Let’s be real, no one honestly loves meal planning. Especially when you’re out of steam and need to cook up answers to the burning question of ‘What’s for dinner tonight?’, ‘What do we need from the supermarket?’ and ‘How can I save us money this week?’ That’s where Cookidoo® comes in to save you from scouring Google and your cookbooks.

The Cookidoo® app gives you access to thousands of recipes and meal planning ideas, gets your shopping list done and ordered online, saves you money by only buying what you need, and keeps your kitchen stress-free with Thermomix® guided-cooking. And it does all this for less than your Netflix subscription, at just $7.40 a month ($89 per year).

Here’s how to get your weekly meal plan and shopping list done in four easy steps, so you can get back to whatever you’re binge-watching.

Step 1: Find meal planning ideas and save recipes you'll love

Discover. Without leaving the couch, you can search the Cookidoo® app (on your mobile, tablet or laptop) for recipes by name, such as ‘bolognese’; by favourite ingredients or anything you need to use up from the fridge, like ‘broccoli’; by your favourite cuisines – we’ve got recipe collections for everything from Asian to vegetarian and celebrity chefs; or by dietary needs, from gluten-free to paleo.

Save your faves. Create and name your Recipe Collections to suit your tastes and schedule, adding your go-to favourites to make meal planning even easier. You might go with a ‘Pasta Night’ or ‘Meat-free Monday’ collection. Or an ‘Under 15mins’ collection for those days when you’ve bitten off more than you can chew!

Add more. You can add your nannas cheesecake recipe, import recipes from Thermomix® Recipe Community, scale existing Cookidoo recipes by increasing or decreasing the number of portions, and even edit them to your taste using Created Recipes. They’re all stored for safekeeping in your Created Recipes collections, complete with on-screen guided cooking steps on your Thermomix® screen for extra ease. 

Step 2: Add recipes to your 'My Week' meal plan

Choose your recipes. Choose from your Recipe Collections, your Created Recipes or from searching Cookidoo® for new inspiration and build your weekly meal plan in just a few taps using the My Week tool. It’s as easy as hitting the ADD button under the recipe name, then selecting ‘Add to My Week’ and the date you want to cook it.

View and edit your meal plan. In the Cookidoo® app, you can view your meal plan anytime by tapping the calendar icon in the footer menu. It will automatically display your meal plan in a list format, but you can switch to view in calendar format too. 

Step 3: Get your shopping list ready to go

Now that Cookidoo® has taken care of your meal planning, it can write your shopping list too. Tap the recipe tile in the calendar view, or the three dots in the list view and select ‘Add to Shopping List’. Hit the Shopping cart icon in the app’s footer menu and choose to view your shopping list by category (i.e. baking ingredients or dairy products) or by recipes (so you know what you’ll need for each meal). Then tick off the ingredients you already have at home and add any extra items you need manually. 

Step 4: Click and collect your groceries

Just one more click takes you to your pre-populated shopping cart, ready to order directly from our trusted retailers, Woolworths. Do a quick scan of what’s in your cart, making sure it matches the recipes in your My Week meal plan, add more items you might have forgotten (like non-grocery stuff) and switch products for your favourite brands, or to meet special dietary needs. Then select a collection or delivery time and checkout. Job done! 

Find what you're cooking today

No need to flick back through your search history, cookbooks or even your Recipe Collections on Cookidoo®. Just turn on your Thermomix®, tap the menu icon, select My Week from the drop-down, tap to open the recipe you’ve pre-selected for today and hit START to get cooking. 

Available to all Cookidoo® subscribers

Anyone with a Thermomix® on their kitchen benchtop and a Cookidoo® subscription can access the meal planning and shopping function, anytime. Access online at cookidoo.com, via the app on your phone or table, or if you've got a TM6, head straight to the screen on your machine. 

Your at-a-glance-guide to meal planning with Cookidoo®

1. Find meal planning ideas by browsing Cookidoo® recipes and creating and naming your Recipe Collections on the Cookidoo® app.

2. Find a recipe you’d love to cook, click the ‘Add’ button and select ‘My Week’.

3. Click the calendar icon to view your weekly meal plan (you can choose to view in list or calendar format).

4. To write your shopping list, simply tap the recipe tile in the calendar view, or the three dots in the list view and select ‘Add to Shopping List’. Choose to view your shopping list by category (i.e. baking ingredients) or by recipes, then tick off any items you already have at home and add any extra items you need (e.g. toilet paper).