How to Import and Organize Recipes in ManageMeals

Updated

ManageMeals imports recipes by URL rather than by manual entry, so the basic workflow is: copy a recipe page's link, paste it into ManageMeals, then organize the imported recipe with search, meal plans, and shopping lists. This works for hundreds of supported recipe sites, including most popular ones and many smaller ones. You need an account to save recipes, but anyone with a share link can view a recipe without registering.

Importing a Recipe by URL

  1. Open the recipe on its original website and copy the page URL.
  2. In ManageMeals, start an import and paste that URL.
  3. ManageMeals pulls the recipe content from the page and saves it to your account.

The expected result is a clean recipe detail page showing the relevant recipe information — ingredients and instructions — without the ads and surrounding article text that recipe sites usually carry.

If a site isn't supported

ManageMeals supports hundreds of recipe websites, but not every site is covered. If you find one that isn't supported, the documented path is to email support and request it; the site states that support for a requested site will be added. Until then, that URL won't import cleanly.

Organizing What You've Imported

Once recipes are in your account, the main organizing tools are:

  • Search — fast, and tolerant of spelling mistakes, so you can find a recipe without remembering its exact title.
  • Meal plans — build a plan for a single day or a whole week. Meal Types let you plan multiple courses per day, and you can either auto-generate a plan from criteria or select recipes manually.
  • Shopping lists — generate a list from a recipe or from a meal plan; ManageMeals converts the recipe ingredients into the list.
  • Sharing — send a share link so friends or family can view the recipe without registering.

Using Recipes in the Kitchen

Two features matter once you're actually cooking:

  • Cooking Mode — checking a box on the recipe detail page keeps the screen from turning off, so you don't have to tap the screen repeatedly while your hands are busy.
  • Print — pressing Ctrl+P (CMD+P) on a recipe produces a compact, printer-friendly version with no images or colors.

The interface is responsive, and closely related information such as ingredients and instructions stays together even on small screens, which is the point if you're reading from a phone or tablet at the counter. Dark mode is available if you prefer it.

What to Know Before You Start

  • Account required to save. Registration is needed to store your recipes; viewing a shared link is not.
  • Cost. The site describes ManageMeals as completely free.
  • Open source. The code is viewable on GitHub and open to participation.
  • Self-hosting. A self-hosted option is referenced in the site's feature list.
  • Support contact. Problems, unsupported recipe sites, and feature requests all go to the support email address listed on the site.

If your goal is simply to stop losing recipes across browser bookmarks and ad-heavy pages, the URL import plus search covers most of it. If you plan meals ahead, add meal plans and shopping lists to the same workflow so the ingredients you import turn directly into what you buy.