One Click Dinners: Meal Planning for Time-Starved Families

Family Profile

What is my family profile?

Your family profile is the key to your customized meal planning, specifying which types of meals you prefer to eat, as well as listing ingredients to avoid.

Only those meals meeting your specified food and cooking preferences will be selected.

For example, if you dislike spinach and beef you indicate on your family profile that you do not wish any recipes selected with those ingredients. If you are fond of Italian and Mexican cuisine, indicate on your family profile how often you would like meals selected with those flavors.

Customize your family profile in just a few minutes; modify it any time you wish.

Step 1 - Meal Planner

The meal planner will select meals for you based on the preferences you establish in your Family Profile. (Meal Planner link is located in the top menu bar.)

Simply select the number of "meals to make this week" from the drop-down box; decide whether to "include this week's featured meal" on your meal plan, and press "go".

A suggested meal plan is presented to you for your approval.

You will need to be a current subscriber to take advantage of the meal planner program, but you are welcome to search the Published Recipes, browse the complete list of published recipes, and the Ingredient Encyclopedia!

Step 2 - Meal Approval

What does it mean to approve my meal plan?

You're always in control of your family meal planning. The meal approval page gives you the option to look over the recipes and meals, modifying the meal plan as you wish. You can:

• automatically select a fresh set of meals to replace any meals you don't want,
• search the meal collection yourself to add another meal
• remove a selected meal, and not replace it with another

When your satisfied with your meal plan, press the "Approved" button to preview your grocery list.

Search for Meals

Can I search on my own to add meals to my meal plan?

Sure! You can search for meals in Published Meals or in your private collection.

• You can search by “Recipe Name” or by “Ingredient” - a great for finding recipes to use your leftover ingredients!
• You can search by “Season”, “Recipe Type”, “Main Ingredient”, “Flavor”, “Alternate Cooking Method”, “Total Work Time”, any combination!

Step 3 - Grocery List

How do I get my grocery list?

Pressing the "Approved" button from the Meal Approval page will show you a preview of your grocery list. Only ingredients with check-marked boxes will be printed on the final grocery list. Fresh items will automatically be checked, pantry items will not be checked automatically. You may check and uncheck ingredients as needed. To facilitate grocery shopping:

• Ingredients will be grouped together by grocery store departments.
• An abbreviated recipe name will be noted next to each ingredient.
• Ingredient quantities of ounces, pounds and whole items greater than one will be scaled to the number of family members listed on your family profile, helping you to avoid over or under buying.

Press “Print Grocery List” at the bottom of the list to print the grocery list now, or wait until later.

Step 4 - Meal Selection

What can I find on the Meal Selection page?

This is your meal management headquarters! All the meals and their recipes that you selected and approved are listed here. You can:

• create and print your dinner menu for the week,
• print your grocery list,
• view and print individual recipes

The meal planner program will wait 365 days before selecting the same meal again for you, but you can:

• mark a meal to be selected again soon - in the number of days you choose.
• if you never want to make a meal again, just check the box.

Family Recipe Box

What's special about the Family Recipe Box?

Here you can add your own recipes and meals! They are available only to you, so you can feel comfortable about adding that secret red-velvet cake recipe from grandma!

When you create your own meals, you can include them in your weekly meal planning, automatically!

Simply click the “My Meals only” button on the Home page - Meal Planner to select meals exclusively from your recipe box, or click on “All Meals” to select a mix of your meals and the published meals.

Add a Recipe

How do I add my own recipes?

You can add your own recipes by copying and pasting from electronically stored recipes, or just type them in.

• categorize your recipe by selecting recipe type, main ingredient, ethnic flavor, etc. from the drop-down lists.
• cut and paste your ingredient list all at once, and One Click Dinners will match your recipe's ingredients to the ingredients in the database.
• review and confirm before the final submission.

It's fast and easy - we've added all the published recipes on this site through the Add a Recipe page!

Add a Meal

How do I add my own meals?

You can create your own meals by combining your recipes together, or with non-recipe accompaniments, such as rice pilaf mix. Mix and match as you wish, very quickly, by picking recipes and accompaniments from drop-down lists.

Once you have added some of your own meals, you can include them on your weekly meal plan. One Click Dinners can select them for you automatically, or you can select them yourself . You can select only your own meals, or mix and match them with ones from the published meal collection.

Published Recipes

What will I find in the published recipes?

Our recipe collection consists of a couple thousand, hand-picked recipes with an easy-gourmet flair. If you love cooking simple, delicious dinners made with fresh, whole ingredients, you've come to the right place.

You will recognize our recipes; they have been designed by professional chefs, and previously published in well-known, trusted sources.

Over half the recipes require 30-minutes or less of your effort; over 75 percent require 45-minutes or less!

You don't need to be a subscriber to search the published recipe collection. Click here to browse the Complete Recipe Collection.

Feel free to search the Published Recipes by recipe name, ingredient, recipe type, main ingredient, ethnic flavor, cooking method, total preparation time or any combination.

Recipe Details

What information is available on the recipes?

In addition to basic recipe information, recipes are grouped into a number of different categories. A detailed definition of each category can be found in Recipe Details Explained.

Just below the categories, you can read subscriber reviews by clicking Read reviews & rate this recipe. Email this recipe to a friend and Print this recipe links make sharing and using recipes easy.

Learn more about an ingredient, see a picture, and get handy tips by clicking on an ingredient link.

Below the Preparation section, you may find several unique sections, geared toward making dinner preparation as easy as possible, Cook's Notes, Short Cuts, and Variation for Children. Read more about them Recipe Details - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs link).

Ingredient Encyclopedia

What will I find in the Ingredient Encyclopedia?

Like any encyclopedia, you can browse the contents alphabetically by index name, or you can search for a specific ingredient by ingredient name.

Most entries have a picture, a description of the ingredient's appearance, flavor and nutritional content. Find shopping tips, as well as preparation tips and techniques.

The Ingredient Encyclopedia link is located on the main navigation panel - on the right side of every page.

Free 30 Day Trial!

Try One Click Dinners for 30 days, FREE!

The current subscription rate is only $3.50 a month!

Why is there a cost?

This site is completely funded by subscribers. There are no advertisements of any kind on this site, nor will you ever receive emailed advertisements as a result of your subscription!

And unlike other sites, subscribers can take an active role in shaping the recipe collection, through their recipe ratings and Fresh Snippets weblog commentary.

Additionally, subscribers recieve a weekly Culinary News Snippet email, introducing the featured meal, etc. (optional, of course.)

Try it for 30 days, FREE!