How the numbers and plans are calculated
The same ingredient records power the meal cards, recipe pages and planner. Published facts and our modelling choices are kept distinct.
Reviewed 2026-09-30.
Nutrition
Each ingredient’s stated edible grams are multiplied by its USDA FoodData Central per-100 g nutrient record, then divided by recipe servings. Cooked ingredient weights use cooked records. Missing optional fiber or sodium data remain unavailable; they are not silently replaced by zero.
Prices
USDA ERS Purchase-to-Plate 2017–18 national-average edible-food prices are mapped to the closest plain ingredient. We multiply them by August 2026 BLS food-at-home CPI (321.500) divided by the mean 2017/2018 annual indices (239.125). This is a broad inflation model, not an observation of current item prices. Ingredient cost excludes full-package purchases and taxes.
Storage
The FoodKeeper v128 original preparations stay separate. A recipe starts with the appropriate leftovers guidance and takes the shortest numeric refrigerator window among its listed prepared components. We use the lower bound as a conservative planning limit. No freezer number means we do not promise freezer quality for that component. Freezer durations describe quality under continuous 0°F storage.
Plans and substitutions
A bounded deterministic search selects four daily slots and portion factors from 0.75 to 1.75 base servings. Every completed plan is checked for daily calories within 10%, protein at least the entered target, diet, listed allergens, equipment, total estimated ingredient budget and at most two repeats per recipe. A search failure can also reflect the finite catalogue and search scope, so it is not a proof that no possible real-world menu exists.
What a plan does not verify
The tool does not test complete micronutrient adequacy, medication effects, clinical suitability or cross-contact in your kitchen. Calorie and protein targets are inputs, not recommendations. Ingredient conversions for shopping are approximate where cooked food is converted back to raw weight.