How Plan to Eat sorts the Shopping List:
The shopping list works from a specific range of dates and lists all of the ingredients for the recipes planned within that range.
Rather than spitting out an incomprehensible list of ingredients Plan to Eat will first make sense of the list by sorting it.
- Plan to Eat begins by sorting the store names. All of the stores in the Grocery Stores List are put in alphabetical order. Items on the grocery list are either assigned to one of these specific stores, or they end up in the Favorite store until you assign them to a different store.
Learn more about how to use the grocery stores on your list. - Plan to Eat will then sort based on the grocery category alphabetically, or by a custom order if it has been set.
Learn more about how to customize your grocery categories. - Then Plan to Eat looks for the root ingredient title. For example, if a recipe calls for “chopped red peppers”, Plan to Eat will isolate the word “peppers.” This allows us to put all types of “peppers” in the same place on your list, since they are most likely together at the grocery store.
- The item is then sorted by its full ingredient title.
- Finally, we sort by the unit. We sort first by units that can be scaled (“cups”, “tablespoons” and “teaspoons”) and then by the unit title.
Once the items are sorted, Plan to Eat will go back through the list to combine and group similar items based on similar rules; store name, grocery category, title, units that can be scaled, and then the unit title.
Learn more about merging items on the Shopping List.
Our approach to the shopping list:
Items on the Shopping List merge based on unit and title. In order for them to merge, those listings need to be matching. You can edit any item on your shopping list to ensure it merges with similar items.
You can see which ingredients go with which recipes by looking at the recipe letter key at the end of the item. You can also look at the details of particular ingredients by clicking on the pencil icon and clicking to view the included items. This can be helpful as you are trying to see how ingredients are combining.
We want the Plan to Eat to simplify as much of your grocery shopping as possible. However, we also want your grocery list to be transparent enough that you know exactly what your meal plan is calling for and come home with everything you need. As you use Plan to Eat, it will learn your preferences and categorize in a way that works best for you.