Hello and welcome to my own personal blog, placed here in an effort to document the development process for my team’s capstone project. Let’s get right into it.
Meal Planner App
Yes, the name needs work-shopping. I’ll add it as a TODO comment.
But for those of us with busy lives (so all of us)- the basic problem my team and I are trying to solve here is a common one: it’s 4:00pm– you’ve already eaten cereal and/or leftovers for lunch, and you’re completely uninspired for to what to do for dinner.
The problem here, I believe, is more likely one of decision fatigue, rather than a problem with cooking. The actual act of cooking isn’t so bad: a little choppity-chop here, a little sizzle there– just throw on a podcast and get to it. The problem comes with all the tedium of deciding what to make and figuring out if you have all the ingredients for it (which I somehow never do). Presumably, that process becomes easier as one becomes more knowledgeable chef with a methodically-stocked kitchen– but that’s definitely not me at the end of the workday.
Thus- the Meal Planner App. This app will allow users to track groceries they buy and ‘serve up’ potential recipes in order to help user’s answer the question: ‘What’s for dinner?’. Browsing this app for recipes should feel like browsing Netflix for movies to watch: scroll…. scroll… hmmm- that looks good! And then the decision’s made. No need to navigate a myriad of recipe websites and long-winded recipe blogs (the irony doesn’t escape me). No need to go searching through the pantry or fridge to see if you still have turmeric or not. All that ought to be taken care of, so that you can do the fun stuff– cook.
That’s the idea, anyway. Follow along to see the app come to fruition. Or why it doesn’t already exist.