Case Study
RecipeVault: Recipe Manager, Meal Planner & Nutrition Tracker
RecipeVault is a desktop app I built to plan, cook, and track meals in one place: a recipe library, a drag-and-drop ingredient builder, a pantry, and daily nutrition tracking, all working off the same data.
Project Overview
- Developer
- Khalyl Arandia
- Version
- v1.0.0
- Type
- Desktop App
- Architecture
- SQLite-backed workspace
- Purpose
- Recipe library, meal planning, and nutrition tracking in one desktop workspace
Key Features
- Dashboard with daily timeline
- Recipe library with presets
- Drag-and-drop ingredient builder
- Multi-vessel recipe workflow
- Live nutrition & cost estimates
- Meal planner & weekly calendar
- Pantry inventory tracking
- Auto-generated grocery list
- Flexible notes pages
- Daily & weekly nutrition tracking
- Goals, streaks & achievements
- Favorites & quick meals
- Command palette navigation
- Expiry & low-stock notifications
- Profile with password change
- Light & dark mode
Tech Stack
System Objectives
RecipeVault was built around one main idea: connect the whole cooking loop (recipes, planning, shopping, and nutrition) instead of treating each as a separate tool.
I wanted a desktop app where building a recipe automatically feeds nutrition and cost, where a planned week automatically builds a grocery list, and where the pantry knows what's about to expire before I do.
One Connected Loop
Recipes, meal planning, pantry, groceries, and nutrition all read from the same data instead of living in separate silos.
Built for the Cook I Want to Be
I shaped the modules around the cooking workflow I want to build toward: a dashboard, recipe builder, pantry, planner, and daily nutrition, plus favorites and quick meals for the fast path.
Desktop-First Feel
A command palette, keyboard shortcuts, and a compact sidebar keep the app fast to move through, closer to a workbench than a food blog.
Dashboard
The Dashboard opens with a personalized greeting and a timeline of the day's meals and water, then rolls into the week's plan, grocery preview, and recipes worth revisiting.
- Today's timeline: meals and water logged through the day, with a live macro breakdown
- Week strip: a 7-day view of open and planned days
- Grocery preview: what's still needed, pulled straight from the pantry
- Continue cooking: quick recipe cards to view or plan again
Recipe Library
The Recipe Library holds the full collection, with ready-made presets to start from and full search, filtering, and sort controls.
- Presets: complete recipes to open and adjust rather than start from a blank page
- Recipe cards: cuisine, servings, and a short description at a glance
- Discovery: search, difficulty filter, sort, and grid/list view
Recipe Creator
The Recipe Creator is the core of RecipeVault: details, a drag-and-drop ingredient workspace with vessels, step-by-step instructions, and a live nutrition and cost breakdown, all in one flow.
- Details: name, description, meal type, difficulty, and required cooking tools
- Ingredient catalog: categorized ingredients, dragged into a preview vessel
- Vessels: multiple bowls, pans, or plates, each holding its own ingredient list
- Steps: action type, timer, temperature, and tools attached to each step
- Nutrition: calories, macros, fiber, sugar, and sodium calculated live per serving
- Cost: per-serving and total recipe cost estimate
Search & Command Navigation
A command palette gives quick access to any part of the app, with keyboard shortcuts for the modules used most.
- Quick actions: new recipe, search, favorites, planner, notes, pantry, and nutrition
- Keyboard shortcuts: each command mapped to a shortcut for fast jumps
Notes
Notes hold anything that doesn't fit a recipe or a task, like a welcome page, a grocery list, or a running kitchen notebook.
- Flexible pages: free-form notes with images, checklists, and headings
- Grocery list: items with quantity, category, and price tracked inline
- Organization: favorite notes and quick switching between pages
Pantry
The Pantry tracks what's actually on hand, with expiry dates, quantities, and low-stock warnings feeding straight into the Dashboard.
- Snapshot: total items, expired, expiring soon, and low stock at a glance
- Category breakdown: dairy, grains, produce, and more, each with its own count
- Item detail: quantity, location, price, expiry date, edit, and use
Nutrition
Nutrition tracks what's actually being eaten (calories, macros, water, and weight), pulled directly from logged meals rather than entered by hand.
- Daily view: calories, macros, and water, sourced live from recipes and meal logs
- Meals today: each logged meal with time, macros, and calories
- Trends: a weekly calorie chart plus weight and BMI tracking
- Goals: editable calorie, protein, fiber, and water targets, with streaks and achievements
- Quick actions: log a meal, add water, scan food, or generate a meal from the Nutrition page
Notifications
Notifications surface what the pantry needs attention on, so nothing expires unnoticed.
- Expiry alerts: items expiring soon, pulled from the pantry
- Low-stock alerts: items running low, with remaining quantity shown
Favorites & Quick Meals
Favorites is a focused view of the meals I come back to most, using the same recipe cards, search, and filters as the main library.
- Favorites: a filtered view of favorited recipes only
- Consistency: same search, sort, and difficulty filters as the full library
Profile
Profile keeps identity and account details in one place, with a straightforward password-change flow.
- Profile picture: upload or remove, shown across the sidebar and Dashboard
- Display name: sets the identity used throughout the app
- Registered email: auto-filled from sign-up
- Password: current-password / new-password change flow
What I Learned
Native Drag & Drop
Drag-and-drop that worked in the browser didn't behave the same way in the packaged desktop app. Getting the ingredient workspace right meant handling the native Tauri drag payload explicitly rather than relying on browser defaults.
Connected Data Beats Silos
The moment a recipe's nutrition, cost, and ingredients could feed the Dashboard, Pantry, and Nutrition tab automatically, the app stopped feeling like separate features and started feeling like one system.
Project Impact
RecipeVault turned recipe planning, grocery shopping, and nutrition tracking into a single connected workflow, instead of a recipe app, a separate tracker, and a paper grocery list.
Got ideas or want to collaborate?
RecipeVault is a personal-use project built around my own kitchen, but I'm open to discussing similar tools or desktop app ideas.