www.readysetdinner.com

Petra·Mar 15, 2021

I got tired of the constant "What's for dinner?" question, the dinner rut and grocery shopping hassle, so I started working on Ready set Dinner (www.readysetdinner.com). We now have an initial version of our web-app launched that provides weekly recipe collections based on a profile of cooking habits, eating preferences and dietary restrictions. It also automatically creates a shopping list for you. All the recipes are tested (currently by my own family :-)) and we try to make the instructions as easy to follow as possible. If that sounds like something that would help you, I would be grateful, if you could test it out and give me feedback. Sign-up (app.readysetdinner.com/onboarding/register) is currently free and we will always keep a base version free of charge and introduce a subscription for premium features. I would love to know what you think!

Larissa88·Mar 16, 2021

This is exactly what I’ve been looking for! I just filled everything out and I like the stuff it threw out at me. The only thing I would ask is that there is the ability to email a printable version of the plan, recipes and shopping list to myself. In its current form it doesn’t really fit my lifestyle and is a few steps too many to make it completely useful 😊

Petra·Mar 16, 2021

Thank you very much for testing it out and for your specific feedback. You are the 2nd person that specifically asked for print-outs. It is definitely something that we have on our agenda as potential future development. We are not sure how high we should prioritize it yet. So, your comment definitely bumps it up in priority. :-) Can I ask a few follow-up questions to even better understand your need:- We are sending out next weeks plan every Friday via email. Would that be sufficient for you to cover the "plan part"?- Do you in general prefer to cook based on a printed recipe or is it just that the typical online recipe is not very user friendly? We have a "cook mode" for every recipe, which only includes the ingredients and the steps side by side and it has a "magic button" that will keep the screen turned on, so you don't have to enter your pin every 2 minutes while cooking. Would that be a solution that you could use while cooking?- The question for the shopping list would be similar. Do you prefer to have a paper list or is it just that online tools are not user-friendly enough. In our shopping list you can tick off items as you go and they will move to the bottom of the page, so you can do a final check before you go to the register. Does that sound helpful to you?Would be great to understand the details of your needs/preferences? Thanks again.

Larissa88·Mar 18, 2021

Thanks for the response 😊 It’s funny because even though I’ve started a company building apps to deal with daily life, I’m still ultimately a paper girl. I’m hoping to finally build the app that fixes this but I haven’t figured it out quite yet 😂 I do think some of your solutions like the magic button are definitely a helpful addition in general and will work well for those days I can’t get to a printer!As far as shopping lists and recipes go, I prefer paper for a number of reasons:1. I can scribble other things I need to buy on the same piece of paper. I’m never going to the shop only for food for my weekly meals. There are cleaning supplies, pets, snacks etc also. 2. I can turn my back on it in the store and not worry it’s going to get snatched while I’m not looking. 3. For cooking, I can stick it anywhere I need it and it doesn’t matter if I get food on it. Also, I can use my phone for other things while I am cooking. The weekly email is a start but if I decide I want something different in the middle of the week, I should be able to edit and print out the new recipes and list as soon as I do that. My shopping isn’t limited to only one day. I hear you on the workaround. For sure that is an option for now and I’ll use it.

Petra·Mar 18, 2021

Thanks for the clarifications. As the personalization of the meal planning is a key feature and differentiator for us, the process should also be as "personalizable" as possible, so that it fits as many people's lifestyles as possible, no matter where they stand on the paper to digital spectrum. :-) So, understanding the different needs, helps us a lot in prioritizing future development topics.The next feature we are going to release is actually a "add another item" to your shopping list option and it will work for other food and non-food items. It should be available latest next week.Just to avoid any misunderstandings, the weekly email is intended more to be a "reminder", you can amend your plans at any time you chose and since you can add each meal separately to the shopping list, you can also have multiple shopping lists for the week.One last point I wanted to mention: Both the cook mode and the shopping list should work well to just get printed using the browsers print function. The exact outcome will vary by browser, but for many recipes the cook mode in landscape should fit one page.Also, I am curious to find out what the app that you are working on focuses on?

Larissa88·Mar 19, 2021

Thanks. I recognise it is still in progress and these are early stages so will definitely make use of it in its current form and see where we land. It already seems better than others I’ve tried 😊 We have three in development right now: one focused on getting office/tech workers moving every day, one (working on for the longest, it’s complex) for managing your hair lifecycle and one (the closest to done) for saving for luxury goods rather than using credit cards. Plans in the pipeline for one to manage your entire household and of course an endless list of future ideas 😛 Basically we looked around at the existing apps in these spaces and none of them were quite what we needed so we figured we’d do it better. I imagine much like you 😉

Petra·Mar 19, 2021

Sounds like you won't get bored any time soon with all of these projects. ;-) We definitely have a lot in common in terms of the process we used to look for needed apps and services, the space we are looking into and the endless list of future ideas.Let me know when anything is ready for testing. I am curious! And thanks again for giving Ready set Dinner a chance and being patient with us as we develop. :-)

Larissa88·Mar 20, 2021

I suppose managing Daily Life (TM) is a problem a lot of us still need to solve so it’s no surprise there are a lot of us working on it 😂 It’s so great to see! I wish you the absolute best on your journey and will definitely be in touch when we have something ready 😊

Petra·Mar 17, 2021

I actually just discussed your point of printed recipes and lists with my technical co-founder today: As a current work-around, you could actually just use the print function in the browser for the specific recipe. Go to the cook mode and print the page, for many of the recipes all the information would fit on one page and landscape is probably the best mode to use.

Jos·Mar 16, 2021

This is awesome! :D I really liked the wide-variety of options available to users to help filter and curate the list of recipes available to them.

Petra·Mar 16, 2021

Thanks so much for testing and for your feedback. As you keep using it, please feel free to highlight any issues that you come across or tell us what you would prefer to work differently. All emails we are sending out come directly from my personal account (even if the address is info@), so feel free to reply directly whenever you have a comment.Happy cooking! :-)

January·Mar 16, 2021

I tried out your app and it is amazing! You addressed the only reason I would use hello fresh and the likes. I like the fact that the meal and recipes look doable. I understand that it's currently you and your family testing out the recipes but when you have more capacity, you could add an option to choose meals based on cuisine type. Currently, there is 'cuisine to avoid.'I love that there are recipes along with the calories! Thank you for making this!

Petra·Mar 17, 2021

Thanks so much for testing it out and for your detailed feedback. On a personal note, I actually started this project partially because the meal kits that I had tried did not work for me (in several ways).We designed the main workflow in a way that users don't have to look for recipes, but we provide them with some. That is why we rather ask "what do you want to avoid" than "what are you looking for". But if you go to the search page, you do have the option to look up particular recipes. You can search for them by keyword, where you could use a cuisine as keyword, or by ingredient(s). Once you find a recipe that way, you can add it or replace a recipe that is already in the plan.To make sure I understand your need/desire to select particular cuisines correctly: Would you always want to get suggestions from particular cuisines, e.g. be able to say "I typically like Mediterranean and Asian recipes, please give me mainly those." or would you like to be able to specifically search for a particular recipe of that cuisine.Thank you very much again for your input. And, please tell your friends. :-)

smichalczuk·Mar 16, 2021

I just tried it out! I'm a currently a Blue Apron devotee, if that's helpful to be aware of.Pros:- Love the way the shopping list aggregates all of the ingredients so you know what quantity of rice to buy, for example- Love the way you can "check off" items you have already bought or already have in stock, like olive oil or spices- Love how the list of recipes generates instantlyThings to Add or Make More Clear to Users:- Agree with @Larissa88 that I would likely want to print some of this out: - Recipe Cards: want to print them so I don't splash food onto my computer or device while cooking. Blue Apron and the other meal kits usually have these on a heavier stock of paper, but realize that isn't feasible since you aren't sending any physical products. - Shopping List: want to print unless there is a mobile app (I would prefer mobile app)- Timing of receiving "Next Week's Plan" via email: I would want the ability to click a button to email me the plan, and wouldn't want to have to wait until a certain day of the week if I was wanting to do everything online while I was logged in. An "instant-email" could also be a workaround for you with recipe cards - I think printing an email with the recipe would be a good enough workaround until there is a different solution (again, to avoid issue of splashing food all over the device displaying the recipe)- Custom contributions: I would love to be able to add my personal/family recipes into this and have it aggregate those ingredients in with ingredients required by the other recipes generated. Similarly, I would love the ability to "skip" a night of the week because I'm going to a restaurant that night, etc. So my ideal use case might look like this: enter in a family recipe, generate 1-2 meals from your database that I might not have come up with myself, edit the shopping list before going to the store by checking off the items I already have at home, and finally, access the app through my phone while shopping in the grocery store.- Optimize to minimize number of perishable items purchased in one trip: when choosing parameters, I would love a check-box enabling me to efficiently buy ingredients. For example, maybe I can only purchase a package of 8 chicken thighs, so I might want multiple meals across the 2 weeks that can use up all of the chicken thighs I had to buy, but I can buy produce in smaller quantities or non-perishable items like rice while being less concerned about food waste.- Related: You have "Ingredients to Avoid" in the filters for recipe generation. But what about ingredients that are sitting in my fridge or pantry that I'd like to use up? I would love a feature that would generate recipes around things I already have :)Hope this helps! Keep in mind I am an oddball who hated grocery shopping even before the pandemic.

Petra·Mar 17, 2021

Thank you so much both for testing it out and particularly for this very detailed feedback! This is a huge help. And I personally would not call you an oddball, I never understood how people actually can enjoy grocery shopping. Since my husband and I had kids and we decided we need a system for splitting responsibilities, grocery shopping has always been on his list. :-)Let me try to quickly comment on your points (always happy to discuss in great detail, but would like to be conscious of your time):- Printing recipes / recipe card: A workaround you could use right away: Select the cook mode in the recipe and use the browser print function to print it out. It will probably work best in landscape and for many recipes it should all fit on one page.- Timing of next week's plan: At any given time, there is a plan for this week and a plan for next week ready for you on the meals page (use the tab on top). The Friday email is more of a "reminder". But, we will certainly look into the whole idea/concept of allowing for user triggered emails with recipe/shopping list content.- Printed or mobile app shopping list: The question of creating a mobile app or not is one that we are trying to get clarity on. The answer will depend mainly on the user need, as there is no real technical need for it. Would you be able to specify what aspect makes the mobile app preferable for you? Is part of it the ease of access? Do you ever create a shortcut on your homescreen for websites that you use often (like that https://natomasunified.org/kb/add-website-to-mobile-device-home-screen/)?- Custom contributions: This is a big item on our "future features list". And the fact that you mentioned it specifically, will pump it's priority up. :-)- Search by ingredients: When you navigate to the search, you can specifically look for recipes to use up your ingredients. You can combine the search with a keyword search and apply the same (or other) filters that you have set in the profile. To be able to "save" the recipe and add ingredients to the shopping list, you have to add the recipe to your plan or swap it for an existing recipe. This should also help with using up perishable ingredients. But we are also looking into adding further parameters, like that one or prioritizing seasonal ingredients, etc.And, if I may be so cheeky, can I ask: If we could get your ideal use case set up, would you use us instead of Blue Apron?

smichalczuk·Mar 22, 2021

Just DMed you with more detail!

jobequality·Mar 16, 2021

Love it! Most moms will!

Petra·Mar 17, 2021

Thank you so much for testing it out and for your feedback. It makes me so happy to hear that other people find it useful too. :-) And please tell your (mom) friends, if you can. We are still a very small team and need all the help we can get in spreading the word.

kzucky·May 10, 2021

Hi @Petra, Have you heard of Mealime, BigOven, All Recipes Meal Spinner feature, or Platejoy? A lot of these do similar things to your idea so just was curious the big difference!

Petra·Jun 09, 2021

Hi @kzucky. First off, sorry for not getting back to you sooner. I must have overlooked your comment previously.Thanks for your question. I know the tools you mentioned and I am aware that there are quite a lot of tools available in the recipe space. I started working on Ready set Dinner, because even though I found some of those tools, they all did not work for me.The big differentiator to tools that "just" offer recipe content and or let you organize recipes you find online, is that we are also automating this step and doing it in a personalized way. In short tools like BigOven or the All Recipes Meal Spinner, make meal planning easier/faster, we do it all for you.Mealime and Platejoy already do mostly that. And I would also consider them our closest competitors. In comparison to them we want to also offer fully personalized grocery shopping support, meaning taking into account your own shopping preferences, both for items, but also for retailers or food suppliers. And we specifically want to focus on making shopping from local food suppliers easier by including seasonality of produce etc. into the meal planning. This is still in development.If you get the chance to test out Ready set Dinner, I would love to hear how you think the current version compares to those established market players?

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