How Plan to Eat automatically organizes your grocery list
Your shopping list pulls all the ingredients from the recipes planned within your selected date range. Rather than showing a raw list of ingredients, Plan to Eat organizes everything so your shopping trip is as efficient as possible.
Here's how items are sorted, from top to bottom:
Store: Items are grouped by the grocery store they're assigned to. Stores appear in alphabetical order. Any item you haven't assigned to a specific store will appear under your Favorite store. Learn more about how to use the grocery stores on your list.
Grocery Category: Within each store, items are sorted by category (Produce, Dairy, Meat, etc.) in alphabetical order, or by a custom order if you've set one. Learn more about how to customize your grocery categories.
Ingredient Group: Within each category, Plan to Eat groups related ingredients together. For example, all types of cheese (mozzarella, cheddar, parmesan) are grouped under a "cheese" heading, and all types of peppers are grouped together. This keeps similar items next to each other, just like they are at the store.
Ingredient Variety: Within a group, items of the same variety are placed together and collapsed into a single line. For example, if one recipe calls for "shredded mozzarella" and another calls for "sliced mozzarella cheese," they'll appear together under one collapsible "mozzarella cheese" line showing the combined quantities. Meanwhile, "parmesan cheese" from a different recipe will appear on its own line nearby, still under the same "cheese" group heading, but separate from the mozzarella.
Item Title: Items are then sorted alphabetically by their full title.
Unit: Finally, items with the same title are sorted by unit (cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, etc.).
How Items Are Combined
Once sorted, Plan to Eat looks for items that can be merged together. Items with the same title and a matching unit will automatically combine into a single amount. For example, if one recipe calls for "1 cup
mozzarella cheese" and another calls for "2 cups mozzarella cheese," they'll merge into "3 cups mozzarella cheese."
When items have the same ingredient but different units, they're still grouped together under a single collapsible line. The header shows all quantities combined — for example, "Mayonnaise ¼ cup + 1 ½" when
one recipe calls for ¼ cup and another calls for 1 ½. Expand the group to see the individual items and which recipe each came from.
You can see which recipes contributed to each item by looking at the recipe letter key at the end of the line. Click the pencil icon on any item to view the individual ingredients that were combined, which is helpful for understanding how your list was built.
Learn more about merging items on the Shopping List.
Our Approach
We want Plan to Eat to simplify as much of your grocery shopping as possible while keeping your list transparent enough that you know exactly what your meal plan calls for. As you use Plan to Eat, you can
assign items to stores and categories, and the list will organize itself around your preferences.
How do I combine items on my shopping list?