Peapod Predicts 2017 Will Be the Year of the Home Cook

By ISN Editorial on 02/01/2017Comments Off on Peapod Predicts 2017 Will Be the Year of the Home Cook

Will 2017 be the year Americans finally ditch fast food in favor of homemade? With the New Year on the horizon, Peapod, the country’s leading online grocer, and ORC International conducted a national survey to see what food resolutions will be topping many lists. Peapod found that the home cooking trend – 72% of Americans already report cooking at home four nights or more per week in 2016 – is not slowing down for 2017. In fact, over a third of Americans surveyed (34%) are planning to cook dinner at home even more in the New Year! Leading the cooking movement are Millennials, who are twice as likely as their older counterparts (49% of Millennials vs. 24% of Boomers) to make this a resolution for 2017.

After a season of holiday indulgences, Americans are looking forward to more mindful eating. Of those that cook at home, 53% would like to meal plan more in 2017. It seems Americans think a little more planning will pay off for many reasons. The top three reasons for meal planning are to save money (60%), eat healthy (59%) and waste less food (55%).

“On our recipe inspiration web site, 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% in 2016 from the previous year,” explained Andrea Eldridge, SVP 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 number 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%) while Boomers say it’s the nutrition of the meal (74%).
• 51% of Americans would prepare dinner at home more often if they had new ideas. Millennials need the most inspiration at 63% compared to the more experienced Boomers at 42%.
• 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 4 nights a week compared to just 25% of Americans that will be turning on the oven and 24% that are microwavers.

Peapod is here to support home cooks of all ages and experience. In addition to Peapod’s full grocery store selection, it also offers various meal solutions in different markets like pre-cut veggies, zoodles and cauliflower rice to make it that much easier to stick to meal planning resolutions. Peapod also delivers meal kits across its metro markets with easy to follow recipes and all of the ingredients pre-measured, pre-cut, and pre-washed.

Home cooks can visit FromthePod.com, Peapod’s recipe hub. Beyond finding new recipe ideas, they can also fill their cart with just one click with all the ingredients needed for a new and tasty dish.