I want to Excel at Meal Planning

May 5, 2024 1:05 PM

I want to eat out less. Making food requires so many decisions. I'd like to create am excel or googlesheets database of favourite recipes, be able to select what I want to eat for the week, and have it generate a grocery list of items. (I don't need it to track my inventory, I will never keep that up to date.) I feel like this should be a done thing but my googling is just giving me Aesthetic Templates that would work just as well printed as on the computer and isn't giving the interconnectedness that I'm looking for. Also open to any systems to help my probably-adhd-self plan food better.
posted by platypus of the universe to Food & Drink (12 answers total)

Paprika is a recipe management app that is often recommended here and has all these features.

I've found it excellent for gathering/storing recipes. I've only dabbled with the meal-planning and grocery list part, but it seems like a comprehensive system if you commit to using it.
posted by hovey at 1:56 PM on May 5

A friend of mine loves the Sorted Food Sidekick app for this sort of thing.
posted by terrapin at 2:59 PM on May 5

An idea for the "systems" side of things:

A youtube channel I follow is run by four London guys - one chef and three "normal guys" who like cooking - and is all about food: trends, techniques, wacky contests, you know the drill. But they have also developed an app that may interest you - Sidekick, which lets you pick a meal plan "theme" for the week and then generates a menu for you, with recipes designed so that you do as little shopping as possible and that you use up everything in the course of the week.

Literally the one and only reason I haven't signed up for it myself is because I was hoping it would already have some kind of system where you can input the things you already have and it would spit out a meal plan based on that. Otherwise I'd be all over this thing.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:00 PM on May 5

You want this tutorial on using pivot tables for shopping lists! The key is to be really consistent about your ingredient names.
posted by beyond_pink at 3:46 PM on May 5

FYI there are some bloggers who do this- for a subscription fee, they send you a weekly meal plan and a populated shopping cart, so all you need to do is purchase the groceries and they’ll be delivered. Usually the recipes are planned out to use up all the ingredients before the produce spoils, to limit food waste.

I can attest that Made it Ate it Loved it has great recipes - although she and most of her followers have a lot of kids, so I’m not sure how flexible the portion sizes are.

And most of my ADHD friends swear by meal kits like Hello Fresh - again it limits food waste to have it all planned and portioned out, and when you consider the time saved by not planning and shopping, plus the lack of wasted money from spoiled groceries, they end up being pretty affordable. Plus the novelty is fun!
posted by nouvelle-personne at 4:07 PM on May 5

Another vote for the Paprika app here, but if you really prefer a spreadsheet it looks like this template might do the job.
posted by theory at 6:45 PM on May 5

I use Plan to Eat to add my recipes, create a meal plan, and create a shopping list. They give you 60 days to cancel and get a refund, if you want to give it a try. They also do a 50% sale off each Black Friday.

I originally just got it for Thanksgiving planning - I had incorrectly scaled up a recipe or missed something off my shopping list too many times. But I've been meal planning for the last few years and use it weekly to create my menu for the week and double check my shopping list.
posted by loop at 7:50 PM on May 5

I love CopyMeThat and have used it for a long time. Can recommend!

https://www.copymethat.com/features/meal-planner/
posted by alchemist at 11:05 PM on May 5

I use chatGPT for this. I ask for a week's worth of menu that will fit my various dietary requirements and taste, but also make the best use of ingredients ( so i'm not left with half a cauliflower or a quarter of a pack of tofu etc...
This makes it cheaper and more efficient to shop, but also to cook. For example, i'll chop all of the required onions or garlic or whatever at once in the food processor, then divide accordingly for each dish (and freeze some extra for later). I also specify in my prompt that i want detailed cooking instructions, nutrient information, etc... And i also ask for recipes that will freeze well, so i don't have to eat the same thing multiple times in a row but can freeze portions for later as well.
posted by PardonMyFrench at 7:59 AM on May 6

You may also want to look at the app AnyList. It allows to import recipes from the web, set a meal plan calendar, and populate a grocery list from within the app.
posted by bruinfan at 10:38 AM on May 7

Since you said open to any systems (this is not excel, I have tried excel and not had much success): 3x5 index cards (like a recipe card, but not!) On the front: the name of the recipe and source. On the back lined side JUST a list of ingredients. On the left side, things to buy fresh at the store. On the right side, pantry items I probably already have. The beauty of it is, I can ask my work from home spouse to "pick a card" and make sure the ingredients are all ready and then later when I get home I can just look up the recipe and cook it. So much of my mental energy was taken up trying to plan meals and source ingredients, when I actually like cooking, and I was having trouble figuring out how to slot in new recipes I wanted to try. I'm really happy with how it's working for us so far.
posted by lolibrarian at 3:34 PM on May 7

I also use Paprika, mostly for the meal-planning.

From a recipe, you can add it directly to a grocery list, or a calendar. You can also group recipes into a "menu", which I do for holiday planning or to save a collection of related favorites. I tend to have a few one-item recipes: "salad kit bag", "frozen pizza", etc. but you can also add notes to a menu/calendar and manually add to the grocery list. (I do notes for "thaw this for tomorrow" kinda stuff)

Once you have a week/day of food planned, you can press a button to add the combined ingredients to your grocery list. The grocery list is roughly sorted by category. Each item on the list shows which recipe it came from, which is helpful when picking substitutions. I usually skim the list, check off the bits I know we have at home, and then press the button to clear purchased items from the list.

It's the least painful way I've found to do meal planning, and I've happily paid for every platform of the software. Outside of meal-planning, most everything else is a joy to use and stays out of your way.

I have not found any free/paid/open-source alternatives that work as well.
posted by Anonymous Function at 10:25 PM on May 8