The Process
How It Works
Claude doesn't just spit out random recipes. It runs deep research to find the best ones that fit your constraints, then maps them onto what's already in your kitchen. The output is a complete week of meals, detailed instructions for every dish, and a grocery list with direct links to buy only what you're missing.
You do it with four prompts, run in order. The whole thing takes about 10 minutes. The result: hours saved on meal planning, zero decision fatigue, and the best food you've had in weeks.
Setup
Five Steps to Your Personal Meal Plan
Photograph your fridge
Open your fridge and take a clear photo showing all the ingredients you have on hand. This is your starting inventory. Snap your pantry too if you want.
Upload it to Claude and run Prompt 1
Open Claude, upload the fridge photo, and paste the first prompt below. Claude's vision reads everything you have and turns it into a working inventory.
Set your goals with Prompt 2
Tell Claude your nutrition goals, dietary restrictions, allergies, cook-time limit, and the flavors you love. Specifics here are what make the plan actually good.
Build the week with Prompt 3
Claude runs deep research for recipes that match your ingredients and constraints, then hands you a full 7-day plan with instructions and macros for every meal.
Order and cook with Prompt 4
Claude turns the week into one grocery list with shopping links. Click through, order what you don't have, then cook each meal following the instructions.
The Prompts
The Four Prompts, In Order
Run these one at a time in the same Claude conversation, top to bottom. Each one builds on the last, so don't skip ahead. Update anything in [brackets] with your real details before you send it.
Prompt 1
Read my fridge
Upload your fridge photo first, then paste this. Add a second photo of your pantry if you want Claude to see your staples too.
Copy-paste prompt
I just uploaded a photo of my fridge (and pantry, if I added one). Look at the image and list every ingredient you can identify, grouped by type: proteins, vegetables, dairy, grains, condiments, and so on. If you can't tell what something is or how much is left, ask me before moving on. This is my starting inventory for the week. Hold onto it, we're going to build meals around it.
Prompt 2
Set your goals and rules
Fill in every bracket with your real numbers. The more specific you are, the better the plan. "150g protein" beats "healthy" every time.
Copy-paste prompt
Here's everything you need to build my meal plan. - People I'm cooking for: [e.g., just me / 2 adults] - Nutrition goals: [e.g., 150g protein a day, around 2,000 calories] - Dietary restrictions or allergies: [e.g., no dairy, nut-free, vegetarian, or "none"] - Max cook time per meal: [e.g., 30 minutes] - Cuisines and flavors I love: [e.g., Italian, Thai, spicy] - Foods I won't eat: [e.g., mushrooms, cilantro] - Meals I need: [e.g., dinner every night / 3 meals a day / lunch and dinner] - Budget for the groceries I still need to buy: [e.g., under $75, or "flexible"] Confirm you've got all of this, then we'll plan the week.
Prompt 3
Research and build the week
This is the one that does the heavy lifting. Claude researches real recipes, then maps a full week onto what you already own.
Copy-paste prompt
Now build my week. First, research the best-rated recipes that fit my goals, restrictions, and time limit. Prioritize recipes that use what I already have in my fridge so I have to buy as little as possible. Then give me a full 7-day plan for the meals I asked for. For every single meal include: - The dish name and the cuisine or flavor it leans on - The full ingredient list with quantities, and mark which ones I already have vs. need to buy - Step-by-step instructions a beginner can follow - Total cook time (it has to fit my limit) - Approximate macros (protein and calories) so I can see my goals add up across the day Lay it out day by day, Monday through Sunday. Keep it realistic. Don't send me to the store for an ingredient I'll use once and waste.
Prompt 4
Get the one-click grocery list
The payoff. Claude turns the whole week into a single shopping list with links, so you order everything in one sitting.
Copy-paste prompt
Last step: turn everything I still need to buy into one grocery list. - Combine duplicate ingredients across the week into single quantities (so "2 chicken breasts Monday + 2 Thursday" becomes "4 chicken breasts") - Only include what I don't already have - Group it by store section (produce, meat, dairy, pantry) so shopping is fast - Add a direct search or purchase link for each item on Amazon Fresh, Instacart, or Whole Foods so I can add to cart in one click - Put the total estimated cost at the bottom Format it so I can copy the whole thing into my notes or a delivery app and check items off as I go.
Pro Moves
Make It Your Own
Be specific in Prompt 2. Instead of "healthy," say "150g protein, 2,000 calories." Instead of "likes chicken," upload a second photo of your pantry staples. Instead of "quick meals," say "under 30 minutes." Specifics are the whole game.
Iterate after Prompt 3. If the first plan doesn't hit, ask for swaps. "Replace Tuesday dinner with something more Thai-inspired," or "I don't actually like the fettuccine alfredo, suggest a different high-protein pasta." Claude adjusts the grocery list automatically.
Save it for next week. Once you have a plan you love, keep the grocery list. Next week, tell Claude: "Here's last week's plan. Keep 70% the same, refresh the other 30%." Your planning time drops to almost nothing once you hit a pattern.
Make it a Sunday ritual. Drop the meal plan into your phone's notes or Google Calendar. Sunday night: snap the fridge, run the four prompts, place the order. Done for the week.
The Upside
What You're Actually Saving
Meal planning usually eats 1-2 hours a week: scrolling recipes, checking your pantry, cross-referencing nutrition, reconciling lists, shopping, then dealing with the ingredients you forgot mid-cook.
This collapses it to about 10 minutes. Claude handles the research, the matching, the macro math, and the shopping links. You get a week of meals that are actually good, not "let me see what I have," and you never waste time on food that doesn't fit your goals.
The real win: your meals taste like you planned them, because you did. Claude just did the boring parts.
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