We know that sometimes you may want to incorporate leftovers into your week to cut back on some of the cooking. We have made that easy for you. When you are in calendar meal planning, you can create leftovers from recipes already planned for the week, or you can have the meal planner automatically schedule recipes for you.
Schedule a leftover one time using drag and drop
To schedule a leftover one time using a recipe that is already scheduled on the meal plan:
- Click Planner in the upper left corner
- Click on the recipe that you want to use for leftovers
- Drag it to the meal slot when you want to eat the leftovers
- Select that you want to add leftovers
- The recipe will now appear in both meal slots
- The leftover is indicated by the stacked containers icon
- The number of servings that you will need to cook is automatically reflected in the initial recipe. For example, if you normally cook for 2 and use that recipe for leftovers, the recipe will automatically reflect 4 servings.
Schedule a leftover once using the ... menu
- Open your Planner
- Click the ... in the meal time for which you want the leftover to be scheduled
- Select Add leftover
- In the window that opens, check the box next to the recipe that you want to use leftovers from
- Click Add Leftovers
Schedule automatic leftovers
The meal planner can also incorporate leftovers into your meal plan automatically based on your settings.
- Click the gear icon in the upper right corner of the website (this is where you access your Settings)
- Select My Meal Plan or Whole30 Meal Plan
- This opens the Diet and Schedule page where you can specify dietary restrictions as well as make adjustments to your schedule.
- To make changes to your basic schedule, check the box next to Do you want enough for leftovers?
- Select the appropriate number for How many extra leftover portions would you like to make?
- This is the number of extra portions of each recipe that you want to make
- For example, if you normally cook for 4 and would like to have 2 extra portions of a meal leftover so you can have this for lunch the next day, you would select 2 here.
- Select the appropriate number for Over how many meals do you want to spread these leftovers
- This is how many meals each dinner recipe will be used for a leftover
- For example, if you select 1, each dinner will be used as a leftover one time. But if you select 2, each dinner will be used as a leftover two times during the week.
- Click Save
- Click Update my plan
For a detailed description of how to set up leftovers in your basic settings, click here.
If you need assistance, please send us an email at support(at)realplans.com.