Plan meals, recipes and shopping

User guide index

My Recipes is your private recipe collection. Trip Menu and Shopping List are shared with accepted trip members. Owners and Planners can change meals and shopping items; Members can read them. Sharing a trip does not share your personal recipe library or its photos.

With a connected AI assistant, ask “List all my recipes” to view your saved recipe names, IDs, servings and summary details through get_recipes. This read-only tool requires permission to read your ViaMore data and lists your personal collection, including inactive entries. It excludes the system meal catalog and other users' recipes.

Create a recipe

Open My Recipes from your personal navigation and select Create Recipe.
Enter the recipe name and its original number of servings. Add preparation and cooking times, instructions, notes and a source link if useful.
Add ingredients in the order you want. Enter a name, quantity, unit and notes where known. Leave an unknown quantity blank, such as salt to taste.
Use the ingredient move or remove buttons to organize the list, then save.
Use Search by recipe name to find saved recipes. Open a recipe to view, edit or delete it.

Recipe deletion requires confirmation. Editing or deleting a personal recipe does not change copies already saved in trip meals.

You can also ask a connected AI assistant to save a new private recipe with its name and original serving count. Check My Recipes after saving. This does not add it to a trip meal or generate an image. If the assistant's response is uncertain, check the library before retrying to avoid duplicates.

Generate or modify a recipe with AI

In My Recipes, select Generate with AI, or open a saved recipe and select Modify with AI. Save source edits before requesting a modification.
Describe the recipe or changes, choose servings and cooking method, and expand Optional preferences for camping, simple ingredients or maximum total time.
Select Generate Recipe or Generate modified recipe. Wait for the editable draft, then check ingredients, quantities, servings and instructions.
Edit the draft. Scaling quantities is an explicit action; it does not scale cooking times. Select Save Recipe, or for a modification choose Save as New Recipe or explicitly confirm Replace Existing Recipe.
Open the saved recipe to verify it. Generate an image separately if wanted.

Generation and regeneration use your personal AI allowance. The draft saves no recipe until you approve it. Drafts expire after one hour and are lost on server restart. Replacing a library recipe leaves existing trip meal copies unchanged.

Import pasted recipe text

In My Recipes, select Import Recipe.
Paste one recipe and optionally add its attribution URL. ViaMore reads the pasted text; it does not fetch the website.
Request extraction and review the unsaved recipe draft. Compare ingredients and instructions with the original text and review all warnings.
Correct missing servings, quantities, units and other details. Unknown servings must be supplied before saving.
Select Save to My Recipes to create the recipe, or cancel to discard the draft. Back to pasted text lets you revise the source.

Extraction requires the site's AI service. It does not save a recipe, add a meal or change shopping items until you explicitly save and select the recipe. Temporary drafts expire after one hour and are lost if the server restarts. Review AI results for omissions and incorrect quantities.

Manage recipe images

Save your recipe first, including an imported draft. Open the saved recipe's detail view or editor and select Manage image. The image dialog shows the current image or No photo added. All image actions are in this dialog.

Generate or regenerate an image

Save any changes to the recipe's name, description, ingredients, or preparation instructions before generating. Unsaved changes must be saved first; your edits are kept. If another tab changed the recipe, review the saved version before retrying.
Select Generate AI Image. ViaMore uses the saved recipe to create a realistic image of the finished meal. Simple meals such as oatmeal, cereal, bacon and eggs, or sandwiches can use brief preparation instructions.
While Generating image... and the spinner are displayed, wait for completion. Other image actions are disabled. You can close and reopen the dialog to check progress; reopening does not start another generation.
A successful image is saved and applied immediately. There is no additional Save or approval step. To try another result, select Regenerate AI Image.

Your account's AI allowance and monthly image limit apply, including admitted attempts that fail or are interrupted. If the allowance is exhausted or needs review, follow the displayed message or ask an administrator. If generation fails, your previous image stays in place. For a timeout or connection problem, use Reload current image to check what was saved before retrying. Successful creation may still use allowance if its image cannot subsequently be attached.

AI-generated beside an image means it is an illustration, not a photograph of an actual prepared meal. The finished meal may look different. This label also appears on recipe cards and the detail view, with accessible explanatory text.

Upload a photo

In Manage image, choose a JPEG, PNG, or still WebP file. The usual maximum is 10 MB; use the limit displayed in the dialog.
Check the local preview, then select Upload Image. The current saved image stays until the upload succeeds. Cancel selection discards only that preview.
Uploading a replacement removes the AI-generated label. You can generate a new AI image again after saving any recipe changes.

Clear an image

Select Clear Image to remove the current image immediately. The empty-image placeholder returns and the AI-generated label disappears. You can then upload or generate another image. Clearing does not use your AI allowance.

Image changes save separately from recipe text. The dialog preserves unsaved text, but generation requires it to be saved first. If an image changed in another tab, reload and review the current image before retrying. A stale result cannot replace a newer upload, cleared image, or generated image. Recipe images remain private and are not copied into trip meals. JavaScript is required to use the image dialog.

Open a trip and select Trip Menu. The page lists the saved trip days and their locations.
Choose a Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner slot, or select Add snack.
In Quick meal, type your own description or select a library suggestion. Use Category and Source to narrow results to Simple Meals, My Recipes or Public Recipes. Select Use my description to keep your own text.
Choose a plan: Prepare a meal, Eat at a restaurant, Not sure yet, Takeout meal, Ready-made meal, Leftovers or Skip meal. Check Number of people. New meals start with active travelers whose travel dates include that day, including guests without accounts; you can adjust the count. More details contains an optional title and notes.
Use Add recipe for additional recipes if needed. Leave a recipe's serving override blank to follow the meal's people count, or enter a fixed serving target for that recipe.
Select Save meal. Expand the saved recipe details to see its copied instructions and scaled ingredients.

For example, a recipe originally serving four with two cups of rice needs three cups for six servings. Changing the meal's people count updates recipes that follow it; fixed overrides stay fixed. No unit conversion is performed.

Simple meals provide reusable meal ideas with their saved ingredients and instructions. Planning options such as eating out or skipping a meal set the plan without adding recipe ingredients. Selecting a recipe or simple meal saves an independent text-and-ingredient copy for everyone on the trip. Later library edits do not update that copy. You can also create or import your own recipe in My Recipes, then select it in the meal editor.

Closing an editor or switching slots retains unsaved drafts for the current page session; Cancel discards the selected draft. Save before leaving the page. Changing the plan keeps your description and recipes, but linked recipes contribute to shopping requirements only for Prepare a meal.

Favorites and recently used meals

Select the star beside a library suggestion to add or remove a favorite. Use Favorites, Recently used or All meals above the suggestions to switch views. These shortcuts belong to your account; they do not change another traveler's favorites. Recently used choices reflect saved meals, not merely opening a suggestion.

Set food preferences and meal attendance

Open My profile → My Food Preferences. Add and confirm allergies or hard restrictions separately from dislikes, eating styles and favorite foods. Entries save individually; use Save notes & settings for personal notes, preparation time, complexity and the default sharing choice.
Sharing starts off. Enable it only for the information you want accepted trip Owners and Planners to use. Personal notes always stay private. Stop sharing with every trip also turns off sharing for existing per-trip choices.
In Trip Menu → Food preferences & participation, choose My sharing choice for this trip. Members control their own sharing and requirements. Owners and Planners can also record confirmed guest or group requirements for this trip.
Review attendance by day and meal slot. Owners and Planners can include or exclude travelers, restore defaults or set a serving-count override. Defaults follow travel participation and inclusive travel dates.
Reopen existing meals to review and save their people counts. Attendance changes do not automatically replace counts already saved in the menu.

Unknown or unshared dietary information remains unknown. Check ingredients and preparation with the people concerned; a confirmed preference or AI suggestion does not certify a meal's suitability.

Plan meal ideas with AI

Open Trip Menu → Plan with AI as an accepted Owner or Planner.
Select up to seven days and the meal types you want. The current initial selection is the first day and Dinner. Selections determine the requested meal count, even if your prompt asks for fewer meals.
Describe meals, equipment and optional budget. Check servings, food requirements and More planning options. Leave equipment unknown when unsure. Clear Use shared, approved food memory to omit learned preferences for this request; shared manual requirements still apply.
Select Generate N meals (the button shows the selected count). Review each meal's name, description, sides, portions and warnings. Edit or regenerate individual ideas as needed. Editing clears that idea's previous selection, so review and select it again.
Confirm the review checkbox and select each wanted idea for approval. Replacing an occupied slot requires explicit replacement confirmation. Reject / keep existing preserves the saved meal.
Select Add N meals to trip to save the selected meals. Selection alone does not change the menu. Cancel remaining draft discards unapplied proposals; previously applied meals remain.

New AI plans create meal ideas without recipes or shopping ingredients. Generation and regeneration use the trip account's AI allowance; review and local edits do not generate another response. If generation fails, check the displayed error, adjust the request or retry explicitly. Existing meals remain saved.

Choose recipes after meal approval

Continue to Recipes for your meals, or select Choose recipes in Trip Menu.
Search existing recipes and expand their ingredient, instruction and equipment details. Check them against the participants' food requirements.
Choose a recipe, confirm your review, then select Add recipe to this meal. You may attach separate main-dish and side recipes, or leave a meal without one.
For a missing recipe, expand Request a recipe with AI, describe the whole meal or just one component, and select Continue to recipe builder.
Generate, review and save the personal recipe there. Returning to meal recipes does not attach it automatically: select it and explicitly add it to the meal.
Review the Shopping List after attaching recipes. Meals without recipes need manual shopping entries for any supplies you want listed.

Copy, clear or move meals

Use a saved meal's copy action and choose a day and slot in the same trip.
Review the destination. If it already has a meal, explicitly confirm replacement.
Confirm the copy, then check its people count and serving targets. The copy preserves the original values and follow-or-fixed choices.
To remove a meal, use its clear action and confirm.

Meals move with daily plans during day rearrangement. Moving them does not recalculate people counts. Shifting trip dates retains meals; confirming removal of a populated day during resize deletes that day's meals and recipe copies and updates shopping requirements. Personal recipes remain in My Recipes.

Select Copy Previous Day on the destination day and review the menu from the previous calendar day in the same trip. Confirm the copy using Copy previous day's menu. If the destination already has meals, check the replacement confirmation and select Replace with previous day's menu.

Replacement removes all destination meals, including slots absent from the source menu. The source stays unchanged. Meal slots, people counts and serving overrides are preserved, so check them for the new day. Shopping requirements update; manual shopping items remain. Copying is unavailable when there is no previous calendar day in the trip or that day has no saved meals.

Use the shared Shopping List

From Trip Menu, open Shopping List. Saved meal recipe copies supply the generated requirements.
If the page says requirements changed, an Owner or Planner must select Refresh from meals before checking those items.
Expand ingredient contribution details to see the days, meal slots and recipes behind a quantity.
Mark items as already available or purchased and save their states. These are shared trip states; checked items remain visible under Completed.
Use Add or edit a manual item for supplies and meals described without recipes. Confirm removal when deleting a manual item.

For a trip using reviewed AI meal planning, the list keeps approved purchase quantities while menu changes remain pending. Review each proposed addition or quantity, then choose Approve addition, Approve quantity, Keep my quantity or Covered by this manual item when offered. Check a manual match's quantity and units before confirming coverage. Existing and manual items remain available; this mode replaces the usual Refresh from meals action.

Recognized equivalent names and unit abbreviations combine automatically, such as tomatoes/tomato and tablespoon/tbsp. In shopping review mode, compatible metric weights (g/kg) and volumes (ml/l) can combine. Uncertain names, incompatible units and different preparation notes stay separate. ViaMore does not convert cups to grams or infer ingredients from a meal description. Ingredients without numeric quantities retain their own entries; review their notes.

Changing a meal's ingredient requirements can reset affected already-have and purchased states and mark them for review, even when the displayed total is unchanged. Unchanged requirements retain their states. Manual items remain independent of generated requirements.

Review meals and approve food memory

Open My meal feedback in Trip Menu and review a meal you attended. Choose Made as planned, Made with changes, Had something else or Skipped this meal, then add your comments and optional quality details and save.
For a replacement, describe what you actually ate and optionally link its recipe. Skipping clears ratings, repeat intent and quality details but retains comments. Your feedback stays private; it does not edit the shared menu.
Open My profile → AI Food Memory. Select eligible reviews and choose Analyze selected reviews. This uses your personal AI allowance and may produce no suggestions. Skipped meals and ratings alone do not establish a learned preference.
Open Review suggestion and evidence. Check the source feedback, adjust the value, scope and meal slot, and choose personal or trip-only storage. Explicitly review any replacement of an existing preference before Approve these values. Reject and Dismiss leave active preferences unchanged.
Edit, disable or remove approved entries in My Food Preferences. Their use by trip planners follows your sharing choices. Trip-only approval leaves your personal preferences unchanged. Food learning is separate from travel feedback.

Changed evidence requires fresh review. Analysis never infers allergies or medical requirements. Removing a preference affects future planning, not already saved meals.