Meal planning should make your week easier, not add another spreadsheet to maintain. This template connects your recipe collection, weekly meal calendar, grocery list, and pantry inventory so nothing gets overlooked.
The Recipes database is your cookbook. Each recipe captures name, category (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, dessert, drink), cuisine, prep and cook times, servings, difficulty, instructions, and dietary tags. The Ingredients relation links each recipe to the Recipe Ingredients bridge table, which maps every ingredient to a master Ingredients database with categories and units.
The Meal Plan database is your weekly calendar. Assign a recipe to each day and meal type, and the Grocery List database auto-populates with the ingredients you need, grouped by category. No more copying ingredients by hand from recipe to shopping list.
The Pantry database tracks what you already have — item, quantity, unit, expiry date, and low-stock flag. When you build your grocery list, check your pantry first to avoid buying duplicates.
