MealBound app icon

MealBound

Your complete home meal planning companion. Build your recipe collection, plan the week ahead, cook step by step, and shop by aisle.

Download on the App Store

Free to download · MealBound Pro $4.99 one-time · iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch

Week Planned alert over the weekly planner after Auto-Plan filled 21 meals. Plan a week in one tap.
Why MealBound

Built out of dislike for meal planning

MealBound started from how much I disliked making a weekly meal plan. Now there's an app that can make that decision for us: we entered our own recipes, and MealBound can search the web for new ideas when we need fresh ones.

With a family of picky eaters, we also wanted the freedom to tweak any recipe to our liking, so every recipe stays fully editable. And a grocery list we can check off as we shop means we stop forgetting what we came for.

Alexander Rohr, developer

Features

Everything for meal night

Recipe library

Store recipes with photos, ingredients, step-by-step instructions, ratings, and notes.

Import from URL or photo

Paste a recipe link or snap a photo of a printed recipe, and MealBound fills in the title, ingredients, and directions.

Discover recipes

Search recipes from online recipe databases, with nutrition, dietary tags, and serving size, and add any of them to your library in one tap.

Weekly meal planner

Map out breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and desserts on a scrollable day-by-day canvas.

Auto-Plan

Fill your entire week in one tap, respecting no-repeat windows, busy-slot preferences, and weekend-only recipes.

Copy last week

Repeat last week's plan on the week you are looking at. Only empty slots are filled, so nothing you planned gets replaced.

Leftovers night

Mark a meal as leftovers, with suggestions from the last two nights, or pick a night for Auto-Plan to leave open. Leftovers add nothing to your grocery list.

Cook Mode

Cook one big step at a time with the screen kept awake. Times in a step, like "simmer 20 minutes", become one-tap timers that alert you even if the app is in the background.

Smart grocery lists

Generate a shopping list from your meal plan with ingredients merged and deduplicated, split automatically by your shopping days.

Shop by aisle

Lists group into store sections like Produce, Dairy, and Pantry, in the order you walk the store. Change any item's aisle yourself.

Pantry staples

Salt, oil, and other things you always have stay off generated lists. Edit the list in Settings, or swipe an item to say you always have it.

Voice and quick-add

Add grocery items by speaking or with one-tap quick-add chips for common items.

Meal reminders

Get a note with tonight's dinner, and a heads-up the evening before listing tomorrow's meals, so there is time to thaw or prep.

Ask Siri

Say "What's for dinner in MealBound?" to hear tonight's plan, or ask about tomorrow, without opening the app.

Apple Watch

See the next few days of meals and check items off your grocery list from your wrist. Checks sync back to your iPhone.

Export and share

Send a grocery list to Reminders so you can check it off while shopping, share it by AirDrop or Messages, or print a weekly meal plan for the fridge.

Home Screen widget

See today's and tomorrow's meals at a glance without opening the app.

Privacy

Your recipes stay yours

MealBound has no account to create and no servers of its own. Your recipes, meal plan, and grocery lists are stored on your device and sync through your own iCloud, so they're available on your iPhone and iPad. MealBound never sees them. Reminders and timers are scheduled on your device, and your Apple Watch gets its information straight from your iPhone.

Searching Discover or importing from a web address sends only your search terms or that address to find the recipe. MealBound works fully offline otherwise.

Read the privacy policy

What's new

Latest update

Version 2.1

  • Cook Mode: cook one big step at a time with the screen kept awake, and start timers for the times written in a recipe.
  • Shop by aisle: grocery lists now group into store sections, and you can change any item's aisle.
  • Pantry staples: salt, oil, and other things you always have stay off generated grocery lists. Edit the list in Settings.
  • Meal reminders: tonight's dinner, and a note the evening before about tomorrow's meals.
  • Copy Last Week, plus leftovers meals and a leftovers night for Auto-Plan.
  • Ask Siri "What's for dinner in MealBound?"
  • New Apple Watch app with your meal plan and a grocery list you can check off.
  • A new app icon, and the widget now shows it.
  • Fixed "Last cooked" counting meals that were only planned for later.
On iPhone

A look inside

Week Planned alert over the weekly planner after Auto-Plan filled 21 meals. Plan a week in one tap.
The weekly planner with a meal and photo for breakfast, lunch, and dinner each day, including a leftovers night. Plan your week.
A recipe with a large photo, prep and cook times, servings, rating, and ingredients. Every recipe, all in one place.
Cook Mode showing one recipe step in large type with a Start timer button. Cook one step at a time.
Cook Mode with a running 34:51 countdown timer and a second timer ready to start. Timers start with a tap.
A grocery list grouped by aisle with Produce, Bakery, and Meat and Seafood sections. Shop by aisle.
Choosing a meal slot with Leftovers options suggested from recent dinners. Leftovers night, built in.
A notification banner reading Tonight's dinner, Chicken Tacos is on the menu, over the planner. Dinner, remembered.
The MealBound Home Screen widget showing today's breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Dinner at a glance.
Siri showing the answer Tonight you're having Chicken Tacos. Just ask Siri.
A grocery list on iPhone with the same list open on Apple Watch. Check it off from your wrist.
On iPad

Room to spread out

Auto-Plan on iPad with the Week Planned alert over a filled week with photos. Plan a week in one tap.
The iPad planner showing several days of meals with photos. Plan your week at a glance.
A recipe on iPad with ingredients on the left and numbered steps on the right. Recipes, with room to breathe.
Cook Mode on iPad with a running timer and large step text. Cook with confidence.
The grocery list on iPad grouped by aisle. Shop by aisle.
The meal picker on iPad with Leftovers options. Leftovers night, built in.
Pricing

Try it free

Free
$0

Everything you need to get started.

  • Up to 20 recipes
  • Weekly meal planner
  • Grocery lists by aisle, with voice input
  • Cook Mode, meal reminders, and Siri
  • iCloud sync, widget, and Apple Watch
MealBound Pro
$4.99 one-time

Everything unlocked, forever.

  • Unlimited recipes
  • Auto-Plan your week
  • Discover and import recipes
  • Print meal plans
More

Questions, press, and support

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