How to meal plan for the week

Use Book to save recipes and Plan to choose when to cook them. Shop these days builds a grocery list from the recipes in the days shown. The steps below are what you tap.

1. Save the recipes you cook

On Book, paste a recipe link or recipe text into the field marked Paste a link, then tap Convert. Check the title, ingredients, steps and servings before you tap Save to book. For a printed or handwritten recipe, tap Photo. Photograph a recipe accepts up to 4 pages. Tap Choose photos or Take photos, then select or photograph the pages. If the app extracts a recipe, Check the recipe opens. A Paprika file opens from More on Book, then Import from another recipe app. If you have a free import left, the file can save one new recipe, using one of your three free imports. Subscribing on the next screen lets the app continue saving the remaining new recipes it could read. The import guide and the Paprika export page have the details.

2. Put dinners on days

Plan starts at Next 7 days. The minus and plus beside that label change the span from 1 to 14 days. Lunch and Dinner start enabled. Breakfast and Snack are also available, and at least one meal stays enabled. Tap Add under an empty Dinner, then choose a recipe on Pick a recipe; the button changes to Swap. Fill these days fills empty slots for every enabled meal from the recipes already in Book, including the starter recipes, and it does not replace a meal you already planned.

The servings number belongs to the saved recipe. Changing it scales that recipe's ingredient amounts wherever it appears in Plan, and scales its existing Shop quantities. If you expect enough leftovers for a later dinner, leave that dinner empty.

3. Build one grocery list

Tap Shop these days. Items already on Shop from other recipes or manual additions can remain. Shared ingredients combine when their names and measures match the app's merge rules. Compatible measures are converted and added, some amounts keep a plus sign, and others stay on separate lines. Shop starts with By type and remembers your choice. By type groups lines by aisle, and when the list includes produce, Produce is the first group. By recipe shows ingredients under each recipe name. The recipes-to-grocery-list guide has an example.

On the Kitchen tab, each ingredient has Have it and Need it. Have it rows show on Shop as In your kitchen, with Add on the right. They stay out of shared text, store searches, and store sends until you tap Add. Need it makes a matching Shop row buyable.

4. Shop it

Tap a buyable row to check it off. To share the list as text, grouped by aisle, open More on Shop and tap Share this list. In the US store selection, Get groceries offers King Soopers and Kroger cart sends, and the send is a pickup order. Matching can open Check the list or request Kroger login, and checkout happens in the store app or website (see the cart guide). Search only lists Walmart, Target, Instacart and 16 other US stores. Choose a store to see the items, then tap an item to open its search on that store's website.

See the worked lists for Three dinners, one grocery list and Five dinners with the fewest items to buy.

Questions

How many days can I plan in Tomato Potato?

You can plan 1 to 14 days using the minus and plus beside Next 7 days. The initial span is seven days.

Can I plan breakfast and lunch as well as dinner?

Yes. Plan initially includes Lunch and Dinner; you can also enable Breakfast and Snack. You cannot turn off the last enabled meal.

Does Tomato Potato choose the recipes for me?

Fill these days uses recipes already in Book, including starter recipes, for empty enabled meals. It leaves planned meals in place.

What if I already have an ingredient?

On Kitchen, set the ingredient to Have it. Its Shop row shows In your kitchen. Tap Add to include it in shared text, store searches, or a store send. Need it makes a matching Shop row buyable.

What does a combined line look like?

On a By type row the item name is on top and the amount is under it. The subtitle can also show recipe names or a recipe count. Matching onion, garlic and olive oil entries can share one line across different measures. Other amounts can stay on separate lines.

Tomato Potato is free to download. Free includes three saved imports and one Kroger or King Soopers cart. The plan, the list and store searches stay free. A subscription removes both limits for $4.99 a month or $29.99 a year in the US, and the yearly plan starts with a 7-day free trial for new subscribers. Recipes stay on your phone.

Last checked 2026-10-08. Paprika is a name of its owner; Tomato Potato is not affiliated with it.