How to Generate a Shopping List from Recipes

Vijay plans his entire week's dinners on Sunday morning. He selects 5 weeknight recipes and generates one combined shopping list — ingredients from all recipes merged and sorted by aisle. He's in and out of the store without doubling back.

Generate a List from Multiple Recipes

1. Open the Recipes tab
2. Long-press a recipe to enter multi-select mode (or tap the Select button)
3. Tap each recipe you want to include — checkboxes appear on each card
4. Tap Add to Shopping List (shown at the bottom of the screen)
5. Choose an existing list or tap New List and give it a name (e.g., "This Week")
6. The list generates — all ingredients are combined, deduplicated, and sorted by aisle

Add a Single Recipe to an Existing List

1. Open a recipe detail view
2. Tap Add to Shopping List
3. Select an existing list or create a new one
4. The recipe's ingredients merge with existing list items (quantities combined if the same ingredient already exists)

Using the Shopping List at the Store

1. Tap the Shopping tab
2. Your list is organized by aisle category: produce, dairy, meat, bakery, frozen, pantry, spices
3. As you pick up items, tap each one to check it off — it stays visible but crossed out
4. The layout doesn't rely on color alone to show checked status — look for the strikethrough
5. When done, tap Clear Checked to remove completed items and reset for next time

How Ingredient Combining Works

Sizzle sums matching ingredients across recipes using unit normalization:

• "2 onions" (recipe A) + "1 onion" (recipe B) = 3 onions
• "1/2 cup olive oil" + "4 tablespoons olive oil" = combined quantity

Ingredients must be in structured format (quantity + unit + name) for combining to work. Ingredients imported as free-form text may not combine automatically.

Managing Multiple Lists

• Tap the list name at the top of the Shopping tab to switch between lists or create a new one
• Rename or delete a list by tapping the three-dot menu on the list name
• Shopping lists persist across sessions and work offline

Adding Manual Items

1. On the Shopping tab, tap Add Item
2. Type the item name (e.g., "garlic")
3. The app auto-categorizes it by aisle — you can override the category
4. Add optional quantity
5. The item appears in the appropriate aisle section

Expected Outcome

A combined list with all ingredients across your selected recipes, organized by store aisle. Vijay's 5 recipes produce one unified list with no duplicate ingredients and no missed items.