(If your just joining us, welcome to Meal Planning Boot Camp. Each day this week I’ll post a lesson and a homework assignment. Click here to read the complete overview.)
Getting Started
Today is Day 1 of the Meal Planning Boot Camp and it's going to the be hardest day. You’ll need to work, but if you can survive this, you will be a meal planning ninja in no time.
Yes, I just mixed metaphors. I’m a pretend drill sergeant, I can do that. But for the record, Ninjas do not go to boot camp.
Moving on…
Today is all about entering our recipes into PlanToEat. If you already have your recipes gathered, this will be a pretty straight forward process.
There are several ways to add your recipes depending on whether you have them on paper or digitally. I’ll cover all the methods in today’s video lesson.
Lesson 1: The Recipe Book
Here is my video screencast on how to enter recipes into your recipe book.
(RSS and email readers click here to watch the video.)
Homework
Today’s homework is to enter at least 5 recipes into your Recipe Book. If you have time to do more, then that’s even better. We will be entering recipes for the next few days, so the more you can do today, the less you’ll have to do tomorrow.
Tips
Focus On Your Favorites – Only enter your most used recipes. Don't start at the beginning of your recipe pile and waste time on recipes that you only make occasionally. You can always add those later. Focus on your core meals.
Finish first, fancy later – Don’t worry about photos or tags or categories at first if you are pressed for time. Make something useable and then worry about making it fancy.
The goal for this week is for you to have enough recipes in your recipe book to make at least one or two menu plans. If you can add more that’s even better. Just be sure not to get hung up on the details.
Don’t retype if you don’t have to – Google is your friend. If you have a lot of recipes on paper that you need to type in, try searching for them first. I've done this for a number of dishes and it works really well. I simply search Google or a recipe site for the dish name. I often find the exact dish, but even when I don't there are usually just one or two adjustments that need to be made. It speeds up the process a lot because I can just use the PTE recipe bookmarklet. (Here’s the info on how to add the bookmarklet if you haven’t already done so.)
Check In
When you complete the homework, please check in by leaving a comment.
Also, if you have any questions, please leave those in the comments as well and I will do my best to help. If you have suggestions or ideas feel free to help other recruits by chiming in on questions in the comments. Click here to join in the discussion.
Rest up recruits. We have another insane day tomorrow. Dismissed.
Hi! My name is Kat and I'm so glad you stopped by. This blog is full of resources for inspired moms like you.
Finished today’s assignment!
Impressive! You’re making me think I’m being too easy…
Way to go Jaime!
I got a head start last night and entered a bunch of recipes, I totally need to enter some more, but at least it was a start. Loving the boot camp idea. I bought this service a few months ago, but haven’t really been using it to the fullest potential. Thanks, Kat!
You’re welcome Jeannie!
Finished today’s assignment…only because I signed up on Saturday and worked through adding recipes a bit then. As I have time today, I will enter as many recipes as I can!
Way to go Heather!
Mission completed, sgt kat!
Recipes entered. Excited to try this out!
I completed my assignment. And added a few more.
(Yay me!) Some of the recipes from blog sites wouldn’t automatically load, but because of the import option I was able to copy and paste ingredients and directions fairly easily. It worked just fine. Thanks Kat! Looking forward to tomorrow.
Way to persevere recruit!
I signed up for PTE when you mentioned it in November. At first I was a little intimidated at the thought of having to type in all my handwritten recipes. Then, I realized that I could find a lot of them by Googleing them. I was able to enter close to 100 recipes in just a couple of days. Thank you for doing the boot camp. I just this past week really started using the planner but already I have learned something new from today’s video. Looking forward to the rest of the week.
Done!
Done! WOOOHOOOO! Can’t believe how easy it is to save recipes! LOVE this!
I think I am just this side of heaven! (well, I am!) I just went to pinterest to my recipe board and imported a smoothie recipe using the import technique you just showed. What could be easier????? I am in LOVE with this site and we haven’t even planned a meal yet.
Mission accomplished for homework ,but I plan to enter more today. Minimum done, but so excited!!!!
THANK YOU.
Signed up for PTE and completed first assignment! Yay me.
Okay, I am officially OBSESSED!
I have 10 recipes entered so far. Some from Allrecipes, Pioneer Woman, etc. and a few that I hand-entered. I am sort of shocked by how easy it is to import. I mean it’s sort of genius!
I entered several over the weekend and did my first meal plan for this week. For me the best feature of this is the shopping list. I took my iPad straight to the store, propped it in the basket and walked around feeling like kind of a rock star. I hate grocery shopping and list preparation and this made me…so…happy. I felt happy shopping. Yes!
Love this! I’m going to keep entering recipes tonight!
That’s because you ARE a rockstar…and a ninja…
Wanted to get some of the more time-consuming things done first so I just finished entering my first five recipes by hand.
Since this area of life is such a challenge for me, even getting together what I wanted to enter took a long time so I decided to just stick with the five and be happy that I even accomplished that much today.
After reading other comments, it seems like the whole process was harder for me than it should have been but at least it is done. Day 1 – complete!
Thanks so much for doing this, Kat. The videos are extremely helpful!!
You’re welcome Laura. Let me know if you have any questions at all!
I originally got this a while back as a free trial and then cancelled it when I got frustrated. I am so glad you are doing this. I will try again! Thank you.
Done! Thanks for the motivation!
homework done – I have enlisted the help of my kids. They get 10c for each recipe they enter. Is that cheating?
No…it’s GENIUS!
Now THAT is smart. Too bad my kids are too young!
Did it! Done! Bring it on Sarg!
Good work recruit!
Assignment completed! I actually signed up for the free trial yesterday and had a blast importing recipes. I went to my pinterest boards and chose my fave recipes first. So excited and it was so easy. Granted, I was working on it while hubby was watching football but have over 60 recipes (breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks) in my recipe book!!!!!
I am pretty pumped about Plan to Eat. It is an amazing set up!
Working on the homework! So glad I started using the “Bulk” input instead of the normal. However, quick question…how do I add the bookmark or tab thingy to my toolbar that I can click on to just have it import the recipe for me? I have been looking on the PTE website for putting that in my toolbar, but can’t find it? Not the most techy one on here
THANKS!
I had this problem this morning too. If you are using Internet Explorer, do the following:
Go to the Plan to Eat website, and Click ‘Add Recipe’.
At the top of the page, there will be ’1. Save recipes on the web with our bookmark button → ‘ To the left is a ‘button’ that says Save Recipe (PTE).
Don’t do anything yet. Now, go to alt-V (View), then Toolbars, and make sure the Favorites Bar is checked. If so, there will be a bar at the top of the page (with a Yellow star with a green arrow on it).
You can now drag the button from the PTE website onto the Favorites Toolbar.
Then it should be available for you. Hope this works for you!
Thanks for these instructions. I was wondering how in the world to get that up on my toolbar…your directions were perfect and easy to follow. Voila…it’s on my toolbar and already getting tons of use.
Good question. There is a small link in the post near where I mention the bookmarklet. That will take you to a video on the PTE site that will walk you through it. I should have added the video to the post… Thanks for asking!
I found this off your site and started it at the first of the month. I LOVE IT!!!
I am going to follow your bootcamp this week and see if I can improve my use. Thank you!!
love this! did it….
I entered mine. It took me longer than I expected because the recipes I want are all over the place and in odd formats sometimes, but I got them in there.
Just finished my assignment and looking forward to learning more about PTE!
Hi Kat,
I would love to share all the recipes I’m adding, but what about copyright for those that I’m entering from cookbooks I’ve purchased? Right now I’m just listing them as private. Thoughts?
Lorri
PS I’m so excited and thankful that you’re doing this boot camp for us!
Just finished adding 5 recipes, which was no easy task. I have no recipes to put in but the internet is a lifesaver!
Want to know my secret? I subscribe to my favorite blogs by email, and when they post a new recipe, that tab is my friend! I get soooo many Delicious looking recipes added in one day from that! Then when I go to meal plan, I think of whats in my freezer or on sale this week (whoo hoo b1g1 huge packs of chicken!) and type the ingrident in the search recipes bar. I get input from all my faveorite bloggers and sometimes it is soooo hard to pick just one, that I will add both to the planner and have my husband go to PTE later in the day to choose which one sounds better (or easier if he is going to be the one cooking on that day!)
Jesilee, can you share some of the blogs you follow?
Ok, I’m not gonna be part of boot camp. There are 2 problems: (1) I rarely use recipes. I just throw things together. (2) I tend to sale-shop, and then cook based on what’s in my pantry, so I don’t really need the shopping list part of the Plan to Eat product.
BUT – I’ve been in a bit of a cooking rut lately, so you inspired me to make a new Google calendar. I just planned out the next 2 weeks – putting in whatever I’m making for dinner at 6pm (enchiladas, stir fry, etc), and then putting in notes around 10am or 1pm, like “get ground beef out of freezer” or “start making broth” etc.
And now my phone is giving me handy little text alerts telling me it’s time to get things out of the freezer!
It only took me about 15 min to set up the next 2 weeks, and I think it’ll be really helpful. So thanks for the meal-planning inspiration, even if I did it totally differently than you!
Added all my weekly staple dishes in. (There’s only about five.) Looks like this should work really well once it’s all set up. Now on to adding a few more things that I might want to make in the near future. This is great inspiration to get some organization.
Finished adding some of my recipes! I more to do though! I am really enjoying PTE. Thanks for hosting boot camp!
Been adding recipes like mad over the last several days. Have everything imported from my pinterest cooking file – most need to be typed in (only imported the link). Starting in on cookbooks – only typing in ingredients and just recording page number for directions. This is AWESOME!!!! Thank you so much for organized it!!!!
Done with today’s assignment and a little extra. Thanks, Kat!
Done! I didn’t know about the bookmarklet. AWESOME.
Phase one complete!!! Recipes entered and looking forward to planning meals smarter, healthier and happier! Thanks for the inspiration Kat!!!!
Love this site! Just finished my day 1 homework. Hope to input a little more later tonight after the kids go to sleep. So excited to get meal planning organized! Thanks Kat!
Wow! Finished today’s assignment and I’m ready for more! Didn’t think I would be able to get anything done as I am babysitting for a friend in addition to my 2 little guys. So I am astounded that I was able to enter 6 recipes from Pinterest as well as photo’s in a flash
This is going to be a game changer. Can already tell.
I joined in November and have played around with it. Now recruited a friend to do it too, and we are excited about sharing recipes! I did add several before boot camp. LOVE the boot camp theme–thanks!
I don’t know that you mentioned this, but you can also copy the URL and just paste that (I think it is the third option for adding maybe?) and it just transfers beautifully!
I did it! I am getting kinda excited about this. There are 7 or 8 in there of mine now!
Thanks!
You may have said this, but I’m sorry if I missed it. Do you know how long the promotional code you got from PTE will be good? I got the free trial, and if I can really make good use of this, I will definitely be subscribing.
Finished! Ironically, my second recipe had an error. But it was very easy to copy and past to get it imported.
Since I’ve been regularly looking at foodgawker and adding recipes, but haven’t gotten to the planning stage terribly well, I’m going to join in, and count the homework as done. Leftovers will see us through at least (!) tonight.
This was great, Kat! Homework completed!
Thanks for motivating me to get working on my recipes. I am so guilty of having access to great technology and then not using it to it’s full potential, which is exactly why my PTE subscription had just been sitting there with a couple of recipes since November.
I feel like I am cheating, I have already spent time inputting my recipes into Allrecipes and I am LOVING that I can just click to load them into PTE! I went to open my account to realize I had set it up 18 months ago but didn’t use it. Oooops!
That’s not cheating … that’s a great idea! I’m off to my Allrecipes account!
Haven’t finished yet but it’s on my list to do tonight! I may be the only one, but I don’t really have hardly any main course recipes…I just sort of make something up depending on what I took out of the freezer for supper, or look something up on All Recipes, but I never keep them. It’s kind of weird, because I’m not at all a good cook (nor do I enjoy it, that’s why I’m really excited to have this boot camp – I bought PTE months ago and haven’t done anything). I really am determined to get this done this week – I keep reading all over how meal planning has saved people’s sanity, lol, and I need it!
OK! I’ve entered five of my own recipes and will continue to add more later tonight! So excited to actually be using this!
Finished today’s assignment. Still have more recipes that I want to add, but I’ve got some in there to get a good start. Looking forward to the rest of the week.
You are wonderful, Kat! Thank you for motivating me to do this. I have taken this day off and started entering in recipes. I finally dug through my Pins on Pinterest that have been there forever…and I’ve never tried to make. I eliminated a bunch because the sites don’t exist anymore or the recipes were way too complicated. So excited for boot camp this week. Thank you so much…my husband and children will thank you too. And thank you to “Plan to Eat”…what a great “invention”!!
Done for today! Added all our favorites that are already digital.
I did it! I added all of the ones that I have had typed on my computer that we’ve done for our freezer meals!!
I’m done !
Done with homework.
Loved your video – just need to figure out how to add that bookmark button. Struggling with that. (I have a PC – anyone able to talk me through that?)
Have you taken a look at this? http://www.plantoeat.com/help/kb/general/using-the-bookmark-to-import-recipes-from-the-web Just below the video there is a step that tells you to drag the bookmark to your toolbar and there are instructions if you have IE. Hope this helps you.
THANK YOU!!! That worked!! I need that kind of step-by-step, cuz I’m toolbar illiterate.
Homework finished!! Managed to get in way more than 5 and my meals for next week planned. Loving the Plan to Eat site so far. Thanks for the recommend and the motivation.
Done with my homework! Thanks!
Done! I haven’t been able to get the Save Recipe bookmark to work correctly yet. It keeps asking me to log in to PTE even though I am already logged in. Plus, it can’t import directly from my favorite website, http://www.thekitchn.com. But I was able to use the bulk import and cut/paste recipes in without too much trouble.
I did it! And I’m already exhausted. lol
I just got the chance to watch Lesson 1 and heard angels singing as I watched
I can’t wait to do my homework!! I have so many recipes on Pintrest & Allrecipes that I’ve wanted to try (but haven’t) and this is going to make it easy peasy!!
Done with my homework, Kat! Thanks for doing this… so excited to use PTE even more!
Just finished watching Lesson 1 and heard angels singing as I watched
I can’t wait to do my homework! I have tons of recipes on Pintrest and Allrecipes just crying out to be tried and this is going to make it easy peasy!!
I already had some in and entered more today. Still need to enter more and enter basic non-recipe stuff.
Really enjoying PTE so far! Thanks for the inspiration…and my homework is completed!
So amazing! Kept calling the hubby over to “come see this!” We’re both impressed and hope this will help me actually MAKE the meals. (i always have great lists…it’s just getting down to actually cooking the meals that defeats me). But I finished today’s assignment so we’ll take it a day at a time!
Looks great! I’ll be adding some recipes. Frustratingly, the nifty import button doesn’t work on a lot of blogs so I still have to copy and paste over. Oh well. I’m almost sold on using this instead of Evernote. With Evernote, getting the recipes there and tagging is a piece of cake, but the actual planning part – not so much. This seems a little harder to get the recipes in or tag them, but the actual planning part – a breeze!
Finished the homework for the day. Loving Plan to Eat and this boot camp!
I wasn’t sure I would make it but I got them in. Yeah! So excited. Just the motivation I needed. I did wonder what the rest of you do with recipes for homemade laundry detergents and such? I put two recipes in but I didn’t really see a category to put these in. Any thoughts or suggestions?
Woo Hoo! Assignment 1 completed! I sure do hope this makes my cooking and shopping go more smoothly and with less waste.
Just finished my first day’s homework, and it feels good! Looking forward to the end results!
Well, it took me about 12 hours, but I finally finished adding my 5 recipes. I never could find the time to just sit and do it all at once so had to find little bits of time during the day to get ‘er done!
Done! Thanks for doing this. . .spurs us all one to Plan to Eat up and ready to work for each of us!
I just finished my homework for lesson 1. I am amazed at how easy this is. Looking forward to the rest of the lessons.
I clicked on the Red save recipe PTE button and dragged it to my bookmarks (favorites) tab & it’s all ready to go to help with importing recipes. very neat.
Thanks Kat for your time!
Done! Thanks so much for putting this together!!!
Thanks so much for doing this for us!! Assignment done!
Done! Started working with it for baking recipes before Christmas. Now would love to get my menues organized instead of every morning, or afternoon, saying, “what are we going to have for supper?”.
dayone, done!
Did it! Finished today’s homework…did some tonight and some last night. I love that it is not too hard to do on the iPad! Awesome. Thanks Kat!
I added a few! Yay- it’s been easy so far! Thanks for the instructions.
Finished today’s assignment! I signed up last week and had added about 50 recipes already, but did another 5 today
Still clearing out my Paprika list …
Woo hoo!
I finished my assignment and am loving Plan to Eat so far. Thank you, Kat.
I’m coloradogirl on PTE. Hi, new friends.
Done! Thanks Kat!
I got lots of new recipes in this weekend after I signed up. I’ve added over 50 new friends from these posts and I’m going through all there recipes and saving and saving and saving
)
Thank you so much for the bootcamp Kat! I know it’s a big help to so many people that just don’t realize how great Plan to Eat is. Maybe your bootcamp will inspire others who haven’t wanted to try it.
Thanks for all your hard work!
Done. Love it!
First assignment finished! I am VERY excited that I saw your post on FB and to be on my way to saving money by using PTE, which is going to help me pull my meal planning together!!! Thank you Kat Lee!
Done, thanks for the inspiration. Love PTE and am so excited about getting this part of my life organized!!
Just jumped in today, but I’m in and I’m done the first day. I had seen you mention the boot camp, and checked out Plan to Eat in the fall when you were talking about it, then last night my husband was helping me make this week’s menu and he said there must be some online way to streamline this, and I said yep, I know exactly where to go. And here I came, and it’s boot camp week. How awesome. Thank you!
Completed day 1 homework! Had entered recipes through single entry, but tried out bulk import. Totally agree- so much easier. Looking forward to day 2
Added some in but will do more tomorrow-that was pretty easy!
Can we add you as a friend and see your recipes?
Thank you so much! I love this! Adding recipes was so easy!
Just finished uploading my yummy recipes. So excited about this boot camp : )
Thank you SOOOO much for doing a bootcamp! I’ve attempted to do meal planning numerous times and have always found it to be too overwhelming…in fact, “meal planning” is a bit of a joke around our house.
This looks so user-friendly and seems actually “doable!” I’m amazed at how easy it was to add my recipies!
I’ve got over 5 entered. Would also love to friend some others to share their favorite recipes. The best recipes are the ones someone else has tried and loved!
Done! Way more enjoyable than the homework I will be doing with my 7-y-o later today
Homework done! Wow, can I just say how in love I am with that book marklet thingy!?! Wow! I took my own recipes, googled them, found ones that were close…and I just tweaked a few minor things according to how I customize the recipe, and with one small click, voila, done! I can’t tell you how super duper happy this is making me. This is an area I’ve been failing at for some time. And now, I have some home, even with my crazy busy schedule. Thank you, thank you for sharing this on Black Friday, and now doing the PTE boot camp. Love, Love, LOVE this!!
Over 20 recipes entered! (I won’t have this kind of time any other day his week). My bookmarklet doesn’t work on very many websites. Wondering if that’s normal. Copying and pasting is great, though.
Done! I went through my mum’s old recipe book and copied down a lot of the recipes I remembered from my childhood dinners that I want to make.
Argggghhhh… I can’t make the bookmark work properly!!
I have waited hours with the message ‘Importing Recipe…’ But nothing happens. I use Chrome and everything seems to be ok except for the importing thing. I have tried from many different sites as allmyrecipes.com, but nothing…
Has anyone the same problem or any clue of what happens?
Thanks a lot!
I recommend using the support links at PTE. They are super fast in answering technical questions.
Thanks Kat, you are doing an amazing job!
I managed to add recipes usig Safari, so for the moment it is ok for me and I have already done yesterday’s and today’s homework
I started over the weekend so I’m on track with you. Thanks for the tips on adding the bookmarklet & using google. I’ve been able to google several recipes on paper & finding really close matches. Great idea!
Glad it worked for you Pam!
Thanks for the motivation! My husband and I did this together, as he is the main menu planner, grocery shopper, and chef in our family! We entered our recipes for the week and then took several kids to the grocery store. My husband really liked the shopping list. I’m hoping this becomes one of our good habits:)
Amy,
I hope so too! Great job!
I entered recipes…..from you Kat!! I’ll gather mine later, but yours looked so much yummier! Anyway, I’m caught up now!!! On to day two!!!! Thank you so much virtual drill instructor/ food planning ninja master!!
Very smart. I like the way you think. Well done recruit!
Finished my homework! Love the PTE website so far!
Just came by to say that I finished my homework!
mariaz3
Way to go Maria!
Ok, I’m a day late but I’m about to input my recipes!!! Oh, the joy.
Rock on Janice…
WoW! Thanks for the tutorial on entering recipes — SO easy. I entered a bunch from my favorite e-cookbooks last night. We will be out of town Thurs – Sun, I’m super excited about getting my menu (& grocery list) planned for next week. By the end of boot camp, I’ll be excited to head to the grocery store Monday morning!
This is so awesome!
10 recipes added!
I did it!!!! I am so excited! We are expecting our 5th child within the next week or so and I’m thinking this will help me and my hubby make sure everyone still gets to eat – and not fast food!!! So glad you’re doing the boot camp! Great idea!
i got a bunch of recipes added. curious to see how it goes together and if i actually use it or not
I got my 5 recipes done!
Hi Kat!
I signed up for this back in November when you mentioned the special they had at the time. I just this month actually started using it and it is a breeze!! I watched today’s video and learned a couple things too.
Thank you!!!!
Easy peasy! But would love to figure out the “friends” part of the site so I can “steal” other people’s recipes!
Playing catch up, but it’s done!! whoo hoo!!
Once I got started, it was hard to quit! I am loving this!
I’m a little late but I’ve got my first 5 recipes entered. Now onto day two!
I am also jumping into this challenge 2 days late, but it’s only Wednesday morning and I am going to spend all of naptime today playing catch up
I absolutely LOATHE meal planning. I am so bad at it, I even stress my husband out each week because I ask him a billion questions about what to eat, how much, does this sound good, or what about that, etc. I also struggle coming up with healthy-ish sides so I’m hoping this will help a sister out!
A little late, but I got my recipes in and am starting day 2. : )
I am a little behind – I just finished Day 1′s assignment and will work on Day 2 today! Loving it so far!!
Jennifer in Iowa recruited me for this bootcamp and PTE. I didn’t realize I should be posting so I am going back and posting. I became addicted Monday when I started adding my recipes. I couldn’t just add 5. Having a blast. I did have a problem importing recipes from Tastefully Simple and the Pillsbury sites. Other than that things are going smoothly.
Wonderful! I’m glad you’re finding it useful Tricia.
First 5 recipes DONE!! Lving being able to find them online and import
Just got started in the bootcamp, added lots of recipes thanks to the Save Recipe button!!!
So I am starting late but I have been trying out the website for 2 weeks now and have many recipes inputted already. Wanted to learn more so I am taking your bootcamp. I learned something new. Didn’t know I could import right from Pintrest. I am so excited. I have a ton, I mean a ton of recipes pinned.
The bookmarklet rocks!! Having lots of fun entering recipes, a chore I would normally hate. Thanks for the video!
I’m behind on the boot camp. Just joining in, but I’m super excited because I’ve been thinking about joining PTE for a long time now. I’ve entered my recipes! It’s addicting. I know, I’m crazy!
Hi how do I add the PTE bookmarklet if I
am using it on the iPhone ?
Thanks
Done! A few days late but still done; added a ton of recipes – found many of my paper copies were available online and the bookmarklet made it so easy to grab those. What fun! Starting to feel some hope about meal planning
Now on to lesson 2…
Hadn’t understood or noticed the PTE bookmarklet before, fantastic! Thank you. Just found this bootcamp, excited.
Just now having time to do day 1 of boot camp. I’ve had family in town and no time at the computer. Playing catch up now and loving how quick it is to add recipes! Thanks Kat!
Just found you! Finished Day 1 homework. Thanks soooo much!
I just found this Boot Camp and finished Day 1. So far I’m loving it, but I still think it will take a while to get all my recipes in. But thank you for this!
I have PTE but this shows me how to do some things I hadn’t caught on to. Like the Bookmarklet!! Duh!! I had tried.
I have recipes in my PTE Recipe Book but I am following along (a long while after these posts went life) and entering 5 recipes to continue with my Recipe Book.
Thanks!!
I just found your blog searching for how to use PTE! I have a 30-day free trial but haven’t figured out how go use it effectively. Thank you so much for this bootcamp/tutorial. So helpful.
I finished it