What a meal planner app needs
- Weekly meal calendar
- Recipe collection with ingredients
- Auto-generated grocery list
- Servings scaling
- Favorites and repeat weeks
The screens
| Screen | What it does |
|---|---|
| This Week | 7-day plan grid, tap a slot to assign a meal |
| Recipes | Browsable collection with search |
| Recipe Detail | Ingredients, steps, add-to-plan |
| Grocery List | Auto-derived, grouped, checkable |
| Settings | Household size, dietary flags |
The data model
Recipe: name, ingredients[], steps[], servingsPlanSlot: date, mealType, recipeIdGroceryItem: name, quantity, aisle, checked
The build prompt (copy this)
Paste this into ShipNative and it becomes a working React Native app with these screens, navigable in a live preview, in about two minutes:
“A meal planner. Users add recipes with ingredients, assign them to a weekly calendar, and get an auto-generated grocery list grouped by aisle. Screens: This Week grid, Recipes, Recipe Detail, Grocery List with checkboxes, Settings with household size. Subscription after 10 recipes.”
Then iterate with small, screen-specific prompts (“make the primary button bigger”, “add an empty state”), preview on your own phone, and export the full Expo project whenever you want. The full method: how to build an app with AI.
How it makes money
Subscription ($4–7/mo); the grocery-list automation is the paid hook.
Implementation and the revenue math for every model: how to make money from an app. When you’re ready to ship: App Store and Google Play publishing guides.
Build it now
The prompt above is free to run at shipnative.dev — working meal planner app on your phone today, full code export, no credit card.