Save a recipe you will recognise next month
Start with a homemade meal you cook regularly. In the analyser, check the food matches, ingredient quantities, method and recipe yield before saving. Keep sauces and toppings inside the recipe when they are always part of the dish; record variable sides separately when that makes the meal easier to reuse accurately.
Give the recipe a descriptive name such as Lemon chicken and rice — four serves, rather than Monday dinner. The recipe describes the food; the planner supplies the date. If two versions differ substantially, names such as Bean chilli — original and Bean chilli — extra vegetables make the difference easier to spot than several entries called Chilli.
This is a practical naming habit, not a claim that the app automatically organises versions. A small library of familiar meals can be more useful than dozens of nearly identical entries you cannot distinguish. Include a few breakfasts and lunches as well as dinners, so reuse helps with the parts of the week you repeat most.
Wait for the save, then check My recipes
- Enter a recipe name and confirm Servings in the analyser. If you imported the meal, review any estimated yield and unresolved ingredient details.
- Choose Save recipe. A guest is prompted to create or use a free account so the recipe can be saved to the private library.
- Wait for the save confirmation. If the page reports an error or Unsaved changes, keep the current work available and resolve that message before leaving.
- Open My recipes and use Open analyser on the saved card. Check that the name, ingredients and yield are the version you intended to keep.
Reopening the saved item is a useful first-save check. A browser draft, a successful nutrition calculation and a saved cloud recipe are different states. If a recipe appears to be missing, confirm that you are signed in to the account that owns it before recreating it. Avoid clearing browser data while an unsaved draft is your only copy.
Older recipes may be labelled Saved on this device, while an account library is labelled Signed in · private cloud library. Read the status actually shown. Do not assume a device-only item has become an account backup simply because you can still see it in the current browser.
Decide whether you are correcting or changing the meal
When you open a saved recipe and save changes, you are updating that recipe. Changing its name alone does not make a separate version. Use this path to correct a mistaken amount, resolve an ingredient match or bring the recipe into line with how you normally cook it.
If you want to retain the original and try a different meal, save the original first, choose New recipe, then enter or paste the variation and give it a distinct name. Recheck all food matches and amounts in the new recipe. Do not look for a duplicate action that this workflow does not provide.
A brand change, a different sauce, or replacing one main ingredient can affect several nutrients. Review the complete result rather than copying the original's protein number into the new name. The FSANZ database is reference data, and nutrient availability varies; an unreported value remains unknown after saving.
Keep yield, preparation and personal portion separate
Recipe yield says how many recipe servings the original ingredients make. Servings to prepare says how much of that recipe you are putting into a planned entry. Each person's share says how much contributes to that person's planned nutrition. These numbers can be different without being wrong.
| Quantity | Example | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Recipe yield | 4 servings | The saved ingredients describe four equal recipe servings. |
| Servings to prepare | 2 servings | This planned entry uses half of the saved recipe's ingredient quantities. |
| One person's portion | 1.5 servings | This person is assigned one-and-a-half of the recipe's standard servings. |
Suppose the reviewed whole batch reports a hypothetical 84 g protein. Four equal recipe servings give 21 g each. Preparing two servings represents 42 g across that prepared amount; assigning one person 1.5 servings represents 31.5 g for that person. The remaining half serving is not automatically part of their intake. These are illustrative figures, not food-composition data or targets.
If the evenly mixed finished batch weighs 960 g, one of four equal portions weighs 240 g, and 360 g is 1.5 portions: 360 ÷ 240 = 1.5. The same proportion is 360 ÷ 960 = 0.375 of the batch. This proportional method assumes the portion has the same composition as the batch; unequal distribution of meat, sauce or toppings can make that estimate less representative.
Reuse it on the dates you need
From My recipes, choose Add to planner. Confirm the date, meal slot, Servings to prepare and each person's portion, then review the preview before choosing Add to plan. The saved recipe remains the starting point; the entry tells the planner when and how much food is involved.
For repeated meals, open Add on several days or repeat. Several days lets you select dates; Repeat uses a date range and weekdays. Read the number of selected days and the stated servings for each date. Repetition adds a planned entry on each date; it does not divide one entered amount across all those dates.
For example, two selected dates with two servings each represent four recipe servings in total. Three dates with two servings each represent six. Before accepting, check the chosen meal slot and whether any of those dates already contains the same meal. Reusing a recipe should save decisions, not conceal duplicate entries.
Check leftovers before generating groceries
The shopping list uses prepared servings. If one four-serving batch is distributed as two recipe servings on Monday and two on Tuesday, those entries total four servings of ingredients. If you enter four prepared servings on both dates, the shopping calculation represents eight servings, even if you were thinking of Tuesday as leftovers.
That example describes shopping arithmetic, not a food-storage recommendation or an instruction to assign future food to somebody's current-day portion. Review the entries against the batch you intend to cook. Account for sides and pantry ingredients separately, and follow appropriate food-storage guidance for the dish.
Work through meal-plan and shopping-list quantities →
Eat for Health's meal-planning guidance includes meals and snacks when thinking ahead. A reusable library can support that habit, but it is still worth leaving room for different foods, social plans and meals you feel like eating.
Make reuse a quick check, not a fresh import
- Same recipe? Reopen the saved version instead of importing another copy of the same dish.
- Different ingredients? Update the recipe or make a clearly named new version, then check its nutrition.
- Different portion? Keep the recipe yield meaningful and adjust the planned portion rather than pretending the whole batch changed.
- Missing data? Resolve what you can and retain the partial-data notice; saving does not turn an incomplete estimate into a complete one.
- Already planned? Check the dates and prepared servings before repeating the meal.
My recipes also offers Export backup and Import backup. Export after important changes if you want a separate copy of the recipe library. Treat the download as private, and do not assume it is a full backup of every planner entry or account setting. If an import reports a conflicting version, preserve the existing work and review the message instead of deleting recipes just to force it through.
Once the first save is checked, the everyday routine is short: find the meal, choose a date, confirm the amount and review the plan. You can spend your attention on what changed instead of rebuilding the same ingredient list.
Free · no card needed
Try this on your own week.
Save recipes, plan meals for your household and compare the week with each person’s AU/NZ reference values. Your shopping list writes itself.
Try it with foods and recipes
Compare iron in Australian foods by household serve, then compare recipes by their reported nutrients per serving. Check the food form, recipe yield and missing values before making a comparison.
Turn your chosen recipes into a meal plan and shopping list.