthy, but I just didn’t know how. Luckily for me, a coworker recommended Mealime.
Mealime is a recipe and meal planning app that allows you to select your meals for the week, adds them to a list and even auto-populates your shopping list into your grocery store’s app for quick pick-up. There are hundreds of recipes to try, and you can sort by any dietary restrictions you may have or what type of meal or snack you’re looking for.
How Does It Work?
When you open Mealime, you’re given the option to build a meal plan. The app separates the recipes into categories such as Most Popular, Quick & Easy, and Budget-Friendly (all perfect selections for those of us used to girl dinners). Choose as many meals as you want, though I recommend selecting three or four to start. Once you have made your selections, they’ll appear at the bottom of the screen with a “Build plan” button. You’ll then be taken to a screen to review your plan and select serving sizes (you can choose between two, four and six servings per meal). Click “Build this plan” and your meals for the week are all set.
Now that you have your plan, you’ll see that there are items in your grocery cart. When you click the grocery icon, you’ll see that all the ingredients for your meal plan have auto-populated into a curated grocery list. Here you can check off any items you already have, and you can also add any additional groceries you may need for the week. If you do your shopping online, there is a “Shop online” button in the top right corner that will transfer your list to whatever app you use—all you have to do is click a few buttons and your shopping is essentially done!
Once you have all your ingredients, you’re ready to start your first meal. When you click on a recipe, it tells you exactly what cookware and ingredients you’ll need. Click “Start cooking” and the app will walk you through the instructions step-by-step. The best part about this part is that it’s hands-free. No need to dirty your phone while you’re cooking; just hover your hand over the camera and you’ll go to the next step!
Pros and Cons
There are a lot of good things about Mealime. I, personally, detest grocery shopping and trying to figure out exactly how many vegetables I need across recipes, but with Mealime, I don’t have to worry about that. I buy everything it tells me to and then I don’t have to make an extra trip to the store when I realize I forgot something. Another great thing is that the app offers substitutions for most of its ingredients, so you don’t have to panic and search Google hoping to find something that would work. Plus, the food is genuinely good. I’ve tried a ton of recipes and have yet to find one I didn’t like. If I’m struggling to decide what to make for dinner, I know I can turn to Mealime for something delicious.
However, a lot of recipes are only for the paid pro subscription. While there are still plenty of free options, Mealime adds new pro meals much more frequently than free ones. Breakfast and dessert recipes are exclusive to the pro version, so if you don’t want to pay, you’ll have to look elsewhere for the most important meal of the day or any sweet treats. The pro subscription is rather affordable, though, at $2.99 a month.
Another aspect many users don’t like is the serving size selections. As mentioned above, the app allows you to choose between two, four and six servings. This could be an issue if you’re only cooking for yourself and you don’t want a bunch of leftovers or if you’re cooking a meal for a large group. Since Mealime tells you exactly how much of each ingredient you need, you could do the math yourself to figure out other serving sizes, but it would be much easier if the app calculated it instead. It’s important to remember, though, that no app is going to be perfect, and I believe the pros greatly outweigh the cons in this situation.
This is a resounding yes from me. Before Mealime, if I wanted to find a new recipe, I’d have to scroll through countless Pinterest posts, redirect to a recipe website, and skip over the blogger’s life story just to find the ingredients, which I’d then have to copy down myself and hope my grocery store had what I needed. It’s so much more convenient to have everything in one location. If you’re just getting into cooking or are just tired of wasting extra time, Mealime is the way to go.
What do you think of this Mealime review? Will you be trying the app? Let us know in the comments!