Short answer: The meal plan is in the web app under Meal plan. A planned meal becomes routines for the cook and everyone eating, conflicts with sports and driving are shown, and the children can wish for dishes and have cooking days.
1. Why a meal plan in a routine app
Dinner is the day's biggest shared routine. It has a time, someone responsible and a set of steps, and it clashes with everything else the family has to do: sports, driving and appointments.
That's why the meal plan isn't an app within the app. A planned meal becomes ordinary routines in your day, so it shows up in Doing, the weekly plan, the iOS app and on Apple TV.
A planned meal becomes ordinary routines in your day.
2. How it works
In the web app you see the seven evenings of the week. Click an evening, choose a dish, mealtime and cook, and save. The cook gets e.g. “Make lasagne (4 servings)”, which ends at mealtime, with the dish's steps as activities. Everyone eating gets “Dinner: Lasagne”.
The week can be filled quickly with last week's menu, your fixed dishes or the family favourites, and meals can be dragged between days.
The feature page shows the week, the meal panel and the children's view with real screenshots.
See Meal plan3. When someone isn't home
The meal plan looks at your routines, appointments and driving. If Oliver has football until 18:30, it suggests Oliver eats at 18:45, and the cook gets a note to save a serving. If the cook has to drive in the middle of cooking, the meal plan suggests another cook.
4. The children join in
Children see this week's menu and can wish for dishes. If a child is the cook or a helper, the cooking day can count as a chore with pocket money, which you approve under Chores. And if a child can't join, they press “I'm not eating with you”.
5. Recipes and preparations
Dishes can have the recipe as text, a link or a PDF. A preparation like “Take the meat out of the freezer” is added as an activity in the morning routine, so it gets remembered. The meal plan doesn't make shopping lists. It's about what you eat, who makes it and who sits at the table.
Get started
Open Meal plan in the web app. The first time, it asks you to write five dishes you often make. Then you're ready to plan the first week. The meal plan is included at no extra cost.
Frequently asked questions
The cooking and dinner show up in the day in the iOS app, and the steps can be ticked off. The planning itself happens in the web app.
Turn them on under Settings → Meal plan. They are light: no eating routine, but a cook can still get the cooking in their day.
No. The owner and parents plan. Children see the menu, wish for dishes and can opt out of a meal.