Shop'NCook shopping list and recipe management software

Shop'NCook Pro 3.4.2 User's Manual

Shop'NCook
Getting started
Shopping List
Database Editor
Sublists
Sublist Editor
Recipes
Cookbooks
Recipe Import/Export
Recipe Editor
Nutritional Analysis
Direct Access
Menus & Meal Planner
Costing
Browser
Preferences
Troubleshooting
Search

Menus & Meal Planner

Overview

The menu panel is accessed by clicking on the Menu tab at the top of the screen. The display in the Menu panel is controlled by the Calendar/Menu drawer at the left.

The Drawer

The drawer can be accessed from every panel of the software. It can be optionally hidden by using the function "Hide Calendar" of the Window menu. It is shown automatically when you display the Menu panel. You can choose to display or hide it automatically at start in the Preferences. You can create and edit menus in the drawer. A menu can be an individual meal or a daily menu. The menus can be separated in courses and recipes can be dragged or pasted in them. Grocery items can also be added to a menu. You can set the number of servings of a menu to scale automatically the recipes added to it. The drawer consists of two tabs, the Calendar tab to plan meals for each day, and the Library tab to maintain a library of menus. You can print, send by e-mail or add the ingredients to the shopping list of individual menus directly from the drawer. For more advanced options or actions on several days of menus at a time, you must use the functions of the Menu Manager (see below).

The Calendar tab of the drawer
Days in the calendar that contain recipes are displayed in bold. Click on the day of the calendar to display its content. The content of the calendar is always automatically saved so that you can always access past menus as far back as you wish.

The calendar can be used in different ways depending on your needs. For family meal planning, you can create one menu per day for the whole family with the different meals separated by headings and set the number of servings of the menu to correspond to the size of your family. Alternatively, to plan meals for several persons with different nutritional requirements or preferences, you can create one daily menu per person. Also, if you are planning for meals with different numbers of servings, it is better to create a menu for each meal and set the number of servings of each menus so that the recipes are correctly scaled. Food professionals can create menus for each special of the day and estimate their costs in the menu panel.

The Library tab of the drawer
In the menus tab, you can create a library of menus. The menus within the menu list are organized by alphabetical order. You can transfer menus between the Calendar and the Library tab by using the GetFromLibrary and AddFromLibrary buttons of the toolbar of the Calendar tab or the copy and paste functions of the Edit menu.

The Menu Pane

The Menu pane is displayed by cliking on the Manager button of the toolbar of the drawer or by clicking on the Menu tab of the main application's window. The Menu pane consists of two tabs: the Menu tab and the Ingredients tab. The display in these tabs is controlled by the selection in the drawer and by the Mode pull-down menu of the toolbar. In single menu mode, only the currently selected menu is displayed. In daily mode, all the menus of the selected day are displayed. In weekly mode, the menus of the current week are displayed. The starting day of the week is Sunday by default but it can be changed in the preferences. In monthly mode, all the menus of the current month are displayed. You can also select to display the menus for a fixed number of days in the mode pull-down menu. The costing of the currently selected menu is calculated when clicking on the Costing button of the toolbar. The cost information will be displayed in a new window for the specified number of servings and itemized per recipe and ingredient. A subtotal for each recipe is also given.

The Menu Tab
The menu tab displays the menus corresponding to the drawer selection and current display mode. The menus and associated recipes can be printed, sent by e-mail, exported to HTML and to plain text or exported to the clipboard. In single-menu mode, the nutritional information is displayed at the bottom of the menu, if enabled in the preferences.

The Ingredients Tab
The left column of the Ingredients tab lists the current days, menus and corresponding recipes. When the Calendar tab of the drawer is selected, all the days, menus and recipes corresponding to the current mode are listed. When the Library tab of the drawer is selected, only the current menu and its recipes are listed. The right column lists all the ingredients itemized per recipe, including linked recipes if any. Days, menus and recipes can be individually selected or deselected and the corresponding ingredients added to the shopping list.

Menus - How To...

How to plan meals

If the Calendar/Library drawer does not show, go to the Window menu and select "Show Calendar", then display the Calendar tab. You can then drag & drop recipes from the Recipe or the Direct Access panels directly on days in the calendar. An empty menu is automatically created for each days of the calendar and the dropped recipes are added to it. If the day already contains menus, the recipes are added to the last menu of the list. You can also transfer menus from the library or paste them into the days of your choice. Alternatively, you can select a day of the calendar and add recipes to it with the "Add Menu" button of the toolbars of the Recipe and Direct Access panels.

How to create a menu

If the Calendar/Library drawer is not displayed, go to the Window menu and select "Show Calendar". To add a menu to the meal planner, display the Calendar tab and click on a day. To create a menu in the library of menu, click on the Library tab. Click on the "+" button under the menu list: a new menu is created with default name "Menu". To rename it, double-click it or click on the Edit button under the menu list. Input the new name. You can also specify a number of servings for the menu. If you specify a non-zero number of servings, the recipes added to the menu are scaled correspondingly. The recipe quantities are unchanged if the number of servings is undefined, i.e. zero. Click OK to save the new menu name and number of servings. Go then to the Recipe or Direct Access panels and select the recipes that you want to add to the menu. Transfer them to the menu either by drag & drop, copy & paste, or by using the "Add Menu" function of the toolbar. To add a grocery item to the menu, click on the "+" button under the recipe list and select "Grocery Item". In the window that opens, type then the name of the item in the grocery item pull-down menu and select a corresponding item of the database. You can input also the quantity and the corresponding number of servings of the grocery item. Each menu can be separated in courses by clicking on the "+" button unser the recipe list and selecting Heading. The course and recipe names can be edited similarly to the menu names. You can change the order of the menus and recipes by using the up and down arrow or by dragging them. You can remove recipes by selecting them and pressing on the backspace (delete) key or clicking on the "-" button under the recipe lists.

How to change the number of servings of a menu and its recipes

To change the number of servings of a menu, select its name in the drawer and click on the "Edit" button under the menu list. Input the new number of servings in the window that opens and click OK. If you specified a non-zero number of servings, you are given the option to scale accordingly the recipes belonging to this menu. The new number of servings is displayed in parenthesis after the menu name in the menu list. If no number is indicated, the number of servings is zero, meaning undefined. You can also scale individual recipes in a similar way by selecting their names and clicking on the "Edit" button under the recipe list.

How to view or print individual recipes of a menu

To view a recipe, double-click its name in the recipe list of the drawer or select its name and click the "View" button below the menu list. The recipe will be open in a separate window with a scaling tool. To print the recipe, select its name and click on Print button below the recipe list.

How to print a menu and its associated recipes

Select the menu you want to print in the Calendar or Library tab of the drawer and click on the Print button of the toolbar of the drawer. Alternatively, you can display the Menu panel, set the current mode to "Single Menu" and click on the Print button of the toolbar of the Menu panel. You are prompted to choose between printing only the menu, only its recipes, or both the menu and its recipes. Make the desired selection and click OK. To print menus and recipes for a whole day or for several days, set accordingly the mode and click on the Print button of the Menu panel.

How to transfer menus between the Calendar and Library tabs of the drawer

To transfer a menu of the library to the calendar, select a day of the calendar, click on "lib" button below the menu list and select "Get From Library". Select of menu among the list and click OK. To save a menu of the calendar to the library, select it, click on the "lib" button below the menu list and select "Add To Library". You can also copy and paste menus to transfer them between the library and the calendar tabs.

How to display the nutritional information of a menu

Display the drawer by selecting "Show Calendar" in the Window menu and select a menu. Display the Menu tab of the Menu panel. Click on the Nutrition button of the toolbar to open a window with the nutritional information of the menu. If the number of servings of the menu is defines, i.e. non-zero, the nutritional information is shown for one serving of the menu, otherwise it is calculated for the whole menu. In single-menu mode, the nutritional information is displayed automatically at the bottom of the menu in footnote character style. You can disable this option in the Preferences.

How to add the ingredients of a menu to the shopping list

Display the drawer by selecting "Show Calendar" in the Window menu, select a day of the calendar if the Calendar tab is displayed, and select a menu in the menu list. Click on the Add button of the toolbar of the drawer to add the ingredient of the selected menu to the shopping list.

If you want the possibility to add ingredients for several menus, or add the ingredient selectionally or change the quantities, you can alternativaley display the Ingredients tab of the Menu panel. Select the appropriate mode in the toolbar: single menu to display the ingredients of the current menu, daily to display the ingredients of all the menus of the current day, weekly, or monthly, or select a fixed number of days of menu. In the column on the left, select the days, menus and recipes you want to add to the shopping list. Deselect the ingredients you do not want to add in the column of the right. If desired, you can also change the number of servings on a recipe basis by using the Calculate button next to each recipe name in the column on the right. Click then the "Add" button of the toolbar of the Menu panel to add the selected ingredients to the shopping list.

How to estimate the cost of a menu

Display the drawer by selecting "Show Calendar" in the Window menu and select a day of the calendar or a menu of the menu library. Select the menu for which you want to calculate the cost. Display the Menu panel and click on the Costing button of the toolbar. A new window is displayed with the cost information, itemized by ingredient and recipes. Only the ingredients listed in black have their cost calculated. For information on the meaning of the different colors and on the action to take to allow the sofware to estimate the cost of the colored ingredients, see Costing. You can deselect individual recipes and ingredients to see how it affects the cost of the total menu. You can print the cost data or export it to a file.

Copyright Rufenacht Innovative 2007.