Dinner for 4 Became Dinner for 6? Last-minute guest changes shouldn’t mean re-writing your shopping list. With PlateParrot, you can change the serving size of any planned meal directly in your list. Just tap “+”, and every related ingredient recalculates instantly—no mental math required.
The “Rule of Three” Panic
It happens to everyone. You plan a nice dinner for four people on Monday. You write your list: 500g pasta, 400g meat, 1 can of tomatoes.
Then, on Friday afternoon—right before you head to the store—your partner texts: “My sister and her boyfriend are coming too!” Now you’re cooking for six.
You stand there with your list, trying to do the math in your head. “Okay, 500g for 4 people… so for 6 that’s… 1.5 times… uh… 750g?” You scratch out numbers, scribble new ones, and hope you didn’t forget to scale up the spices or the side salad. It’s stressful, error-prone, and exactly why people end up with too little sauce or way too much bread.
One Button, Zero Math
PlateParrot handles this chaos with a single tap. Since your shopping list knows which items belong to which recipe, you don’t have to recalculate anything manually.
You simply open your active shopping list, find the Lasagne recipe, and tap the “+” button. As you change the portion count from 4 to 6, the app instantly scans your entire list and updates every single ingredient linked to that dish. The “500g pasta” magically transforms into “750g”. The “4 eggs” become “6 eggs”. You didn’t have to think; you just told the app the new reality, and it handled the logistics.
How It Works
You don’t need to go back to your recipe library or start a new list. The controls are right there where you shop.
- Open your shopping list.
- Tap on the recipe tab
- Use the plus (+) or minus (-) buttons to adjust the number of servings.
- Watch your shopping list update live.
If you have two different recipes—say, a main dish and a dessert—you can scale them independently. Cook the main dish for 6 people, but keep the dessert for 4 (maybe the guests are on a diet?). You have total control.
The Consolidation Engine is smart enough to distinguish between sources. If you scale up your Chili recipe, it knows to increase the onions for the Chili, but it leaves the onions for your manual “Hot Dog” entry alone.
It then re-sums everything. So if you needed 2 onions for the Chili (now scaled to 3) and 1 manual onion for Hot Dogs, the list will update to show exactly “4 Onions” total. It keeps the context of where every gram comes from, so you never accidentally buy for a party when you’re just cooking for two.
FAQ
What if I scale down?
It works both ways. If guests cancel, just tap “-” to reduce portions. The shopping list will lower the quantities immediately, saving you from buying food that will just go bad.
Does it change the original recipe in my library?
No. Changing portions in a shopping list is temporary for that specific trip. Your original recipe remains saved with its standard portion size (e.g., 4 people) for next time.
Can I change portions while I’m already in the store?
Absolutely. The recalculation is instant. If you bump into a friend at the vegetable aisle and invite them over, just tap “+” and grab the extra ingredients right then and there.
