Creating a meal plan takes three steps on one page:
- Say who you're feeding.
- Note any dietary restrictions in the group.
- Drag recipes onto a calendar.
Wholesum then scales every recipe and builds the shopping list.
You need at least one recipe before you can create a meal plan.
To start, go to Meal plans and click Add new meal plan. The live counters at the top show Total individuals and Total servings as you fill in the form.
Creating a new meal plan
Want a head start? The Tell Olive about the trip box at the top lets Olive draft the whole plan from a sentence. See Drafting meal plans with Olive.
Step 1: Plan details
Plan details
- Meal plan name: up to 30 characters, for example Week 1 – Explorers Camp.
- Folder: where the plan lives on your Meal plans page.
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Number of small / normal / large appetite individuals: how many people of each appetite size you're feeding. Each size eats a set share of a serving per meal:
- small = 0.75 serving
- normal = 1 serving
- large = 1.25 servings
Fill in at least one size. - Meal & purchasing instructions: notes for your cooks and shoppers. They appear on the plan page and in exports.
Total servings is what Wholesum scales recipes to. For example, 40 normal and 8 large appetites makes 48 people and 50 servings.
Step 2: Dietary restrictions
Under Which dietary restrictions or allergies do individuals in this group have?, tick each restriction and slide the bar to how many people have it.
Dietary restrictions in the group
When Substitute ingredients is on (Personal plan and up), Wholesum swaps in your substitute ingredients for exactly that many people. Recipes that contain a restriction in your group show a ⚠ warning in the recipe list.
Step 3: Add recipes
Adding recipes to the calendar
Choose your days on the right:
- Specific Dates: pick a start date and end date. Keep shift recipe dates with start date change ticked if you want the whole plan to move when you change the start date.
- Day Numbers: for plans that aren't tied to dates, such as a "5-day canoe trip" template. Enter the number of days.
Add recipes by dragging them from the Recipes list on the left into a day's Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner or Snack & Beverage cell. You can also click a recipe's + Add to Meal Plan and pick a date and category.
- Narrow the recipe list with Categories, Tags and Doesn't contain (hides recipes containing a restriction).
- The small number before each recipe shows how many times it's already in the plan.
- Click × on a recipe in the calendar to remove it.
- You can rename the column headings (Breakfast, Lunch…) for this plan. To change the defaults for new plans, go to Settings → Meal category labels.
Current meal plan
Under the calendar, Current meal plan lists every meal you've added:
The Current meal plan table
- # of individuals served: slide this down when only part of the group eats a meal, for example when staff skip lunch. That recipe is scaled to the smaller number.
- Date served and Category can be changed here too. Click remove to take a meal off the plan.
- If a recipe has substitutes, a button lets you set how many of those individuals need the substitute for that meal.
Save
The buttons at the bottom of the page stay in view while you work:
The save buttons
- Save meal plan & create Shopping list: saves and opens the plan's page and shopping list.
- Save meal plan & return to My Meal Plans: saves and goes back to your list.
Shortening the dates removes meals. If you move the end date earlier (or the start date later), meals on days outside the new range are removed from the plan when you save.
Plan limits on the Personal plan
The Personal plan allows one meal plan at a time, with up to 15 people across all appetite sizes. To plan larger groups, or several plans at once, upgrade to Professional or Enterprise.
Screen size
Meal planning needs room. On a phone, turn it sideways or use a tablet or computer.
Video walkthrough
This video walks through creating a meal plan. Some screens have been updated since it was recorded, but the steps are the same.
