Skip to content
Heilsa

Heilsa and meal planners

Meal planning works beautifully right up to the first Thursday it does not. Heilsa plans, but it assumes the week will move.

The Plan tab: tonight is Sticky Gochujang Chicken, marked Can make now, with a note that it uses the chicken thighs before they go. Tomorrow is Monday’s curry as leftovers, then Shakshuka on Thursday.

What’s used up?

  • SpinachSome leftAll gone
  • GarlicSome leftAll gone
Leftovers · About 2 platesKeeps 2 days

What meal planners do well

  • A planned week genuinely reduces decisions and waste.
  • Batch shopping from a plan is efficient and cheaper.
  • Excellent for households with fixed routines or specific dietary programmes.

Where they stop

  • The plan is written blind: it does not know what is already in the cupboard.
  • One improvised night, one late meeting, and the plan and the pantry disagree.
  • Recovering a broken plan usually costs more effort than not having made one.

What Heilsa does instead

  • Slots start empty and stay optional — a day you never fill costs nothing.
  • Leftovers and batch cooking are part of the plan, so cooking for two nights is not a failure of it.
  • Every suggestion is ranked against the pantry you have now, and re-ranks as it changes.

A plan that knows what is in the kitchen

Heilsa plans dinners up to fourteen days out, with room for an extra dish beside one. The difference is what the plan is made of: open a day and the options are ordered by what is going to need using first, what the household tends to pick, and the goals people chose, with dinners already in the week sinking to the bottom. It is the same decision a meal planner asks you to make, with the kitchen state supplied.

Built for the week that changes

Slots arrive empty. Heilsa ranks the choice rather than making it, so an untouched day is not a chore left undone, and nothing has to be dismantled when Thursday turns into a takeaway. Cook for eight and the extra plates become leftovers nights or go in the freezer, so the plan stays true instead of quietly going stale.

Planning is optional, not the price of entry

The pantry, recipe coverage and the shopping list all work without touching the plan. Deciding at six from what is home is a perfectly good strategy, and it stays fully supported. Planning is there for the weeks you want it.

In the app

Where to look in Heilsa.

  • The sheet for adding a dinner to Monday: leftovers from Sunday first, then Potato and Cheddar Frittata (you have everything for it) and two curries each missing one spice.

    Meal planning

    Dinner plans that start from the fridge

    Plan up to a fortnight of dinners. Heilsa ranks the choices by what needs using and what you already have, and leaves the deciding to you.

    Meal planning in detail
  • The Shopping tab grouped by recipe: basil, gnocchi and mascarpone for Creamy Tomato Gnocchi, salmon for the Lemon Salmon Traybake, curry powder for the prawn curry, and two items added by hand.

    Shopping list

    A shopping list that writes itself

    Plan a dinner and what it needs, minus what is already home, goes on the shared list. Tick it in the shop and it is in the pantry.

    Shopping list in detail
  • The Pantry wall: 49 foods at home, each a drawing with its name. A Use soon shelf at the top holds banana and chicken thigh, both today, and the leftover curry is under Made at home.

    Pantry wall

    A pantry that tells you what to use first

    Every food at home on one wall, each with its own drawing, and a Use soon shelf on top for whatever has the least time left.

    Pantry wall in detail

Questions

Plain answers.

Can I plan the week in Heilsa?
Yes — dinners up to two weeks ahead, plus an extra dish beside any of them. A night can be a recipe or leftovers, and a batch cooked once can fill several nights.
Does the plan build a shopping list?
Yes. Ingredients the plan needs and the pantry does not have move to the shopping list, with the meal they belong to still attached.
What happens when the plan falls apart?
Nothing you have to repair. Change a slot, swap the recipe, or clear the day. The pantry stays the source of truth either way, so the rest of the app is unaffected.

Other comparisons

Try it with your own kitchen

Heilsa comes to the App Store in November. Join now, through TestFlight, and your household keeps it free through 2027.

Install with TestFlight

iPhone with iOS 15.1 or later, in the UK and Switzerland. Somewhere else?