Easy Meal Planning in Notion –  Complete Recipe Database Beginner’s Guide + Template

Set up a recipe database in Notion with step-by-step instructions. An easy system with recipes that simplifies meal planning + free template.

Looking for a new tool to do your meal planning?

In this article, I share how I’ve been using Notion for meal planning lately and include step-by-step instructions for beginners on how to build a meal list database. So, if you’re new to Notion and want to give it a crack, this is a practical database to get started on.

I’m a big fan of meal planning. In fact, I couldn’t function without it. It condenses all the decision-making for a whole week/fortnight/month into one little planning session that usually takes around 10 minutes, freeing up brain power for other stuff. 

Meal planning helps me to save money by reducing waste, eat healthier, save time (because I can also plan some combined prepping) and reduce the number of times I have to run to the store.

I’ve been meal planning for over twenty years, using everything from scrap pieces of paper to spreadsheets and note apps. But lately, I’ve been giving Notion a go, so this article is about how I’ve been using Notion for meal planning. 

What is Notion?

If you’re new to Notion, here’s a quick overview of what it is.

Notion, at its most basic, is a freemium note-taking program, which is an understatement, but that’s its most basic function.

Because it incorporates databases, it’s a versatile, all-in-one workspace – kinda like a digital Swiss army knife that includes notes, databases, calendars, Kanban boards, functions, and a whole lot more.

This power and flexibility are both a pro and a con: you can use it to organise every aspect of your life, including meal planning, as in this article, but it also has a pretty steep learning curve if you’re not into databases (like me, I’m still learning).

When it comes to meal planning, think of it as a cross between an Excel spreadsheet and a notebook. You can have a database of meals (similar to Excel), and when you click on each one, it brings up a detailed entry with the recipe (note) and any information you want to include.

These entries can be sorted, filtered, and linked across different pages. You can interlink your recipes with grocery and pantry lists, creating a whole meal planning system. You can also share pages with family and access them on the mobile app. 

Why Use Notion For Meal Planning

In my opinion, there are two good reasons to use Notion for meal planning:

1. You already use Notion for life admin (or want to), and you want to integrate another aspect of life admin into your system.
2. You want to experiment with a new tool and learn a bit about databases in the process.

I found it takes a bit of time to figure out Notion, so I wouldn’t say it’s the best way to meal plan; it’s just another tool to choose from.

If you’ve read any of my other articles about meal planning (or my book, shameless plug), you’ll know I’m obsessed with having a master meal list—a list of favourite meals you can draw on when meal planning to make the process easier.

My meal list has lived in all sorts of places over the years, including a bullet journal and an Excel spreadsheet.

But since Notion is a database, and databases can be sorted and filtered, and because I’d started playing around with it for other stuff, I thought I’d play around with Notion for my meal list.

This is probably the worst reason to use Notion, but the truth is, everyone else was using it, and I wanted to try it out. 

Yes, I wanted to be just like the cool kids. 

In this instance, Notion is free (or freemium, really), so keeping up with the Joneses will cost nothing.

However, Evernote used to be free, too, but they removed the free tier, which I guess is fair enough, so…user beware.

Whether you use Notion,  a spreadsheet, an app, or good ol’ pen and paper, having a list of meal ideas ready to go when you meal plan will save a ton of time in the long run, even though there’s a bit of an upfront time invested.

How I Use Notion for Meal Planning

As I mentioned above, I don’t use Notion for all my meal planning; I just use it to house my master meal list.

You can do SO MUCH MORE if you’re so inclined, and many pre-made templates are available to make setting up your meal planning system (or meal master list, as I use it) easier. 

Below, I will walk you through how I set up my basic Notion meal list. This is great if you’re a beginner to Notion.

If you’re just getting started, it is worth taking the time to DIY it rather than use a template so you can get used to how it works.

However, if you want to set up a complete meal planning system that links meals with a grocery list, weekly plans, and all sorts of stuff, check out Marie Poulin’s videos. The first video is a work-through of her meal planning system—it’s intense but comes with a free template.

(I still think a piece of paper stuck to the fridge to list grocery items running out is easier than an app, but we all work differently.) 

Her updated 2024 video is also worth watching – Marie explains how her system has grown and evolved, and you can download her (paid) template for the updated system if it tickles your fancy. 

But for the rest of the article, I will share my much more basic meal database. I’ve created two resources: a video that walks you through step-by-step how to create a basic database and a text and image version for those who prefer to read instructions in their own time.

It’s aimed at beginners who are just getting started with Notion, so if you’re already familiar with it, you can skip ahead to the final screenshots of my system.

Getting Started With Notion

If you already have Notion, you can skip ahead to the next section.

Otherwise, the first step is to create a free account.

Go to notion.so and click on the ‘get notion free’ button to sign up. You can use it in a browser, desktop, or phone app.

My screenshots are from a desktop browser—even though you can do stuff on your phone, it’s easier on the big screen of a laptop or computer.

Notion opens with some starter template pages and how-to guides to help you get started. You can use these, play around with them, or delete them. 

Creating and Organising Your Recipe Database

To create a meal list in Notion, you can either watch the video or follow along with the written guide below.

1. Creating a New Page

Start by creating a new page for your meal list to live on by clicking the pen icon at the top left corner.

Give your page a name by typing over ‘Untitled’. You can adjust the settings of your page, font, text size, full width, etc., using the three dots at the top right-hand corner of the page.

Using the buttons above the title (hover over the title to see), you can customise your page by giving it an icon and cover. I like to choose a custom cover from the Unsplash collection.

2. Creating a Database

To create a database, start by typing the forward slash, which will bring up a menu of options. To find the tables, start typing ‘table’. You want to pick the Database>table view, not the basic table.

/table

Once your database is created, you may get a pop-up asking you to link to existing databases. Just close this dialogue box, as we won’t be linking databases in this exercise.

Name your database. You can choose to view or hide the database title depending on what look you like.

3. Adding Properties to Your Database

Your database will have two columns or properties. The ‘name’ column is the default property and cannot be deleted; there is also a ‘tags’ column. 

We will adjust these columns to suit our needs and then create some more.

Click the three dots at the top right corner of the table to bring up the table menu. Then click on properties. 

Click on the ‘Aa Name’ property and change it to ‘meals’ or ‘recipes’ or a title that works for you.

Next, click on the ‘tags’ property and call it ‘main ingredient’ or ‘category’ or something similar. This property is for categorising meals so they can be filtered.

For example, you can categorise chicken stir fry as a ‘chicken’ recipe. Later, when you’re looking for chicken recipes, you can filter your database to show just recipes that use chicken. 

(You can also categorise for stir fry, but I’ll get into that further along.)

So, in the ‘main ingredient’ property, you can add categories now by clicking the ‘+ add an option’ button. This will bring up a list of options on your table to choose from when you add your list of meals.

Or, you can skip this step and simply type your categories in as you add your meals to your database, which will save them as options. 

Here’s an example of it in the database:

To add a new column/property to your database, you click the ‘+’ sign on the empty column on the right. Notion will give you some suggested properties to add, or you can add the ones you choose. 

For example, you could add a column for the recipe links. That way, you can have the link to the online recipe in your database, and instead of searching for it, you can click through directly from Notion.

What Properties Should You Add?

I’m a big fan of keeping things as simple as possible. 

For that reason, I recommend starting with just two properties: the meal name and the main ingredient. 

That prevents things from being overly complicated from the start, and it’s a foundation to build on if you find you want to use the database in different ways.

For example, I am adding prep times to my database to filter for quick and easy meals or meals that take under 20 minutes to cook. 

I also have breakfast and lunch ideas, so I can filter my database for these. 

Another option is to add a ‘meal type’ property, exactly the same as the ‘main ingredient’ property (i.e., with drop-down options), and categorise recipes by how they are cooked. For example, you might have ‘stir fry’, ‘slow cooker’, ‘oven/air fryer’, etc. 

That way, if Wednesdays are your stir-fry night, you can filter your database by your collection of stir-fries to make it easy to pick one to add to your meal plan.

4. Creating Simple Filters

Now that you have your basic database with some entries in it, you can start playing around with filters and views. This is the power of a database and its advantage over a list on paper.

 To create a filter, click the upside-down three-line pyramid as shown below (I don’t know how else to describe it).

Then, select how you want to filter the database. In this example, I’m filtering by ‘main ingredient>vegetarian’. 

You can add multiple filters to make selection even easier. For example, you can filter your database for vegetarian recipes that are under 30 minutes.

To adjust a filter, click on it and make a different selection. To clear the filter, select ‘delete filter’ from the three-dot menu on the top right corner of the filter.

5. Creating Filtered Views

Instead of filtering your database every time you meal plan, you can save time by creating multiple views of the same table. I’ll show you the views I’ve created for my database and then walk you through how to set them up.

First, click on the ‘+’ icon at the top of the database, above the title and where it says table; this will create a new view of the same database. Rename the view from ‘table’ to one of the categories you want to filter. In our example, I’m creating a view for just vegetarian meals.

What you’re creating isn’t a new database but a new view of this database. 

So, if you put a new entry in one view, it will potentially show in any of the views (filtering aside), even though it looks like you’re creating a new table. It is a new table view (as opposed to a list view, for example) of the same database. I hope I haven’t made it more confusing.

(As an aside, if you visually prefer lists to tables, you can create a list or ‘edit view’ and select Layout>List so your database looks like a list. And pro tip: gallery view is great if you have a picture of the recipe set as the cover or in the content because then you can view your recipes in a gallery of pictures.)

Anyway…

The next step is to add a filter, just like we did above. Because this view only shows vegetarian meals, I’ve created a filter for that.

You can continue to create filtered views that make sense for you. If you’re only vegetarian, you could create filters for ‘tofu’ recipes, ‘bean’ recipes, etc. 

The end goal is to save time, so create filtered views that will achieve this goal when meal planning.

Optional Extra: Adding Recipes to Your Database

I use this database to help with meal planning; I don’t store recipes here.

However, you absolutely can have an all-in-one system, with recipe information on hand and easily accessible from your phone app.

Each entry in your database is a note. When you hover over the recipe name, an ‘open’ button pops up to open the entry as a note.

In this note, you can type in a recipe, upload a screenshot or photo (by typing /image in the note) of a written or book recipe, and write notes about the recipes—all sorts of things.

Or you can do a combination by adding a photo and typing up the recipe. If I used this database as a recipe archive, I would add screenshots and photos as much as possible to cut down on the work involved in setting this up. But as Marie Poulin says, it’s fun work for her, so if this is your jam, then you can totally go to town.

It’s one of those things that, once it’s created, you’ll be grateful for how easy it makes life for months and years to come.

Link to Free Template

Prefer to just get started without building your database from scratch?

You can download the template I’ve created for this tutorial by clicking the link below and copying it to your Notion workspace.

Copy the link to your workspace by clicking on the duplicate button in the top right corner and adding it to your private space.

My current meal planning steps involve looking at what I have on hand to use that up first, checking our calendar to plan around stuff we (and by we, I mean the kids) have on, checking my list for ideas of what to make, writing a meal plan and a grocery list (adding items to my cart), and then later in the week, checking the specials and making any adjustments.

The whole process takes about 15 minutes max, and that’s all the thinking or planning I have to do for at least a week, but if I’m on a roll, then for the whole month.

Having lists, a list of meals, and a list of groceries in my supermarket app, saves so much time and just as importantly importantly, mental effort.