What this tool does
A grocery list is a meal plan with the recipes removed. You paste the meals you intend — or the targets if you do not have meals yet — and how many days to cover. The output should be food in aisle groups with amounts, not a vibe board of “leafy greens.”
How it works
The model expands meals into ingredients and multiplies by days. If you only typed goals (“140 g protein, 2,200 kcal”), it will invent a simple repeating set, then list those foods. Check that you already have salt, oil, and spices before the list doubles them.
How to interpret the result
If chicken appears four times and you will not cook chicken four times, edit before you shop. Produce amounts are the usual overbuy — wilted spinach does not count as fiber. Use this after a meal plan when you can; used alone it is a first draft.
Example
Meals: “Greek yogurt + berries breakfast; turkey sandwich lunch; salmon, potatoes, frozen veg dinner” for 4 days. Expect ~1.2–1.5 kg yogurt, 8 slices bread, ~600–800 g turkey, 4 salmon portions, 1–1.5 kg potatoes, and a bag of mixed vegetables — plus milk if the coffee is not black. Days = 7 should roughly double the 4-day protein foods, not the same bottle of hot sauce seven times.
Common mistakes
- Asking for 14 days of salad greens you will not wash.
- Omitting snacks you will still buy at the counter.
- Letting the list add five new grains you do not cook.
- Shopping from a plan you already know you will abandon on Thursday.
When this estimate may be off
- Household size is not in the text (list assumes you).
- You eat most lunches out — the list should not buy those lunches.
- Regional product names the model maps to the wrong item.
- Budget, store, and kosher/halal rules were never stated.