Repeating Recipes and the Battle of Simplicity

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One of the tricky parts to creating a meal plan for lots of people is that there are lots of different types of people, and they most likely have differing needs. One of our specific quirks we’re trying to balance is the issue on recipe variety.

On one hand, we understand that having a new recipe every day, while interesting, can be hard to manage. There’s a reason most people find a few good recipes and stick with them. Once you know the basics of how to cook them, you don’t have to look up every step of the way. In some cases, you don’t even need the recipe around any longer, you just grab the ingredients and make them. This is clearly a faster and more convenient way to cook.

However, it’s also a bit boring after a while, and I think it’s a big reason people have chosen to sign up for Paleo Plan to begin with — to add variety to their meals.

Paleo Plan is currently brand new, and we’re still in the midst of finding our rhythm on this. However, I felt it may be good to give a little bit of insight into how we are currently balancing this problem, and give you all a chance to provide feedback on your preference.

Our Current Approach:

  • We want to provide simpler meals during the weekdays, so you can come home from a busy day at the office and have a decent but reasonably simple meal to cook.
  • Weekends and Flex days are a chance to offer a more complex recipe, since it’s likely you have more time available. However, if your days off are mid-week, feel free to move things around as needed.
  • We try to introduce a few new recipes each week, but also try and incorporate several “staples” as well.
  • A staple is hopefully a recipe that is tasty, simple to prepare, and made with relatively inexpensive ingredients
  • We aim to never repeat a recipe, staple or not, more than 2-3 times a month.
  • As our recipe database grows, and as you use our system longer, the number of staples we call upon will grow as well. Hopefully, in a month or so, you’ll have a few dozen meals that you can make without looking at the recipe, and still be offering enough variety that you’re not growing tired of it.

Clearly, this whole thing is going to flex as we work out kinks and get feedback, but let us know in the comments how you feel about our general approach, and how you think we’re doing so far.