Everything cookingplan.app does, and how to use it

Create an account

1. 1Choose Get started free on the home page, then enter your name, email and a password.
2. 2You land in onboarding, which sets up your household. You can change every answer later under Household.

Onboarding: your household

• Household name and how many people you usually cook for.
• Time zone — used for "today", meal dates and alert timing.
• Units — US (cups, oz, lb) or metric (g, ml). Quantities are stored precisely either way, so you can switch any time.
• Diet — Standard, Vegetarian or Vegan for the household. You can give individual people their own diet later with serving profiles.

Allergies are not dislikes

Onboarding asks for allergies and dislikes separately, because the app treats them differently. An allergy is a hard block: recipes and substitutions that contain it are flagged, and a meal override can't bypass it. A dislike (an exclusion) only steers suggestions away from an ingredient.

Set up inventory — or skip it

You can enter what's in your pantry, fridge and freezer now, or skip. If you skip, the grocery list assumes no verified stock and tells you so, which means you'll be told to buy everything a meal needs. You can add stock under Home inventory whenever you're ready.

Already in the app? Take the tour from the header for a two-minute walkthrough of every screen.

Add a recipe

• By hand: Recipes → New recipe. Enter a title, the number of servings it makes, ingredient lines and steps.
• Paste text: paste a recipe from anywhere. The app splits it into ingredient lines and steps for you to review.
• Photo import (when enabled): upload a photo of a recipe card or cookbook page. AI reads it into a draft. If photo import isn't set up on this server, the app says so — paste the text or type it instead.

Review and confirm

Every new or imported recipe starts as a draft. Each ingredient line shows the original text next to what the app understood: the catalog ingredient, form (for example raw vs cooked rice, fresh garlic vs garlic powder), quantity and unit. Lines the app isn't sure about are flagged — fix them, mark them optional, or leave them unresolved. When it looks right, press Confirm recipe. Only confirmed recipes can be planned.

A dish name on its own ("Lasagna") isn't a recipe — the app asks you to choose or enter one with ingredients and servings.

Versions

Editing a confirmed recipe creates a new draft version; the old version is kept. Meals already on your plan keep a snapshot of the version they were planned with, so an edit never silently changes this week's grocery list. To bring a planned meal up to date, open it and press Update to latest recipe — quantities and the grocery list are recalculated.

Units the app understands

• Fractions and mixed numbers such as 1½ cups or 1 1/2 cups.
• Ranges such as 2–3 cloves stay a range until you choose an amount.
• "To taste" and "a pinch" stay unquantified — they appear on the list without an amount.
• Containers need a size: "1 can tomatoes" is unresolved until you say how big the can is (for example 14.5 oz).
• Volume ↔ weight conversions happen only for ingredients with a recorded density, and the app tells you when it used one. Otherwise the line stays unresolved instead of being guessed.
• Scaling multiplies quantities by target servings ÷ recipe servings (4 → 6 servings is ×1.5). Cooking times are not scaled.

Plan meals on any dates

Open Meal planner, pick a date and add a confirmed recipe. You only plan the days you actually cook — skip any day you like. On phones the planner shows an agenda list; on larger screens, a calendar.

Sides and servings per dish

A meal can have a main and any number of sides. Each dish has its own servings, so you can make 6 servings of chili and 4 of cornbread. Planning reserves ingredients you already have, oldest-first, so the same pound of chicken is never counted twice across meals.

Shared-base meals for mixed households

When people at the table eat differently, use serving groups: cook a shared base once and add a variant for each group. For example, taco night: the base (tortillas, salsa, lettuce) is cooked once for everyone; a chicken variant serves the standard eaters; a black-bean variant serves the vegan. Each group's variant is checked against that group's diet and allergies. Alternatively, plan separate complete recipes — but not both for the same meal.

Leftovers

1. 1On the source meal, make extra portions — for example cook 6 servings when 4 people eat, leaving 2 leftover portions.
2. 2Plan a leftover dinner on a later date that uses those portions. It needs no raw ingredients, so it adds nothing to the grocery list.
3. 3If the source meal is cancelled or cooked short, the leftover meal is flagged so you can re-plan it.

Skip, cancel, restore and copy

• Skip or cancel a meal to release its reserved ingredients back to available stock. Nothing on hand changes.
• Restore brings a skipped or cancelled meal back and reserves again.
• Copy a meal (or a set of meals) to other dates.

Revisions

Every change to a meal bumps its revision. If someone else in your household changed it after you opened it, your save is refused with a message to reload — so two people can't overwrite each other's changes.

Make a list

Open Groceries and choose a date range. Every planned meal in that range contributes. Ingredients are combined across meals into one line each (500 g + 0.5 kg = 1000 g), while different forms stay separate (raw rice and cooked rice never merge).

Need, At home, Buy

• Need — the total required by the meals in the range, scaled to their servings.
• At home — usable stock reserved for those meals.
• Buy — what's left: Need minus At home, never below zero.
• Tap a line to see the contributing meals — which dinners need it and how much each.

Package rounding

When the store package size is known, Buy is rounded to whole packages after combining, and both numbers are shown — for example "Need 8 → buy one 10-count package" for tortillas. If the package size isn't known, you see the exact amount instead.

Restock mode

Normally the list buys only what planned meals are missing. With restock mode on for an item that has a restock target, the list also tops you back up: buy enough that, after the planned meals use what they need, you're back at your restock target. In plain words: restock target minus (what's on hand minus what this period's meals use), never below zero. Example: target 5, on hand 3, meals use 2 → buy 4 with restock on, 0 with it off.

Extras, checkboxes and printing

• Add manual extras (paper towels, coffee) — they're kept separately and appear once.
• Checkboxes are just for the store trip. Checking or unchecking a line never changes inventory.
• Print view gives a clean list grouped by aisle.

Shop at Whole Foods or Walmart

Choose a store in Shop at at the top of the list (Whole Foods Market on Amazon, or Walmart). Each item then has a Find at … button that opens that store's website already searching for it, in a new tab. Pick the exact product, add it to your cart there, come back and tick the line. Check out on the store's site for delivery or pickup — CookingPlan never orders or pays for anything.

These stores don't let other apps fill your cart, so it's one tap per item rather than the whole list at once. Your store choice is remembered on this device; choose No store links to hide the buttons.

Shop this list walks you through it: press Shop this list, then Open at … to see the first item in the store (it opens in one tab that every step reuses). Add it to your cart there, come back and press In my cart — next; the line is ticked and the next item opens. Skip moves on without ticking; the back arrow returns to the previous item. If you reload the page mid-way, the walkthrough picks up where you left off. At the end, check out on the store's site.

Price my list at Walmart

With Shop at set to Walmart, press Price my list at Walmart. CookingPlan looks up every item you still need on Walmart.com and picks the product that covers the amount for the least money — for example five 14.5 oz cans of broth if that's cheaper than two 32 oz cartons. Each pick shows the product, how many, and the price.

Change any pick from its menu, or choose Leave out. Items whose size we can't read from the product name are never picked for you — choose one yourself. Then press Add to Walmart cart: Walmart opens with every chosen product in your cart. Check the cart and check out on Walmart; CookingPlan never places the order. Afterwards, Tick these on my list marks those lines done.

Prices come from Walmart.com at that moment and can change or differ in store. CookingPlan may earn a commission on Walmart purchases made through these links, at no cost to you.

Send to Instacart (when connected)

Press Send to Instacart to have the list delivered instead. CookingPlan sends what you still need to buy (item names and amounts only — nothing about your household, allergies or recipes) and Instacart opens a shopping page with those items already added. You pick the store, check the matches, and pay on Instacart. CookingPlan never places an order or charges anything.

Lines you've already ticked off, and lines that can't be counted yet, are left out — the window tells you which. When a package size is known, Instacart is asked for whole packages (for example one 16 oz box of pasta).

Instacart doesn't tell CookingPlan what was delivered, so after it arrives use Confirm purchases to add it to your inventory. The Send to Instacart button only appears once the server has been connected to Instacart.

Confirm purchases

Back home, press Confirm purchases. Review what you actually bought — the quantity, package size and where it's going (pantry, fridge or freezer) — and confirm. Stock is added exactly once, even if you tap twice or your connection retries. If you made a mistake, use undo purchase on that purchase; it records a single compensating entry.

When plans change

If meals change after you made a list, the list recalculates. Your manual extras and checkmarks are kept, but lines whose amounts changed are marked so you can reconfirm them.

Lots and locations

Stock is tracked in lots: each purchase or addition is its own lot with a quantity, location (pantry, fridge or freezer) and optional dates. When meals use an ingredient, the lot that should be used first is used first.

On hand, reserved, available

• On hand — what's physically there.
• Reserved — the part set aside for meals already planned. Reserving doesn't change on hand.
• Available — on hand minus reserved: what's free for new plans.

Low-stock minimum and restock target

Set a minimum for staples (for example olive oil, 8 fl oz). When on hand is at or below the minimum, you get a low-stock alert. A restock target is the level restock mode tops you back up to on the grocery list.

Corrections, spoilage and discards

• Correction — fix a count that's wrong. A reason is required, and stock can never go below zero.
• Spoilage — record food that went bad.
• Discard — remove a lot you threw away or used outside the plan.

Date labels

You can record purchase, best-by, use-by and opened dates. The app uses them to order which lot is used first and to raise a date review alert. They're for organizing — the app never decides whether food is safe to eat.

History

Each item has a history of every change — purchases, cooking, corrections, spoilage, undos — with who did it and when. Nothing is erased; an undo is a new entry.

Mark cooked

Open tonight's meal from Today or the Meal planner and press Mark cooked. The scaled amounts are pre-filled; change any line to what you actually used. Confirming deducts those amounts from stock in one step, releases the meal's reservations, and updates shortages and alerts.

When the numbers don't add up

If you say you used more than the app has on hand, it refuses rather than going negative. Either correct the inventory first (with a reason) or revise the amounts used.

Undo cooking

Press Undo cooking to reverse a cooked meal. It adds back what was deducted as one compensating entry, and can be done once per cook.

Leftovers

If the meal made extra portions, confirm how many leftovers you actually have when you mark it cooked. Planned leftover dinners use those portions.

Find an alternative

On a planned meal's ingredient, or from a shortage alert, press Find an alternative. Candidates come from a reviewed rule catalog — each rule has a ratio, preparation changes and a plain note about how it differs. Example: sour cream → plain Greek yogurt, same amount, stir before using; "works as a taco topping; flavor is tangier."

How candidates are ranked

• Pantry first: alternatives you already have on hand rank highest.
• Then fit for how the ingredient is used in this recipe (topping, sauce, baking…), your preferences and past purchases.
• Every ratio has been reviewed. An idea without a reviewed ratio is labeled as an unverified idea.

Blocked candidates

Alternatives that conflict with your household's or serving group's diet, allergies or exclusions are shown as blocked, with the reason (for example "contains tree nuts" or "not vegan"), so you know why they weren't offered.

Approve substitution

Press Approve substitution to apply it. It changes only that planned meal — not the recipe and not other meals — and the grocery list and reservations are recalculated.

The three diets

• Standard — no diet restrictions (allergies and dislikes still apply).
• Vegetarian — no meat, poultry, fish, seafood or gelatin. Eggs and dairy are allowed, with switches to exclude either.
• Vegan — no meat, fish, eggs, dairy, honey, gelatin or animal stocks.

Serving profiles

Under Household, add a serving profile for each person with their own diet, allergies and dislikes. Serving groups in the planner use these profiles. Rules apply in order: the individual's exclusions, then the group's diet, then the household defaults. A meal-level override can never bypass an allergy.

Check the label

Some ingredients depend on the brand. Cheese may be made with animal rennet (not vegetarian); stocks, sauces such as Worcestershire, and processed plant-based foods vary. The app marks these "check label" instead of compatible, and an unknown ingredient never gets a compatible badge. See the Food, Allergy & Diet Notice.

Kinds of alerts

• Low stock — on hand is at or below your minimum ("Olive oil is below your minimum of 8 fl oz"). Planned meals don't matter here.
• Not enough for planned meals — upcoming meals need more than you have ("You have 1 lb of chicken, but this week's dinners require 4 lb").
• Out of stock — an item you track has run out.
• Date review — a lot's date label suggests checking it.
• Incomplete recipe — a planned recipe has unresolved lines, so its grocery amounts can't be complete.

One alert per problem

There is at most one open alert per ingredient and kind. When the situation changes it updates rather than sending a new alert, and it closes by itself once resolved.

Snooze and email

Snooze an alert to hide it for a while. Alerts are in-app by default; email digests (Household plan) are opt-in, respect your quiet hours, and include an unsubscribe link.

Roles

• Owner — everything, including members, preferences, Plan & billing, export and deleting the household.
• Editor — recipes, meal plans, groceries and inventory. Editors can't see billing or manage members.

Invitations

The owner creates an invitation under Household and gets a link. Nothing is emailed automatically — you share the link yourself (text, email, in person). Each link works once, expires, and requires the person to sign in or create an account before joining. Removing a member ends their access immediately.

Early access

cookingplan.app is in early access. Every household gets the Household limits for free: up to 6 members, 1000 recipes, 100 AI imports a month (where AI import is enabled) and 50 saved grocery lists. There is nothing to pay or upgrade, so Plan & billing just shows what you're using.

When paid plans start, we'll tell you in the app first. Nobody is charged automatically, a free plan stays available, and households that joined during early access get 3 months of the paid plan free.

Groceries are always paid at the store you choose (Walmart or Whole Foods on Amazon). cookingplan.app never takes your card for groceries.

Export

The owner can download a JSON export of all household data from Household at any time.

Delete the household

The owner can delete the household under Household. You must type the household name to confirm. This removes recipes, plans, lists, inventory, uploads and member access, and can't be undone. Backups roll off in about 35 days.

Sign in as

Password for all demo accounts: demo12345. On the sign-in page you can click an account to fill it in.

• [email protected] (Owner) — Demo Household · Household plan · worked example, mixed taco night, leftovers
• [email protected] (Editor) — Same household · can plan, shop and cook; no billing or members
• [email protected] (Vegan) — Plant-Based Kitchen · metric units · tree-nut allergy
• [email protected] (Vegetarian) — Veggie Table · shows rennet label checks and meat conflicts
• [email protected] (Operator) — Platform operator console · no household content