Prep the week in one session

Meal prep in one session: pick the days you will eat from and get one batch-cooking checklist for your planned meals, with storage notes and what to make fresh.

Start a meal prep session#

Prep reads meals already on your plan, so plan the week first. See Plan your meals. It is for Pro and Family accounts, and for anyone who belongs to a household.

1. 1

   Open Prep for this week

   On a computerOn a phone

   Click Plan in the top bar, then Prep week in the toolbar. In a narrow window it shows only a chef-hat icon. Point at it to see Prep for this week.

   

   Tap Plan in the bottom bar. Then tap the ⋯ button at the top right of the Plan page (not More in the bottom bar), then Prep for this week.

   

   You'll see: A window called Prep for this week opens.

2. 2

   Set Prep day and the days you will eat

   Prep day is the day you will cook, and it starts as today. Eaten from starts as today and to as six days later. In the picture the prep day is Sunday and the meals run from Monday to Wednesday. The range can be up to 31 days. The prep day cannot come after the first meal you pick.

   

   You'll see: The list of planned meals below changes to match the days.

3. 3

   Untick the meals you don't want

   Under Planned meals in range the meals are grouped by day, and all start ticked. Untick a meal you don’t want in the session, such as a night you will eat out: tap its tick box (tapping the name does nothing). Here the Greek Salad is unticked (ring 3). If you are looking at Family, the list joins your plan and the family plan.

   

   You'll see: The meal you untick is left out of the session.

4. 4

   Press Generate

   The button is ring 4 in the picture above. Keep the window open while it works. It can take a minute or two.

   You'll see: While it works the button reads Generating… and when it finishes you land on a page called Your prep session.

Use the checklist#

Tick each task as you finish it. The task is crossed out and the progress count goes up, for example from 0/12 tasks to 1/12 tasks. Ticks are saved as you go, so you can close the page and come back to the same place.

• A grey box at the top, A few things were adjusted for accuracy:, lists up to 6 changes made to the plan, such as a task that was shortened or a food moved to Do not prep ahead. It shows again each time you open the saved session.
• The top of the page gives the number of tasks and the minutes, hands-on and in total. Tasks sit in groups. The group names change from session to session. This one has Chop, Cook proteins, Oven first, Assemble & portion and Portion & store.
• Under each task is a line such as Mon Easy Baked Ziti, the day and recipe it is for. A grey chip names a tool to get out. A yellow chip says what the task uses: Oven, Stovetop, Hands-on (you are busy with it yourself), Fridge/freezer or Other. A small line above a task, such as a reminder to preheat the oven, is a note with no tick box.
• A button such as Start 10m timer times that task’s own estimate. While it runs, the button counts down the time left. At zero it beeps and the button reads Done. Tap it while it runs to cancel. A running timer is lost if you leave or reload the page.

Storage and what not to prep#

Below the tasks, Storage says, for each dish, which day it is for, what to keep it in, where (fridge, freezer or pantry), how many days it keeps and how to reheat it. Keep times follow food-safety limits, so a dish eaten late in the week may be put in the freezer instead.

Do not prep ahead lists foods that go limp or dry if made early, such as a garnish you should add just before serving. Make those fresh.

To print the checklist, press Print this checklist at the bottom of the page. Your browser’s print window opens with a plain, ink-friendly version.

On a computerOn a phone

The print link is not shown on a phone. Open the same page on a computer to print it.

Open or delete a past session#

Every session you generate is saved. To get back to one, open Prep for this week as in the first step, and scroll down in the window to Past prep sessions. The newest 30 are listed, each with its date and its first three recipes, such as Oct 10, 2026 · Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup, Honey Garlic Chicken Breast, Easy Baked Ziti. A session with more than three recipes ends in +2 more, and so on. The window scrolls, so slide down to reach the list.

1. 1

   Press Open on the session

   

   You'll see: The window closes and the page Your prep session opens, with your ticks as you left them.

2. 2

   Press Delete, then Yes, delete

   Keep next to it cancels. If it fails, the list says Couldn’t delete that prep session. Try again. Only you can see or delete your own sessions.

   You'll see: The session leaves the list for good.

On the Free plan#

On a computer, Prep week shows a small PRO tag. In a narrow window the tag is hidden and only the chef-hat icon shows. On a phone, Prep for this week in the ⋯ menu is marked PRO. Opening it shows a window about Meal-prep Sunday mode that offers a free 14-day trial. Nothing is generated.

With no saved sessions, Prep for this week shows the Meal-prep Sunday mode window as described. If you made sessions on Pro or Family before, the window opens instead with Making new prep sessions is a Pro feature. and your Past prep sessions. You can still open and delete those. Once you delete the last one, the window says No saved prep sessions. Upgrade to Pro to make new ones. Upgrade to Pro makes new ones.

Details are in Free, Pro and Family.

Common questions#

Where do I find a prep session again? In the Prep for this week window, under Past prep sessions. See Open or delete a past session.

Why did it use only 12 recipes? A session covers the first 12 different recipes in your selection. Untick some meals, or make two sessions for two stretches of the week. The grey box at the top of the session then says Only the first 12 selected recipes were used — a single prep session covers at most 12. A session can also hold at most 40 meals.

Can my household see my prep session? No. A session belongs to the person who made it, and other members cannot open it. Send them the print-out instead.

Does it respect allergies? No. Prep does not read anyone’s diet or allergen profile. It only works with the meals you ticked, so check them yourself. See Diet and allergies.

Is there a limit? Pro and Family can use each AI feature up to 100 times a day. Every press of Generate counts as one use, even one that ends in an error.

Error messages#

• Couldn’t load planned meals for this range. The list of meals could not be fetched. Check your connection, close the window and open it again.
• Nothing planned in this range yet. There are no meals on the plan you are looking at for those days. Pick other days. Mine and Family are separate plans. See Mine and Family.
• Pick at least one planned meal. Every meal is unticked. Tick at least one.
• prep_date: must be an ISO date (YYYY-MM-DD). The Prep day box is empty or incomplete. Pick a full date. start_date: must be an ISO date (YYYY-MM-DD) and end_date: must be an ISO date (YYYY-MM-DD) mean the same for Eaten from and to.
• The meal list suddenly gets long, with every meal ticked. You cleared Eaten from, so the list now includes every earlier meal. Pick a start date again and untick what you don’t want.
• prep_date: prep day is after some meals (earliest is 2026-10-12). Your prep day comes after one of the meals you ticked, and the date in the message is the earliest. Move Prep day to that date or earlier, or untick the earlier meals.
• end_date: date range must be 31 days or fewer. The days between Eaten from and to are too many. Shorten the range, or make two sessions.
• entries: a single prep session covers at most 40 planned meals. You ticked more than 40 meals. Untick some, or shorten the range.
• You’ve used this month’s AI imports, with Free accounts get 20 AI imports a month… under it. On Pro and Family this text is wrong for you. It really means you have used today’s limit of 100 for this feature. Try again tomorrow.
• Couldn’t put together a prep plan. Try again. The AI step failed. Press Generate again.
• Couldn’t reach the server. Try again. Your connection dropped. Press Generate again.
• Couldn’t load this prep session, with The server didn’t answer. Try again. under it. If the session is someone else’s, this is what you see, because a session opens only for the person who made it. Retrying won’t help. Ask them to print it for you. If the session is your own, it is a server hiccup. Press Try again.

What next? Turn the same week into a shopping list with Make a grocery list.