Plan your first week
Open the Planner. Press Plan my week and every cooking day gets a dinner. Don’t like one? Press Swap on that day for something else, or Remove to leave it empty.
To choose a dinner yourself, tap an empty day. Search, filter, then tap the one you want. You can also press Add to week on any recipe card, or Add to my week on a recipe page.
No account needed. Your week is kept on this device; sign in and it follows you to your phone and laptop.
Plan a low-waste week Pro
With Pro, Plan my week picks dinners that share their packs. A pack of two salmon fillets becomes two salmon dinners; the rest of Monday’s spinach goes into Thursday.
Already chosen a dinner or two? It plans around them. The Leftovers box shows what the week will leave in opened packs.
Want only fish, or only quick dinners? Press Change under the dates and pick from Only plan with. Plans and Surprise me stick to those.
Cooking days, swaps and ticking off
Under the dates, Change sets which days you cook (say Monday to Thursday), the day your week starts, and what plans choose from.
Press Cooked it once you’ve made a dinner. It counts towards Your kitchen and your collection, and it’s how the site learns what you like. Rate dinners with the stars in the recipe; one star means it never comes up again.
Got a friend round? Open that day’s dinner and change cooking for. Just that day scales up, and so does the shopping list.
The shopping list and your cupboard
The Shopping list adds up every dinner in the week, in whole packs, grouped by aisle. Tick things off as you shop; By dinner shows what each item is for.
Things you always have in (oil, salt, soy sauce) belong in your Cupboard. Press Cupboard on the list and tap them, and they stay off every list from then on. You’ll find the cupboard in Your kitchen too.
Share list copies it as text for a message or a notes app.
Your fridge Pro
Got half a pack of mince or a few mushrooms open? Add them to your fridge in Your kitchen, or with More > Plan around my fridge. Plans use them first and the shopping list buys less.
When you press Cooked it on a dinner, whatever it used comes out of the fridge (press it again and it goes back). Nothing is ever added on its own. At the bottom of the Leftovers box there’s a small Add to my fridge for next week, which puts this week’s leftovers in from next Monday.
Cooking mode
Press Start cooking on any recipe. One step at a time, in big text, with the screen kept on. Swipe or press Next to move on.
Steps with a time get a timer button. Timers ring when they’re done and keep going if you close cooking mode or switch to another step. Ingredients at the bottom shows the list without leaving the step.
Protein, carbs and calories (macros)
Every recipe shows its calories, protein, carbs and fat for one portion in the Per portion box, worked out from the ingredients. They’re estimates, so check the labels on what you buy if you need exact numbers.
On Recipes, filter by High protein (40 g or more), Low carb (30 g or less) or Under 600 kcal, and sort by Most protein, Fewest calories or Fewest carbs. Pick two filters for high protein and low carb together.
To see them in the planner, press Change under the dates and turn on Show macros. Each dinner then shows its figures. Turn it off the same way.
With Pro, the planner also adds up the week: per dinner or as a week total, against your own targets. Press Change targets to set protein, carbs, fat or calories (leave one empty for no target). When a dinner is well off, it suggests one swap that brings the week into line; press Undo if you’d rather keep the original.
With Pro and Show macros on, Plan my week plans around your targets (the small line on the button says For your macros, low waste); it’s also under More > Plan for my macros. It only picks dinners that meet your targets, and among those it chooses ones that share their packs, so you still waste as little as possible. If too few dinners meet every target, it uses the closest ones and tells you.
Desserts
There are desserts for one too: a lemon posset, mug cakes, a crumble in a ramekin and quick fruit with yoghurt. To see them in the planner, press Change under the dates and turn on Show desserts. It’s off to start with, and comes on by itself if you add a dessert from its recipe page. They sit in their own Desserts box under the week, not on a day, and never count as one of your dinners.
When the week’s dinners leave something a dessert would finish (the rest of the soured cream, half a lemon, the coconut milk), the box suggests one or two. Press Add them and they go on the shopping list, or No thanks and it stays quiet until the leftovers change. Turn Show desserts off again under Change, and the box and its desserts leave the week and the shopping list.
Press Add a dessert to pick one yourself, and the tick when you’ve made it. Any dessert scales with the + button, one mug or ramekin each.
Your own recipes, and any recipe from a link Pro
Found a recipe on another website that serves four? Paste its link into the box at the top of Recipes in the planner and press Make it for one. It’s also under More next to Plan my week, and in Your kitchen under Your recipes. It works with most recipe websites.
It comes back scaled down to one. Meat, carbs and sauce divide fully; seasoning, garlic, chilli, oil and onions come down more gently, because a recipe for four already uses less of those per person. Eggs and garlic cloves stay whole, and a large pan becomes a small one. Anything worth a second look, like an amount converted from cups or ounces, is pointed out.
If the page gives the wrong number of servings, change it and everything scales again. Check it over, then Save. Only you can see the recipes you add, and each one shows where it came from.
Your recipes plan, scale and shop like any other, and imported ones get Use up the rest: dinners that finish the packs they open. To have plans and Surprise me pick them too, turn on Use my recipes in plans in Your kitchen or under Change. You can also type a recipe in yourself, written for one.
A list with no days
Don’t cook on set days? Press Change under the dates and choose A list, no days. Pick how many dinners you want on the list, press Pick dinners, and cook them in any order. The list stays until you clear it.
Accounts and your devices
Sign in with Google or an email link (no password) and your week, list, ratings, fridge and cupboard follow you between devices. Signing out leaves a copy on that device.
Add Solo Supper to your phone’s home screen and it opens like an app, full screen. How to add it.
What Pro adds
Every recipe, the planner, the shopping list and cooking mode are free, with no account needed. Pro (£2.49 a month or £14.99 a year, 14 days free) adds the planning that saves food: low-waste weeks, planning for your macros, planning next week ahead, planning around your fridge, your own recipes, any recipe from the web scaled down to one, and a count of what you’ve saved. Free and Pro compared.
Cups, ounces and US names
The Metric / US switch at the bottom of every page, and on each recipe, changes grams to cups and ounces and coriander to cilantro. Signed in, your choice is kept with your account.
Stuck, or something not working? Email hello@solosupper.co.uk and I’ll sort it.