10 min read
How to reduce food waste without meal planning
How to reduce food waste at home with no meal plan: pick each dinner by what goes off first, keep an eat-first shelf, and shop for the nights you cook.
Read the articleThe Sugo journal
Notes from the kitchen.
Practical writing about saving recipes, cooking from what you already have, and getting dinner on the table without a browser full of open tabs.
Start here
Saving recipes
Getting recipes out of TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, websites, cookbooks and handwritten cards, then keeping them in order.
How to translate a recipe without losing the measurements
Translate any saved recipe into English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Japanese or Chinese, with every amount and oven temperature kept.
How to save recipes from Facebook posts and reels
Facebook's save button keeps a link, not a recipe. How to get a recipe out of a Facebook post, reel or group and into a form you can cook from.
How to save recipes from Pinterest so you can cook them
A Pinterest board saves pictures of recipes, not the recipes. How to get from a pin to the actual ingredients and steps, and keep them when the link breaks.
How to import recipes from any website, video or photo
Import recipes from websites, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, photos, Notes and other recipe apps: what works, how deep each one reads, and what doesn't yet.
Choosing a recipe app
The popular recipe apps compared side by side, and what to use when one shuts down or stops fitting.
Meal planning and shopping
Plans that hold up past Tuesday, and shopping lists you don't have to rewrite.
Meal planning for two when one of you is fussy
Two people rarely agree on whole dinners and almost always agree on ingredients. Plan the shared half, and let the rest join on the plate.
How to write a shopping list you don't have to rewrite
A list gets rewritten because it kept the answer and threw away the question. Keep the dinners, the headcount and the shelf, and the list keeps itself.
How to make a meal plan that survives a real week
Most meal plans die on Wednesday. The fix isn't more discipline: it's planning fewer meals, in no fixed order, with the week's chaos already built in.
Cooking from what you have
What to make with the food already in your kitchen, and the staples that make more of it cookable.
How to reduce food waste without meal planning
How to reduce food waste at home with no meal plan: pick each dinner by what goes off first, keep an eat-first shelf, and shop for the nights you cook.
What to do with leftover herbs
Herbs rot for an arithmetic reason: recipes ask for a spoonful and shops sell a bunch. The four dishes that finish a whole bunch at once.
12 pantry staples that make almost anything cookable
Twelve jars that turn up in dinners with nothing else in common, and the test that separates a real staple from something you bought for one recipe.
What to cook with what you already have
Cooking from the fridge is a skill, not a talent. A practical method for turning whatever is in your kitchen into dinner, and less food in the bin.
In the kitchen
Hands-free cook mode, and cooking with friends and family in other kitchens.
How to start cooking for yourself in a new kitchen
How to start cooking for yourself in an empty kitchen: what to cook first, what to buy, and why each dinner should use up what the last one left.
Why recipes take longer than they say
Recipe times count only the steps someone could time. Why prep time runs long, why 30-minute meals rarely take 30, and how to read a recipe before you cook.
How to run a dinner party from three kitchens
Three cooks, three courses, one table. The plan is in none of the three recipes, so here is how to build it backwards from the hour you eat.
How to cook the same meal with someone in another city
Cooking together at a distance fails for one reason: a video call carries the talk but not the pot. How to share the recipe itself instead.
Sugo news
New features and releases, explained.
Sugo on iPhone Duo: a recipe app that opens like a cookbook
Sugo now supports iPhone Duo. Open it like a book and a recipe gets two pages: the ingredients on the left, the method beside them on the right.
Pick your recipe's cover from the video it came from
A recipe saved from a reel arrives with the post's thumbnail as its cover. Now you can scrub the original video and choose the frame you want instead.
Scan your fridge with your phone: live scan is in Sugo
Sweep your phone along a shelf and Sugo lists what it sees, counting each item once. Hold up a pack and it reads the barcode. Frames stay on your phone.
Sugo 1.0 is out on iPhone, Android and the web
Sugo is on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android and the web. What version 1.0 does, what it costs, and what it still can't do.
Every article
November 2026
October 2026
- Why recipes take longer than they say
- ReciMe vs Recipe Keeper: a yearly plan or a one-time price?
- How to translate a recipe without losing the measurements
- The best recipe apps in 2026, free and paid
- Crouton vs AnyList: the cook's app or the household list?
- Crouton vs ReciMe: Apple craft or capture from anywhere?
- Is there a free recipe app without ads?
- Sugo on iPhone Duo: a recipe app that opens like a cookbook
- Mealime alternatives after the shutdown
- Paprika alternatives: buy-once and subscription apps
- ReciMe alternatives: free and paid apps compared
- ReciMe vs Paprika: social video or the recipe web?
- How to save recipes from Facebook posts and reels
- How to save recipes from Pinterest so you can cook them
- Yummly alternatives: where to save and find recipes now
- Meal planning for two when one of you is fussy
- What to do with leftover herbs
- How to run a dinner party from three kitchens
- Pick your recipe's cover from the video it came from
September 2026
- Scan your fridge with your phone: live scan is in Sugo
- How to write a shopping list you don't have to rewrite
- How to import recipes from any website, video or photo
- AnyList vs Paprika: which one fits your kitchen?
- Crouton vs Paprika: the Apple one or the durable one?
- ReciMe vs AnyList: capture or coordinate?
- 12 pantry staples that make almost anything cookable
- How to cook the same meal with someone in another city
- What to do with recipe screenshots in your camera roll
August 2026
- How to share a family recipe collection
- Sugo 1.0 is out on iPhone, Android and the web
- How to organise 500 saved recipes you have never cooked
- Sugo vs AnyList: shopping list first, or kitchen first?
- Sugo vs Crouton: two hands-free recipe apps compared
- Sugo vs Paprika: which recipe manager should you use?
- Sugo vs ReciMe: the closest comparison in the category
- What to do when a recipe disappears from a website
- Paprika vs AnyList vs Crouton vs ReciMe vs Sugo
- How to save a recipe from a cookbook page
- Hands-free recipe navigation: a wink, or your voice
- How to save a recipe from a YouTube cooking video
- How to digitise handwritten recipe cards
- How to cook from a recipe without touching your phone
- How to make a meal plan that survives a real week
- How to save recipes so you actually cook them
Out now
Put one good dinner on the table.
Sugo is on the App Store for iPhone, iPad and Mac, on Google Play for Android, and in any browser at app.sugo.kitchen. It is free to start, so start saving the recipes you actually cook.