Guest Author - Jan Zeiger

I wanted a meal planner that was easy to use, had tasty recipes, and most importantly, could be tailored to meet my family’s individual needs. After doing the free trial of the More Thyme menu planner, I decided to pay for a yearly subscription.

Ease of Use

Meal Mixer's (formerly More Thyme) plain and simple format makes it easy to navigate. As with other planners, there’s a bit of a learning curve, but it doesn’t take long to find recipes and add them to the weekly meal plan. Simply browse the recipes and then click the checkbox to add the meal to a particular day on the grid. When the recipes have all been entered, you can print a shopping list that’s automatically generated based on the recipes you‘ve chosen. Before it actually prints, you have the chance to delete any ingredients you already have in your pantry from the list and add other items you need at the store. Finally, the shopping list is printed for you, along with a meal plan to put on your refrigerator and the recipes you’ll need throughout the week.

Detailed Taste Survey

One problem I have run into with other recipe sites is that I have to wade through so many recipes to get to ones that actually fit our taste preferences. We no longer fit into the vegetarian category since we now eat poultry and seafood. Since we don’t eat beef and pork, I love that I was able to use the taste survey to eliminate these and other unwanted ingredients from the list of suggested recipes. Meal Mixer's taste survey took a few minutes to complete, but it was well worth the time and effort.

Great Recipes

While I’ve only been using the Meal Mixer's menu planner for about a month now, I can report that most of the recipes have been quite good. What’s great is that you can tweak them and even add your own recipes to the system, so you’re not locked into what they have available. The “Baked Shrimp Scampi” with pasta was a big hit with hubby, while my kids absolutely loved the “Sweet Potato Bean Burritos” which I served with sautéed plantains.

Nutrition Information and Weight Loss Help

Meal Mixer has really great features for those who need help planning their diet, setting weight loss goals, and tracking their progress. The nutrition information for recipes is detailed and automatically calculated, so you can see how well you’re doing on a daily and weekly basis. You are even given the option to choose a common approach to dieting such as low-carb or low-fat or customize your own diet to meet your individual needs. Dieters are also able to graph their weight loss over a period of time.


I’ve only been using Meal Mixer for a month now but have found it helpful enough to pay for a yearly subscription after my free trial ran out. This really is a great site, especially for someone who is new to cooking from scratch and is feeling overwhelmed by multiple sites and cookbooks. It’s also helpful for someone like me who is looking for new recipes and ways to make meal-planning less time-consuming. Dieters will find the site useful because of the weight loss tracker and diet tips.