Meal prep app: see whether you actually prepped every week

Set up EasyRoutine as your meal prep app

Create a routine called Meal prep. The simplest version has one activity, Batch cook, that you log every time you cook for the week. Most people get more out of splitting the steps that tend to fall apart:

• Plan menu: deciding what to cook
• Groceries: the shopping trip
• Batch cook: the main session
• Midweek prep: the top-up when the boxes run out on Wednesday

Separate activities show you where the routine breaks. If the groceries get logged every Saturday but the batch cook keeps going missing, you know the problem is Sunday afternoon, not the shopping.

Each activity gets its own color, and you can give it a photo (your stack of containers, for example) so the tile is easy to recognize. EasyRoutine can suggest a name from that photo. If you also prep breakfasts or a separate batch for the kids, give that its own activity rather than squeezing it into Batch cook.

When did you last cook a batch?

When the boxes are in the fridge, log Batch cook: tap + Log on the day, pick the activity, and it lands on the calendar. Forgot to log on Sunday? Add it to Sunday afterwards and set the time you actually cooked.

To answer "when did I last cook?", tap the Batch cook tile at the top of the calendar. The calendar then shows only that activity, so the most recent entry is your last batch, and in the month view you can see how far apart your sessions really are. Tap Midweek prep instead and you see whether the Wednesday top-up ever happens. All of this is on the free plan.

Write down what you cooked, and how many portions

Every log has room for a comment and a green, amber or red flag. That turns the calendar into a cooking diary. Things worth writing on a Batch cook log:

• What you made: "chili and rice" or "chicken traybake and roast veg"
• Portions and where they went: "6 boxes, 2 in the freezer"
• How it lasted: "ran out Thursday" or "too much, binned 1 box"
• What to change: "double the rice next time", "less chili for the kids"

The flag gives you the verdict at a glance: green for a week that went to plan, amber for a batch that was fine but too small, red for the one nobody wanted to eat.

When you open the log sheet for Batch cook, it shows your last few comments for that activity. That is the quickest way to pick something when you are stuck for ideas, to avoid cooking the same curry three weeks running, or to repeat a batch that worked. Comments do not appear on the calendar itself; open a log to read its note.

The log's date doubles as a freezer label. If Sunday's note says "2 boxes of chili in the freezer", you know exactly how old they are without writing on the lid.

Find the step that keeps slipping

After a month or two the record answers questions you would otherwise guess at:

• Which step breaks first? Filter by each activity in turn. A solid row of Groceries with gaps in Batch cook points to Sunday afternoon; gaps in Plan menu usually come first and drag the rest down.
• Which dishes repeat? Scroll the recent comments on the log sheet to see what you actually cook, not what you meant to cook.
• What size batch works? Notes like "ran out Wednesday" next to red or amber flags show when you need more portions or a midweek session.
• Did skipping prep cost you? If you also log takeaway nights as an activity, the month view shows whether they cluster in the weeks without a batch cook.

Plan your prep days with Premium

With Premium, open the Plan tab and give each step its day and time: Plan menu on Friday at 8:00 pm, Groceries on Saturday at 10:00 am, Batch cook on Sunday at 3:00 pm. Planned sessions show as faded entries on the calendar until you log them, so on Saturday you can see what this week still needs. Tap a faded entry to log it and the log sheet opens with the planned time.

A few ways to fit the plan to real life:

• Twice a week: give Batch cook a second slot on Wednesday evening, up to four recurring slots per activity.
• A one-off big batch: add a single-day plan, for example a Saturday freezer cook before a busy month.
• A season of prepping: set a start and end date on the slot, such as the weeks of a training block or school term, so the plan stops by itself.

Add a reminder to any timed slot, on time or 5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes before, and your phone nudges you on Sunday afternoon instead of letting the time slide. More about scheduling.

A meal prep calendar with Premium

Partly. The free AI photo scan can log your meal prep from the camera, but it works by matching against your own activities, not by recognizing food. If Batch cook has a photo, pointing the camera at your prepped containers in the Scan tab should match it and log it at the current time. If the scan cannot decide, you pick the activity yourself.

The scan does not keep the picture, and logs do not have photo attachments, so EasyRoutine is not a gallery of past batches. Use the comment to record what you cooked.

See how consistent your meal prep really is

The month view is the honest answer to "have I kept this up?". Every logged session leaves a dot in its color on that day. Four orange Sundays in a row means four weeks of prepped lunches. A gap is a week that did not happen, and you see it without having to remember.

The Profile tab shows a Day streak and your total completed logs. The streak counts days in a row on which you logged any activity, so it is not a meal prep streak in itself. For a once-a-week habit like this one, the month view is the better measure.

Common questions

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