A meal planner that uses what's already in your kitchen
A pantry-aware meal planner builds your week around the food you already have and leaves it off the grocery list. Most make you type an inventory. Cauli reads it from photos of your fridge, freezer and pantry, or from a grocery receipt, then prefers meals that use what's there and plans what spoils first early in the week.
Key takeaways
- Six optional photos replace a typed pantry list.
- No quantities, no counting, no upkeep: fix a line with a tap or a sentence.
- What spoils first gets planned first; fresh items count for a week.
- The grocery list is the plan minus what's in your kitchen.
How Your kitchen works
| Photo | Becomes | Counts for planning |
|---|---|---|
| Fridge, fridge door | Fridge and freezer lines | Fresh items for a week; Cauli plans them early |
| Freezer | Fridge and freezer lines | Frozen items don't age like fresh ones |
| Pantry, Pantry 2 | Pantry and spices lines | Spices, oils, sauces, rice, pasta and grains stay covered until removed |
| Counter | Out on the counter lines | Fresh items for a week |
- Read once, kept simple. Each photo becomes have and don't-have lines with no quantities. A fresh item counts as "have" only when there's clearly a usable amount.
- Correct it in a sentence. "Got chicken, spinach, out of milk" adds three lines. Retaking a photo replaces only that photo's lines.
- Receipts after a shop. A store receipt or an online order screenshot ticks the list and adds the rest.
- Never homework. Every photo is optional and cooking never changes Your kitchen. Old photos are called out, not trusted.
How it changes your week
- Meals that use what you have. When Cauli builds a week, swaps a meal or re-plans, it prefers dishes that use what's in your kitchen, without bending your goal, allergies or anything else.
- What spoils first, first. The spinach and the chicken thighs show up Monday and Tuesday, not Saturday.
- A shorter grocery list. What you have sits under "In your kitchen" with a "Buy it" button in case you're running low.
- Batches that use it up. A Batch can turn a half bag of rice and a bunch of peppers into three meals.
Do it by hand this week
- Before you plan, open the fridge and list what needs eating in the next three days.
- Put those items into Monday's and Tuesday's meals.
- Pick one Batch that uses the most perishable thing in bulk.
- Write the grocery list, then cross off anything already in the pantry.
Cauli does all four automatically. It's on the App Store for iPhone, and it doesn't order groceries.
Questions people ask
Is there a meal planner that knows what's in my fridge?
Cauli does, if you want it to. Take up to six photos (fridge, fridge door, freezer, two of the pantry, the counter) and Cauli reads them into a simple have and don't-have list. It plans meals that use what's there and leaves it off your grocery list.
Do I have to keep a pantry inventory up to date?
No. Cauli never asks you to count. There are no quantities, cooking never changes the list, and you can fix a line with one tap or tell Cauli "out of rice". Scanning a grocery receipt after a shop adds what you bought.
What happens to fresh food that's been there a while?
Fresh items count for planning only while they're under a week old, and Cauli plans what spoils first early in the week. Spices, oils, sauces, rice and pasta stay covered until you remove them.
Can I scan a grocery receipt?
Yes. Scan a store receipt or a screenshot of an online order: what was on your list gets ticked, and the rest goes into Your kitchen, aged from the receipt's date. The image isn't kept.
