Meals and groceries
Weekly meal planning with a grocery list sorted by aisle
HouseChief's meal planner is a week grid for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, a recipe box, and a grocery list that sorts itself by aisle. Put a recipe on Tuesday and its ingredients go to the list in one step. Both parents see the same list in the store. Your Chief of Staff can draft the whole week for you to approve. Free while in early access.
Plan the week in one grid
The Meals page is a week laid out as a grid: a row each for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, a column for each day. Fill in the slots that matter to your family (for most, that's dinner) and leave the rest blank. A meal can be a recipe from your box or just words, like "leftovers" or "pizza night".
Dinners you make every week can repeat weekly, so Taco Tuesday fills itself in. Tonight's dinner shows on the Today page and the wall display, which ends the 5 p.m. "what's for dinner?" for everyone, including the kids.
Your recipe box
Keep the family's recipes in one box with categories, so the ten dinners you actually cook are easy to find. Each recipe holds its ingredients and a link or notes, which means putting it on the grid is one tap and getting the groceries is the next. Ask your Chief of Staff about a recipe ("What goes in the Parkers' chili?") and it reads the box too.
If you connect OneDrive, recipes are saved to your own OneDrive folder as well, so they're yours in a plain file and not only inside HouseChief.
A grocery list sorted by aisle
Send a recipe's ingredients to the grocery list in one step and HouseChief sorts them by aisle: produce together, dairy together, frozen together. You walk the store once. Add the odd items by hand or by asking the Chief of Staff ("add paper towels"), which adds them directly with an Undo.
Shop at two stores? Keep a separate list for each, plus any other checklist you like: Costco run, camping trip, the hardware store. Parents can also keep private lists that kids and other views never see, handy for birthday presents.
Let your Chief of Staff draft the week
Sunday evening, Jordan asks: "Plan dinners for this week. Thursday is late, keep it quick, and Ruby won't eat mushrooms." The Chief of Staff looks at the calendar and the recipe box and proposes seven dinners, with a 20-minute pasta on Thursday and no mushrooms. Jordan swaps one, taps Approve, and the meals land on the grid with the ingredients ready for the list.
Nothing is written to the plan until you approve it, and you can ask for changes in plain language first. Read more about what the AI Chief of Staff does and doesn't do.
Questions
Can recipes add straight to the grocery list?
Yes. Every recipe in your recipe box holds its ingredients, and one step sends them to the grocery list, where they sort by aisle. Put a recipe on the week grid, send its ingredients, and the shopping is ready. Remove anything you already have before you go.
Does the grocery list sort by store aisle?
Yes. HouseChief sorts the grocery list by aisle automatically (produce, dairy, meat, frozen and so on), so you walk the store once instead of doubling back. You can keep a separate list per store if you shop at more than one, and any other checklist alongside them.
Can I repeat our favorite dinners every week?
Yes. A meal on the week grid can be set to repeat weekly, so the Tuesday tacos and the Friday pizza fill in on their own. Change or clear a single week whenever plans shift. Repeats work with recipes from your box or with plain text meals.
Can both parents use the list in the store?
Yes. The grocery list is shared across the household, so both parents open the same list on their own phones. Items added by one show up for the other when their list loads, and items checked off in the aisle are checked off for both. Kids can see the grocery list too, but parents' private lists stay private.
Can the AI plan meals for us?
Yes. Ask your Chief of Staff for a week of dinners, with any constraints ("quick on Thursday", "no mushrooms"), and it drafts a plan from your recipe box and your calendar. It is only a proposal until you tap Approve; then the meals land on the grid and the ingredients are ready for the grocery list.