How to use Planly Fresh Plate

Your template lives in your own Google Drive, so the first step is making your personal copy.

1. Open the PDF from your Etsy purchase (Etsy → You → Purchases and reviews → Download files).
2. Click the “Make my copy” button. If you're asked, sign in to your Google account.
3. Google shows a “Copy document” screen. Click the blue “Make a copy” button.
4. Your copy opens. Rename it if you like (click the title in the top-left), e.g. “Our Meal Plan”.

SETUP holds the lists behind every dropdown in the template. The defaults cover most kitchens, so you may only need a few tweaks.

1. FOOD CATEGORIES: grocery aisles like Fruits & Vegetables, Meat & Seafood, Dairy & Eggs, Pantry and Spices. Add or rename any to match how you shop.
2. UNITS: Piece, Cup, Tbsp., Tsp., Gram, Pound, Can and many more. Add any unit you use that's missing.
3. SINGLE INGREDIENT: for foods you eat on their own (an apple, a yogurt), type the INGREDIENT and choose its FOOD CATEGORY ASSOCIATED.
4. Under CALORIE & MACRO, enter its Calorie, Fat, Protein, Carbs and Fiber so it counts on the calorie tracker.

RECIPE BOOK is the index of everything you cook. Recipe names you enter here become the choices on the meal planner.

1. Find the column for each category: BREAKFAST, LUNCH, APPETIZER, SOUP, SALAD, MAIN COURSE, SIDE DISH and DESSERT.
2. Replace the placeholders (“Add lunch 1”, “Add main course 2”…) with your recipe names, top to bottom.
3. Keep each category's list in order without gaps. The position of a recipe matters for the next step.
4. The SINGLE INGREDIENT column fills itself from SETUP.

Planly Fresh Plate · Recipe book

Each category has its own column of cards. The first card in a column belongs to the first recipe in that category on RECIPE BOOK, the second card to the second recipe, and so on.

1. Use the GO TO links at the top to jump to a category's column, then find the card that matches the recipe's position in your recipe book.
2. Type the recipe name, Prep time, Cook time, Servings and a Link to the original recipe if you have one.
3. List each INGREDIENT with its QTY, then pick the UNIT and CATEGORY from the dropdowns.
4. Write the DIRECTIONS step by step and add any NOTES.
5. For nutrition tracking, enter Total calories (Calories per serving works itself out) and the Fat, Protein, Carbs and Fiber per serving.

RECIPE FINDER shows any recipe card on one screen and adjusts it for the number of people you're feeding, which is handy while you cook.

1. Under CHOSE YOUR RECIPE CATEGORY, pick a category (Breakfast, Lunch, Main Course…).
2. Under CHOSE YOUR RECIPE, pick a recipe from that category.
3. Enter a number under FOR HOW MANY PEOPLE ? to scale the servings, ingredient quantities and total calories.
4. Read the times, link, ingredients, directions and nutrition totals below.

MEAL PLANNER is a seven-day plan with rows for BREAKFAST, LUNCH, DINNER and SNACKS each day.

1. Enter the first day of your week under START DATE. The day names and dates fill in automatically.
2. For each meal, choose a CATEGORY (for example Main Course or Single Ingredient), then choose a recipe under MENU.
3. SERVINGS fills in from the recipe card.
4. Tick LEFT OVER? when a meal is leftovers from an earlier day, so its ingredients aren't added again.
5. Scroll down to INGREDIENT LIST under each day to see everything that day's meals need.

Planly Fresh Plate · Weekly meal planner

MEAL SCHEDULE turns your plan into a simple one-page menu, with no typing needed.

1. Open MEAL SCHEDULE to see each DAY and DATE with its BREAKFAST, LUNCH, DINNER and SNACKS.
2. Print it (File → Print) and stick it on the fridge so everyone knows what's for dinner.

INVENTORY keeps track of what's already in your kitchen, so you don't buy things twice.

1. Use the FRIDGE, FREEZER, PANTRY and OTHER sections.
2. In each, type the INGREDIENT and its QTY, then pick the UNIT and CATEGORY.
3. Tick NEED TO BUY? for anything that's running low and it's added to your shopping list.
4. Update quantities after you shop and as you use things up.

SHOPPING LIST does the adding up for you: the ingredients from the week's meals appear automatically.

1. AUTOMATIC SHOPPING LIST shows each INGREDIENT with its total QTY, UNIT and CATEGORY for the week.
2. The INVENTORY column shows how much of it you already have at home.
3. Tick NO NEED TO BUY for anything you already have enough of.
4. Under TO ADD TO SHOPPING LIST, add household extras (soap, pet food, paper towels) with QTY, UNIT and CATEGORY.

Planly Fresh Plate · Shopping list

PRINTABLE SHOPPING LIST groups everything you need by category, so you can work through the store aisle by aisle.

1. Open PRINTABLE SHOPPING LIST. Items you marked NO NEED TO BUY are left off.
2. Check ITEM/INGREDIENT BY CATEGORY and QUANTITY, and add NOTES (brand, size) if you like.
3. Print it with File → Print, or open it in the Google Sheets app and tick items off as you shop.

CALORIE & MACRO TRACKER adds up the nutrition from the meals on your plan, day by day. It's optional, so skip it if you're not counting.

1. For each day, enter your TARGET CALORIE & MACRO: CALORIE, FAT, PROTEIN, CARBS and FIBER.
2. SUMMARY OF THE DAY lists each planned meal with its calories and macros per serving, taken from your recipe cards and SETUP.
3. Tick UNEATEN for anything you skipped, so it's removed from the totals.
4. Check COMPARISON: YOUR TARGET, YOUR DAILY TOTAL and the DIFFERENCE.

Use WEIGHT TRACKER (imperial) for pounds and feet, or WEIGHT TRACKER (metric) for kilograms and centimeters.

1. Enter a START DATE. The Dates column lists every day from there.
2. Under PARTICIPANTS, type each person's NAME and HEIGHT (feet and inches, or cm on the metric tab).
3. On each weigh-in day, type the weight in that date's row under the person's column.
4. Current Weight and BMI update with the latest entry.