Giveaway: There's an App For Meal Planning?? Spinning Meals 1.1! Win $50 Whole Foods and $20 iTunes

See the video and information below for more information.

Meal Planning.
I've always dreaded it. A thorn in my side. Seriously, until now, if I had to list my top three parts of my week that were the most annoying and disliked, meal planning would have been right up at the top.

Those of you that know me, know that when it comes to meal planning and eating, I've kind of just been the type of person to fly by the seat of my mommy pants (or running shorts).  I shop for lots of fresh veggies and fruits, make sure we are stocked up on Quinoa/Red and Brown Rice Mix from Costco, and get a few other staples that catch my eye.  Then I get the heck out of the store before my kids start fighting again or my son succeeds in crashing his little kid cart from Trader Joe's into the backside of some old lady.

This meal planning/shopping method usually gets me by for a few days until I'm finding myself overwhelmed in the kitchen at the 5'oclock hour staring blankly at my kitchen cupboards.  This is usually the "How many different ways can mom cook Quinoa" part of the week/month.  Although we eat healthy, my lack of meal planning organization isn't fun for anyone around here.

I'm not entirely sure why this process of meal planning has always been so frustrating and eye-pokingly overwhelming for me.  I mean, I can cook pretty well actually. It's just the process of being prepared to cook when it is time to cook that is my issue.  I just want someone to tell me WHAT to cook and WHAT to buy so that the thinking part is done and I can just do it.  Otherwise, I just end up making the same things over and over again.  And more often than not, if I end up wanting to try something new, I'm lacking at least one of the ingredients (because I didn't make a shopping list) so I end up spending more time going to the store, which leads to spending MORE money.  And a headache.  

But now I don't have to make the grocery list.  I don't have to plan my meals.  And I don't have to rummage through recipes. I don't have to do the MEAL PLANNING THINKING WORK! It is all done for me AND it is all in one place:  My Spinning Meals app on my phone!  


Yes, there IS an APP for THAT!

When Ryan from Spinning Cook first told me about his app Spinning Meals, I had no idea just how USEFUL and PERFECT for ME this would be once I'm all set up! Besides the fact that I was still an "app virgin", I didn't even begin to believe him when he told me that there was an app that could make this part of my life so easy.

Check it out in the video below:

I'm still getting myself acquainted with all the available features (especially now that Spinning Meals 1.1 is out with new features) but I'd definitely say that this app has life changing potential. I know, strong words but this is a strong app!  It is surely a way to simplify things and help take the thinking/planning work out of life so that I can still enjoy eating good food that is healthy and "just right" for my family without having to go through the traditional meal planning process.  Here are just a few highlights of Spinning Meals (but I don't BEGIN to do it justice):

• It comes with a few recipes already loaded for you so you have something to start "spinning" with immediately but you can add all of your favorite meals and recipes into the app.  If you're like me and don't cook with a ton of recipes but have meals you make from memory, then you can just enter the meal and the ingredients you need and that meal will automatically be part of your Spinning Meals system.  
• You can search on the web for recipes from your favorites sites and then capture then so that they are automatically in your Spinning Meals recipes.  
• Spinning Meals will create a week or more of meal plans for whatever meals you want and then generate a shopping list that will allow you to have all the necessary ingredients for your planned meals.  The shopping list is organized in a way that makes shopping easier and you can easily check off ingredients that you already have so that your list is easy to use while shopping.  
• Option to customize the menu planning for your schedule.  For example: If you have pizza night every Friday then you can just make that a permanent thing in your menu planning.  
• Because YOU load the app with YOUR food choices, you end up having a plan for meals that cater to your lifestyle.  For us, this means food that will fuel our marathon training and keep us healthy and strong.  

If you haven't already, you should check Spinning Meals out yourself by watching the video above and trying Spinning Meals 1.1 by downloading it off of iTunes for only $2.99.  It just might be the best $2.99 you've ever spent. 

Help Spread the MEAL PLANNING LOVE!
               

To celebrate the release of Spinning Meals 1.1 and to help spread the word about it,  Spinning Cook Ryan decided it would be fun to do a giveaway.  Since I like sharing the things I love, I think a giveaway on Runninghood sounds like a fantastic idea!

So here's the details:

2 Winners!
One $50 gift certificate to Whole Foods 
One $20 gift certificate for iTunes 

Here's some options for how to enter (separate comment for each please):

1. One of these forms of sharing is required:  Blog, tweet, or facebook about this giveaway by sharing this link and then let me know you did. I will also have this posted on Runninghood Facebook  so you can share directly from that link. (1 entry for each way you share and leave a separate comment for each).

Optional for extra entries:  

1. "Like" Spinning Cook on Facebook (1 entry)
2. "Like" Spinning Cook on Twitter (1 entry)
3. Click on any of the links about the Spinning Meals app or this one HERE and leave a comment telling me what your favorite part of this app would be.  I think mine will be the automatically generated shopping list for my meals!  (1 entry)

Please make sure that if you comment and don't have a blog, that I have a way to contact you if you win. 

Giveaway will end next Wednesday, June 27th and Spinning Cook and I will randomly choose two winners.   

When/If you download Spinning Meals 1.1 and get started using it, please let me know how you like it.  I'd also love if you'd share your recipes/meal plans with me via e-mail so that I can get more ideas for recipes to add to mine.  I know that so many of you are runners and parents like myself and make it a point to plan meals that are not only tasty and welcomed by our families, but also good FUEL for our running habits.    

Happy Spinning,

Amanda