Case Study
Larder
A private meal-planning app for my own household. It closes the whole loop: plan the week, shop for only what’s missing, cook, and let the pantry keep itself up to date.
Why I Built It
Meal planning apps either plan meals or make shopping lists, and none of them knew what was already in our kitchen. Larder ties recipes, the pantry, and the shopping list together, so the list only has what we actually need.
01
The Weekly Loop
Drag recipes onto the week. Larder builds the shopping list from what the pantry can’t cover, grouped by store. Checking items off restocks the pantry, and tapping “Cooked it” after dinner draws it back down.
02
Recipes From Anywhere
Import from a website link, a photo of a cookbook page, a PDF, or pasted text — always checked on a review screen before saving. A cookbook shelf indexes the books we own.
03
AI Where It Helps
Claude reads recipe photos and PDFs, suggests a week of meals, and answers “what can we make tonight?” from what’s actually in the pantry.
04
Fits Our Phones
Installs like an app, puts the meal plan on our calendars, and sends the grocery list to Apple Reminders with a Shortcut.
The work — sample data
The Result
Larder is in use every week in our house. It’s private, but it shows the kind of everyday tool I can build: real accounts, a real database, AI features, and integrations with the apps people already use.