meal-plan

Meal Plan

Overview

Create meal plans by selecting recipes for each day/meal. Features:

• Weekly planning grid
• Combined shopping list generation
• Automatic scaling for household size
• Dietary restriction filtering

Use this skill when:

• Planning meals for the week
• Preparing for a dinner party
• Meal prepping in advance
• Reducing food waste with intentional planning

Process

Step 1: Gather Requirements

Ask:

• "How many people are you cooking for?"
• "How many days are you planning?"
• "Any dietary restrictions or preferences?"
• "Which meals? (breakfast, lunch, dinner)"

Step 2: Suggest Recipes

Based on requirements:

1. Search collection for matching recipes
2. Consider variety (don't repeat cuisines)
3. Factor in prep time for busy days
4. Suggest using overlapping ingredients

Present options for each meal slot.

Step 3: Build Plan

Create a plan grid:

Day	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Mon	Oatmeal	Leftover	Pasta
Tue	Eggs	Salad	Stir Fry
...	...	...	...

Step 4: Generate Shopping List

Combine all recipes with appropriate scaling:

cook shopping-list "Oatmeal.cook" "Pasta.cook:4" "Eggs.cook" ...

Step 5: Output Plan

Save as:

• Markdown table - For notes/calendar
• Menu file - .menu format for CookCLI
• Shopping list - Ready for the store

Examples

User: "Plan dinners for the week for 4 people"

Questions:

1. "Any dietary restrictions?" → "No red meat"
2. "Prefer quick meals on weekdays?" → "Yes, under 30 min"
3. "Any cuisines to focus on?" → "Variety is good"

Generated plan:

# Week of January 22, 2026

## Meal Plan (4 servings each)

| Day | Dinner | Time | Tags |
|-----|--------|------|------|
| Mon | Chicken Stir Fry | 25 min | asian, quick |
| Tue | Pasta Primavera | 30 min | italian, vegetarian |
| Wed | Fish Tacos | 25 min | mexican, seafood |
| Thu | Sheet Pan Chicken | 35 min | american, easy |
| Fri | Homemade Pizza | 45 min | italian, fun |
| Sat | Thai Curry | 40 min | asian, curry |
| Sun | Roast Chicken | 1.5 hr | classic, sunday |

Shopping list generated:

cook shopping-list \
  "Chicken Stir Fry.cook" \
  "Pasta Primavera.cook" \
  "Fish Tacos.cook" \
  "Sheet Pan Chicken.cook" \
  "Pizza.cook" \
  "Thai Curry.cook" \
  "Roast Chicken.cook"

Reference

Menu File Format

Save plans as .menu files:

# Weekly Dinner Plan
# January 22-28, 2026

Monday: Chicken Stir Fry.cook
Tuesday: Pasta Primavera.cook
Wednesday: Fish Tacos.cook
Thursday: Sheet Pan Chicken.cook
Friday: Pizza.cook
Saturday: Thai Curry.cook
Sunday: Roast Chicken.cook

Planning Tips

Weekday strategies:

• Quick meals (< 30 min)
• One-pot dishes
• Sheet pan dinners
• Planned leftovers

Weekend strategies:

• Longer cook times OK
• Batch cooking for week
• Fun/involved recipes
• Family cooking time

Reduce waste:

• Use overlapping ingredients
• Plan leftover nights
• Buy proteins in bulk, portion
• Fresh produce early in week

Combined Shopping List

# All recipes at once
cook shopping-list "Recipe1.cook" "Recipe2.cook" ...

# With scaling
cook shopping-list "Recipe1.cook:4" "Recipe2.cook:4"

# From menu file (if supported)
cook shopping-list --menu weekly.menu

Scaling for Household

Household	Typical Scale
1 person	0.5x (halve)
2 people	1x (as written if serves 2)
4 people	1x (most recipes)
6 people	1.5x
8+ people	2x or batch cook