Notion for Meal Planning and Grocery Lists

• Meal planning can save time, money, and stress.
• With Notion, you can create a Notion meal planner and grocery list template to organize recipes, weekly menus, and shopping in one place.
• Instead of juggling14 • • • • scraps of paper or separate apps, your food planning happens inside your Notion workspace.

Meal planning can save time, money, and stress. With Notion, you can create a Notion meal planner and grocery list template to organize recipes, weekly menus, and shopping in one place. Instead of juggling14

scraps of paper or separate apps, your food planning happens inside your Notion workspace. This guide shows how to build a meal prep organizer and grocery system step-by-step.

Why Use Notion for Meal Planning

Notion’s flexibility makes a fantastic meal prep tool. Its Gallery or Table views let you browse recipes, its linked databases can turn meal plans into shopping lists, and its collaboration means family members can all see the plan. In the Notion template gallery, the Food Shopping section promises, “Never forget a grocery item again. Keep track of what you need to buy, create shopping lists, and easily meal plan in Notion” .

Another Notion Meal Planner collection emphasizes organizing weekly meals and streamlining grocery shopping . Key ingredients of a Notion meal system include: - Recipes Database : Store your favorite recipes, ingredients, and tags (e.g., cuisine, prep time). - Weekly Meal Table : Assign recipes (or ingredients) to each day of the week. - Grocery List : An aggregated list of all ingredients needed for the week. - Inventory/ Pantry : Optionally track what you already have.

- Meal Categories : Tags for lunch/dinner/snacks to balance variety. - Prep Checklist : Cooking steps or notes for complex meals. Let’s build it.

Step-by-Step Setup

Create a Recipes Database . Start a new Table called “Recipes.” Include columns like: Name (title of recipe). Ingredients (Text or Multi-select list of ingredients). Category/Tags (e.g. “Mexican”, “Vegan”, etc.). Instructions (Text or Files & media with detailed steps). URL or Attachments (for links to online recipes or photo of a cookbook page). Time/Prep (number or select for preparation time). You can add other fun properties like Calories or Source . Populate it with some favorite recipes. You might use toggles in each entry’s page to expand sections (for example, one recipe can have toggles for

Ingredients and Instructions).

Build the Weekly Meal Plan . Create another table called “Weekly Plan.” Include

Week (Date or Select for week starting Monday). Day (Select: Monday, Tuesday, etc., or use a Date property for the exact date).

Meal (Select: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner , Snack).

Recipe (Relation to your Recipes database). Servings (Number) – how many people. Notes (Text) for specifics or variations. An alternative is to have a table per week, but a single table with a Week property allows filtering. Fill in this table each week by choosing meals. For example, you might choose “Chicken Curry” from your Recipes for Monday dinner .24

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Screenshot: A weekly meal planning table in Notion. The planner has columns for each day of the week (Monday– Sunday) and meals (Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner/Snack). Notice how recipes are assigned (e.g., “Chicken Curry”) and a checkbox is used to mark if a grocery item is bought. (Adapted from a typical Notion meal planning template.) The weekly plan table is your interactive schedule. You can toggle to a Calendar view to visualize which days you have planned meals. In a helpful video, Marie Poulin switches between a “Planning Table” (a normal table) and a “Calendar Mode” to see meals on a timeline . This is a great way to avoid duplicate meals or uneven menus. Auto-Generate the Grocery List . The crucial part: turn your planned recipes into a shopping list.

One method

Have a separate Ingredients database that lists every possible ingredient and includes a checkbox “Buy”. Then relate each meal entry to its ingredients and use a linked view or rollup to display needed ingredients. However , a simpler approach is to maintain a Grocery Master List (another database) that contains all the ingredients you commonly buy. Then, in your Weekly Plan table, include a Rollup or formula to pull those ingredients.

For example, when you mark Monday’s dinner as “Chicken Curry,” the Grocery list can automatically include “Chicken, Curry Powder , etc.” (if you have those linked via the Recipes DB). Marie describes it plainly: “Grocery list is the master list of ingredients that you might ever buy. Sort the list for the ingredients you need for the week. Check off items as they go into the cart and watch the list shrink!” .

In practice, you can use the Properties > Relationships > Rollup features in Notion: relate the Weekly Plan entries to Ingredients in the Recipe, then roll up to list out unique ingredients. Manual Step : You can also simply filter the Grocery Master database. Mark a property in it whenever you “need to buy” that item (for instance, manually check a box for ingredients you need this week), then filter the view to show only checked items. Sort by aisle or category if you like.

Notion’s idea is to make a shopping list that you actually check off. For example, one planner notes “Check off items as they go into the cart and watch the list shrink!” . Link Inventory . To avoid buying things you already have, add a checkbox “In Pantry” in your Grocery or Ingredients database. Before shopping, uncheck everything and only check items that aren’t in stock. This way, you only add what’s needed. Utilize Notion Views for Shopping .

In your Grocery list database, you could have a Table view grouped by category (Produce, Dairy, Bakery, etc.) so you can easily see all fruits, all dairy, etc. Mark items with “Bought?” checkboxes. You could also have a Checkbox property named “Got it” to tick off on the go. Prep and Cook Section (Optional) . Some people like a final section: after shopping, plan prep.

For instance, add a toggle section on your trip page (or Week page) for “Prep On Sunday” where you list tasks like washing greens or marinating meat. This helps ensure cooking runs smoothly. 26 1. 2. 3. 2728

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Repeat and Refine . Once your week is over , duplicate the weekly plan for the next week and adjust. One beauty of Notion: over time you build a personal recipe database, so planning becomes faster . You’ll see patterns, like how often you pick certain meals, and you can tag favorites for easy reuse. “I can add recipes from friends or Pinterest, it’s easy to create grocery lists, and we can quickly reuse our favorite weekly plans. Notion even auto-generates the grocery list for the week” . That testimonial sums it up: Notion turns a once-clunky process into a structured system. The templates make meal planning almost fun.

Meal Planning Tips

Use Tags for Cuisine and Diet . Tag recipes by cuisine or diet (e.g., “Italian”, “Gluten-Free”). When planning, filter by tag to ensure variety or match dietary needs. Balance Your Menu . In the planner , you might add a “Category” multi-select (e.g., Protein, Veggie, Grain) to make sure each day includes balanced meals. Include Leftovers . If you’ll have leftover rice, you could plan Monday dinner = Chicken Curry, and Tuesday lunch reuses “Chicken Curry – Leftover” (just a note).

This can be a checkbox in the meal plan or a quick note. Sync Calendars : If you also use Notion for daily scheduling (like a Weekly Agenda), cross-check your busy days. For example, if Wednesday is jam-packed, plan an easy meal or leftovers. Visual Recipe Access : In your Weekly Plan, you can click into a recipe quickly. Consider setting the Recipe column property to display as cards with images (Gallery view) for a more visual interface.

Related Notion Templates

Notion’s template gallery has many free meal planner templates to browse . For example, the “Top Free Meal Planner Templates” collection highlights that a good meal planner will include a Weekly Meal Plan , Grocery List Integration , and Recipe Storage – exactly as we built above. You can explore those to jump- start your setup. This integration of meal planning into Notion means you get to spend less time debating “What’s for dinner?” and more time enjoying good food. Your grocery runs become quicker and you minimize waste by sticking to the plan.

Next step

If you want to turn this into a reusable workspace, save your best blocks as a page template, name your properties consistently, and test your setup on mobile. Small tweaks like clearer statuses, fewer views, and better naming make a template feel instantly premium.

Try the free tools to estimate time saved and plan your next build, or head back to the Articles page to keep learning.