Help with your list

Can I start without entering my own recipes?

Yes. Open Catalog to browse 12 plant-based recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Each has ingredient quantities, original servings, directions, and an estimated total time. Search by a name or ingredient, choose a meal category, or filter for meals estimated at 20 minutes or less.

Open a recipe to read it first. Save recipe keeps it in Your recipes for later. Save & add to list also includes its ingredients in your current grocery list. You can browse as much as you like before saving anything.

What happens if I save a catalog recipe again?

The app recognizes your existing saved copy. Saving it again does not create a duplicate or replace your edits. Adding an already-saved recipe to the grocery list uses your saved ingredients and serving choice. Open the saved recipe to change its name, ingredients, notes, or servings.

Your collection holds up to 40 saved recipes. Browsing the catalog does not count toward that limit. A saved recipe and its edits travel in your backup. If you remove your saved copy, the original recipe remains available in the catalog to save again.

How are catalog recipes presented?

The starter recipes are original plant-based recipes written for Recipe to List. Total times are estimates and vary with equipment and preparation. Ingredient quantities in saved recipes adjust to your chosen servings, matching the grocery list. Unchanged catalog recipes also show adjusted cooking quantities in their directions. Times and temperatures stay unchanged; use the doneness cues and allow enough pans or batches.

Use cooked, drained beans where stated, and check package directions for your rice, pasta, and other prepared ingredients. Tap water for cooking is measured in the directions and left out of the grocery list. The two older example meals are separate ingredient-only demonstrations.

What if I have the app open in two tabs?

When another tab saves a change, this tab shows A newer save is available. Choose Review update, then Load latest collection. The latest recipes and shopping checks appear together.

Unfinished recipe or item text stays open. Saving that draft creates a separate recipe or item so the newer original stays unchanged. If this tab had changes that could not be saved, Back up kept changes lets you download its earlier collection. Kept collections and unfinished text last only while this tab is open; save or back them up before closing it. Collection backups do not include unfinished form text.

Use the secure app in a current browser. If safe saving is unavailable, the app explains that changes are on screen only and offers backups. After an app update, refresh older open tabs before continuing to edit.

How do I add a recipe?

Choose Add your own. Enter the recipe name, its original serving count, and the servings you want to make. Paste the ingredient list with one ingredient on each line. Numbers and fractions such as 1/2 or ½ work. For a new recipe, the servings to make follow the original amount until you choose a different target.

Add preparation instructions or personal notes in the optional Directions & notes field. Recipe website links are not imported automatically.

If you change a recipe or extra item and then close its editor, choose Keep editing to return to the draft or Discard changes to leave the saved version unchanged. Closing an unchanged editor does not ask again.

The example meals are ingredient lists for trying the app. They do not include cooking directions, and their images are illustrative. Choosing Use my own recipes removes only untouched examples. An example whose name, ingredients, original servings, or notes you have customized is kept.

How do I read the whole recipe?

Choose View recipe to read ingredient amounts for the servings you are making. Each ingredient stays on its own line, including separate additions of the same ingredient. Unclear amounts are marked Needs review and remain unchanged. Open View original recipe for the exact saved ingredient list and directions.

Personal or customized directions stay as written. If your serving count changes, a notice explains that amounts written inside those steps have not been adjusted. Exact, unchanged catalog recipes can display adjusted cooking quantities, including measured water, without changing your saved text. You can keep up to 12,000 characters in Directions & notes. This text is saved on your device and included in your collection backup.

How do I make a variation without changing the original?

Open the recipe and choose Make a copy. A new draft starts with the same ingredients, servings, and notes, plus a distinct copy name. Change anything you like and save it. Canceling creates nothing.

A saved copy starts out of your grocery list so its ingredients are not counted twice. Select it when you want to include it. The original recipe stays unchanged.

Can I add something that is not part of a recipe?

Yes. Open your grocery list and choose Add an item. Enter a name, such as oat milk or paper towels, and an optional amount, such as 1 carton or a 6-pack. These entries appear under Extra items. You can edit, check off, or remove them.

Extra amounts stay exactly as you enter them. They are not combined with recipe ingredients or changed when you adjust servings. Editing an item's name or amount clears its shopping check. Extra items are included in your saved collection, shared list, and backups, and you can use them even without adding a recipe.

How do I find a saved recipe?

Open Your recipes and use its search to look for a name or ingredient. Choose In list to show only recipes selected for the current shopping list, or All to search your full collection. Filtering changes what you see, not which meals are included or the quantities on your grocery list.

How do the servings work?

Keep the original serving count equal to the recipe you saved or entered. Change the servings you are making to scale the ingredients. Selected recipes then combine into one grocery list. Tap a grocery item to see the original lines and recipe multipliers behind its total.

When a combined quantity changes, its previous shopping check or “Have it” status is cleared. Checks for unchanged quantities stay in place. The plus and minus controls change whole serving counts. To enter a fraction or decimal, use the serving field in the browser or edit the recipe in the iPhone app.

Why are some ingredients kept separate?

The app combines matching names and compatible units. Preparation words stay meaningful, so dry rice and cooked rice remain separate. Weight and volume do not convert into each other. Cups and spoons use US customary measures; use metric quantities if your recipe uses a different convention.

If two lines mean the same ingredient, edit their wording consistently before combining them.

Why does an amount need review?

Ranges, package or can sizes, and amounts such as “to taste” may need your judgment. These lines stay visible in the review section and in the list you share. They retain their original amount and show the intended recipe multiplier instead of silently guessing a new quantity.

When you know the exact amount, edit that recipe to use a clear quantity and unit.

What does “Have it” do?

“Have it” sets aside the full combined amount of an ingredient and leaves it out of the list you copy or share. Use it when you already have everything needed for that item. You can return it to the shopping list from Already at home.

The shopping checkbox marks an item as picked up. It remains in the shared list with a checked marker. Reset checks clears purchase checks for recipe ingredients and extra items while keeping ingredients marked Have it.

How do I keep a backup or switch devices?

In the browser, open Back up and download the JSON file or copy its complete text somewhere you can keep it. In the iPhone app, open Backups, choose Save backup, and choose Save to Files or another destination in the share sheet. Closing the share sheet by itself does not save a durable backup.

The backup includes your saved catalog recipes and personal recipes, directions and notes, serving choices, selected meals, extra shopping items and their amounts, and shopping checks. The same file format works in the current browser and iPhone versions. They keep separate local copies and do not automatically sync. Export and restore a backup to move your collection.

Backups from earlier versions still open in this version. New backups include directions and notes and require Recipe to List 0.4.0 or later.

What happens when I restore?

Choose a Recipe to List backup file, or paste its complete text in the browser’s Restore screen. Read the replacement notice before confirming: restoring replaces your current recipes, extra items, and shopping checks. Canceling leaves them unchanged, and an invalid backup is rejected.

If your current collection was readable, you can undo a successful restore immediately afterward. Your next change ends that restore Undo, so it cannot roll back newer work. Backups must be no larger than 2 MB.

What if my recipes do not save or open?

If a save fails, keep a backup of the recipes still on screen before closing the app. Check that storage is available; the iPhone app also offers a save retry.

If saved data cannot be opened, use a valid backup to restore your collection. Keep the original recovery copy when that option is available before clearing data or starting over. In the browser, the original recovery download remains available under Back up for the rest of that page session, even after restoring. An unreadable collection has no valid previous state to restore with Undo. Recipe to List cannot recover a collection that has been removed from local storage and has no backup.