Bring your recipes together before you shop
Add the ingredients you need
Write one ingredient per line: amount, unit, name. For example “2 cups rice”, “1 lb chicken thighs”, “1 can (15 oz) black beans”, “3 eggs” or “fresh dill”.
Fractions like “½” and “1 1/2” work. Put prep notes after a comma or in parentheses. If the generator can’t read a line, it stays on screen for you to fix.
Matching items add up. A cup of milk in one recipe and 1 3/4 cups in another makes 2 3/4 cups. Cups and cans of the same food stay on separate lines, so check those yourself.
Use what’s already in your kitchen
Check your pantry first. Enter “oil” or “cumin” with no amount to take it off the list. Enter “1 cup rice” or “2 Tbsp soy sauce” to buy only what’s missing.
Be specific when the kind matters. “Oil” covers vegetable and sesame oil, “cheese” covers cheddar and mozzarella, and “stock” covers broth.
Buy whole packs and plan for leftovers
Turn on pack rounding to buy whole cans, jars, packages and vegetables. The leftover amount shows beside each item, so you can plan it into another dinner.
Rounding uses common US sizes: garlic in heads of about ten cloves, broth in 32-oz cartons, milk in quarts, cheese in 8-oz bags, pasta and dry beans in 16-oz packs, and ground meat in 1-lb packs.
Sizes vary, so check them at your store. For spices and loose produce, buy the recipe amount or use what you have.
The list has no prices and keeps cups as cups. Season “to taste” as you cook; the list doesn’t add those amounts up.
Why you might get 2/3 of a can
Servings are Food Hero’s own measure. Black Bean Soup makes 12 cups, and one serving is 1 cup. So 4 servings buys 1/3 of every ingredient in the recipe.
If that leaves you with part of a can, cook the whole batch and freeze half. Or turn on pack rounding to see the leftovers before you shop.
The recipes and serving sizes come from Food Hero, a collection of tested recipes from Oregon State University. Follow the linked recipe for the method.
The FDA and USDA say leftovers keep three to four days in a fridge at 40°F (4°C) or below. Every plan here stays inside that limit.
Questions about the grocery list generator
How do I make a grocery list from recipes?
Pick recipes from the list or paste each recipe’s ingredient lines. Matching items add up, and you get one list sorted by aisle.
Can I paste a recipe link?
Not in this tool. Copy the ingredient lines from the recipe page and paste them in. Marlowe, the Personal Chef Nym, can open a recipe link and make the list for you.
Does it leave out what I already have?
Yes. Enter what’s in your kitchen, with or without an amount, and the list only buys what’s missing.
Can I plan a whole week of shopping?
Yes. Add every recipe for the week at once. If you’d rather have the dinners picked for you, the meal planner makes the same kind of list.
Is it free?
Yes. It runs in your browser with no account, and you can download the list.
