Batch cooking means cooking the week's meals in a single session: often 2 hours on Sunday. Olivi walks you from the menu to the timed session plan.
Step 1: build the session menu
Everything happens in the “Build your session” card:
- Pick the number of meals (3 to 6) and the servings per meal (2 to 8): aim bigger for leftovers (lunches, freezer).
- “Let Olive build my session”: Olive picks recipes compatible with each other and with your profile.
- “Pick your recipes yourself”: select 2 to 6 recipes from your collection (with search). Olive completes as needed.
- With Olive in the chat: ask her to "plan me a batch cooking session for the week".
- From your plan: if your week already holds at least 2 detailed recipes, the Cook these recipes from my week button launches the session plan with them directly.
The proposal shows in the same card: change the number of meals and it adjusts live; replace a dish (🔄); reorder the dishes with the arrows (your order = the placement order in your week); and give each dish its destination with the 📅 / ❄️ toggle. The grocery list generates itself: one store run for the whole session.
Step 2: generate the session plan
- Web: open Batch cooking from the home screen or the planner button.
- Mobile: tap the chef hat icon in your plan's header.
Whichever path you pick, Olive takes the session's recipes (up to 6) and builds an optimized run sheet: long cooking starts first, other recipes' prep fills the waiting time, and shared prep is pooled (all the onions at once).
Step 3: cook and check off
Each step shows at which minute to do it and which recipe it belongs to (colour-coded). Check steps as you go: the progress bar and estimated time left update live.
On iPhone/iPad, waiting steps (oven, simmering) have a timer button: the countdown shows in the Dynamic Island while you keep cooking.
Save and revisit your sessions
Once every step is checked, tap Save session: it joins Your past sessions on the Batch cooking home, synced across all your devices (iPhone, iPad, web). Review reloads a session; Redo runs the same session again (plan or freezer placement + grocery list + a fresh run sheet); the ✕ deletes it; New session brings you back home.
Each dish picks its destination
On every dish of the proposal, the little 📅 / ❄️ toggle decides where it goes:
- 📅 Into my week: the dish is placed into the free days of your plan (never past days).
- ❄️ To the freezer: nothing is added to your plan, you cook ahead, and the ingredients still join your grocery list.
Mix freely: a few dishes into your week, the rest to the freezer.
“To the freezer” sessions: where do the dishes go?
The dishes of a freezer session enter the My freezer inventory (in the Pantry) when you save the finished session: not before. A ❄️ banner reminds you during the session, and the confirmation “❄️ X dishes added to My freezer” shows after saving, with a direct link to the inventory.
After a regular session (“Into my week”), an “❄️ Add these dishes to My freezer” button also shows at the end: handy when you freeze part of what you just cooked.