Last updated on January 3rd, 2017 at 03:19 pm
Will 2017 be the year Americans finally ditch fast food in favor of homemade? Peapod and ORC International recently conducted a national survey to see what food resolutions will be topping many lists.
Peapod found that the home-cooking trend—72 percent of Americans already report cooking at home four nights or more per week in 2016—will not slow in 2017. In fact, more than a third of Americans surveyed (34 percent) plan to cook dinner at home even more in the new year.
Leading the cooking movement are Millennials, who Peapod says are twice as likely as their older counterparts (49 percent of Millennials vs. 24 percent of Boomers) to make this a resolution for 2017.
Of those that cook at home, 53 percent would like to meal plan more in 2017. It seems Americans think a little more planning will pay off for many reasons—including to save money (60 percent), eat healthy (59 percent) and waste less food (55 percent).
“On our recipe inspiration website, FromThePod.com, we’re definitely witnessing the trend of meal planning with consumers looking for new dinner ideas. In fact, traffic to our recipes increased 120 percent in 2016 from the previous year,” said Andrea Eldridge, SVP of sales and merchandising. “Some of the most popular recipes were those that require 15 minutes or less of prep time or utilize a slow cooker for easy cooking.”
What are Americans looking for when they plan dinner?
• Something easy. The No. 1 factor, regardless of age, when choosing what’s for dinner? Having the ingredients on hand. After that, Millennials and Boomers are split. Millennials say it has to be how easy/quick the recipe is to cook (63 percent) while Boomers say it’s the nutrition of the meal (74 percent).
• Inspiration. Fifty-one percent of Americans would prepare dinner at home more often if they had new ideas. Millennials need the most inspiration at 63 percent compared to the more experienced Boomers at 42 percent.
• Stovetop recipes. Overwhelmingly, Americans will be looking for stovetop friendly recipes as they prepare dinner. Forty-four percent report the stovetop as their top tool at least four nights a week compared to just 25 percent of Americans who will be turning on the oven and 24 percent who are microwavers.
In addition to Peapod’s full grocery store selection, the online shopping service also offers various meal solutions in different markets—like pre-cut veggies, zoodles and cauliflower rice. Peapod also delivers meal kits across its metro markets with recipes and all of the ingredients pre-measured, pre-cut and pre-washed.
