Questions and answers
Second Helping is a free recipe organizer, weekly meal planner and grocery list tool for households. Here's how it works in practice.
Getting started
- What is Second Helping?
- Second Helping is a free recipe organizer, weekly meal planner and grocery list tool for households. Save the recipes you like, plan a few dinners, and get one grocery list for the week.
- Is Second Helping free?
- Yes. There is no subscription, no premium plan and no advertising.
- Where can I use it?
- Anywhere you have a web browser. It works on phones, tablets and computers. The app is currently in English.
- Do I need to install anything?
- No. Second Helping runs in your browser. On a phone you can add it to your home screen if you want it to feel like an app.
Recipes
- How do I add a recipe?
- Paste a recipe link, type one in yourself, or import a collection you already have.
- Can it save a recipe from a website?
- Yes. Second Helping pulls in the ingredients, instructions and main photo when they're available, and you can edit anything before saving.
- Can I change a recipe after saving it?
- Yes. Your copy is yours to edit, so you can write down how your household actually makes it. The original link is kept for reference.
- Can I import from Paprika?
- Yes. Export your Paprika collection and upload it during setup or from your settings.
Meal planning
- How does planning a week work?
- Choose how many dinners you need and Second Helping suggests recipes from your collection. It looks at your ratings, favourites, what you made recently and where fresh ingredients overlap. Keep what you like and swap the rest.
- Can I pick meals myself?
- Yes. You can fill any spot in the week straight from your recipe box.
- What about leftovers?
- You can set how many servings your household usually cooks, including cooking extra on purpose, and adjust that for individual meals.
Groceries
- How does the grocery list work?
- Once your meals are set, Second Helping combines the ingredients across those recipes, scales the amounts and sorts everything into grocery categories.
- Does it leave spices off the list?
- No. Spices and pantry items still show up. They're only treated differently when Second Helping looks for useful overlap between meals.
- Can it order my groceries?
- We're testing a Voilà cart feature in beta for Canadian households. The regular grocery list works with or without it.
Households and sharing
- Can my partner use the same recipes?
- Yes. Everyone in the household shares the same recipes, weekly plans, grocery lists and favourites.
- Does everyone get their own rating?
- Yes. Each person can rate a recipe on their own, and planning can use the household's combined rating.
- Can I be in more than one household?
- Yes. You can join several households and switch between them.
- Can I share recipes with another household?
- Yes. Recipes can be copied between households while meal plans and grocery lists stay separate.
Privacy
- Are my recipes private?
- Yes. Everything in your household is private unless you deliberately share it.
- Will you publish recipes I saved from other websites?
- No. Saving a recipe to your household does not make it public or searchable.
- Can I delete my account?
- Yes. If you own a household with other people in it, you may need to hand over ownership first so their shared recipes aren't deleted with your account.
- Do you sell my data?
- No. We don't sell your personal information or your household's recipes.