Meal plan products

Overview

Meal Plan Products lets you sell meal plans made from your own recipes. You build plans from recipes Allspice has already indexed from your site, attach them to a product, and set how readers get access. Checkout runs through Stripe, and readers open and use their plans in the widget on your site. You don't need a membership plugin, a checkout page, or a delivery system.

How the system is organized

In the Publisher Portal, open Meal Plans in the sidebar. It has two tabs:

• Products - what readers buy or claim. A product bundles one or more plans and sets the access type, price, and what readers see on the product card.
• Plans - the plans themselves: days, meals, and write-ups.

Your recipe library lives in its own Recipes area, separate from Meal Plans.

Plans and products are separate so you can reuse content. The same plan can sit in more than one product - for example, a one-time bundle now and a subscription release later.

Building meal plans

To create a plan, click Create meal plan and enter a title, short description, a “Created by” name shown to readers, the number of days, and content sources (the site domains to pull recipes from, if you run more than one). Then build it day by day in the plan editor:

• Fill each day's meal slots - Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snack, and Other - using the recipe picker. A new plan starts with Dinner; add other slots with the + Add ... section row.
• Drag meals to reorder them or move them between slots within a day.
• Write the intro essay (shown under “From the creators” in the plan preview) and an optional writeup for each day, e.g. “Sunday is prep day: double the grains, they carry Tuesday's bowls.”

From a plan's menu you can preview it as a reader, add it to a product (if it isn't in one yet), and archive it (or delete it if it has never been published). The Duplicate option in that menu doesn't copy plans yet.

Filling a plan with AI

In the plan editor, click Fill this plan with AI to open a drafting session that fills the plan with recipes from your library. First you set the plan's shape:

• Days - 1 to 30
• Meals per day - any of Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and Snack
• Default servings - optional
• Review the outline first - check the outline before recipes are filled in

One session can draft up to 21 meals (days × meal types). Seven days of breakfast, lunch, and dinner fits; eight doesn't. After you click Start session, you steer cuisines, themes, and swaps by chatting. Nothing publishes until you do, so review the draft and add your write-ups first.

Creating products

A product is what a reader buys or claims. When you create one, you pick its access type (see below). Then you set:

• Overview - product name, description, and a cover image URL
• Trailer / preview video - optional short video. It's public, so anyone who sees the product can play it. Don't upload premium content here.
• Included content - one or more plans. Use Add existing, or Create meal plan to build a new plan inside the product.
• Future Releases - subscription products only

Products don't have a draft state. A product is live as soon as you click Create, and you retire it by archiving it. From a product's menu you can preview it as a reader and copy a share link to it.

Access types & pricing

There are four access types:

• Free - available to all readers with an Allspice account. A good first plan for new readers.
• One-time purchase - a fixed price. Readers buy once and keep access. Suited to evergreen bundles such as a holiday baking plan.
• Subscription - monthly or yearly billing, with an update cadence shown to readers: Weekly, Monthly, Seasonal, Custom, or None. Suited to ongoing releases, e.g. a new dinner plan every Monday.
• Included with Allspice Premium - available to readers who have Allspice Premium through your site.

Prices can be in USD, CAD, EUR, or GBP. Access type, price, and currency are set once, when you create the product, because the Stripe price can't be changed later. To charge a different amount or change the access model, archive the product and create a new one.

Releases and scheduling

Subscription products get new content through releases. In the product's Future Releases card, click Add release, choose the plans to include, set a release date, and set the status (Draft, Scheduled, or Published). The card lists releases under Available now and Upcoming.

You can also publish a plan right away or schedule it for a future date. Scheduling is by date only: a scheduled plan goes live at the start of that day in UTC.

Stripe & getting paid

Paid products are processed through Stripe. Connect your Stripe account in the portal before you create a paid product or publish a plan that's in one. Until it's connected, the portal blocks those actions and prompts you to connect payments. Free and Premium-included products don't need Stripe. See Configure payouts for setup.

Payouts and revenue share

For products you create from your own content, Allspice keeps a 10% platform fee, calculated after third-party payment-processing fees. You keep the rest, subject to refunds, disputes, chargebacks, and other transaction adjustments. This applies to both one-time purchases and subscriptions. See Revenue sharing for the full calculation and a worked example.

What readers see

Published products appear in the Meal Plans tab of the widget on your site.

• Free plans need an account. Signed-out readers see “Sign up to open”, and the plan opens as soon as they sign up.
• Paid plans show a preview with the intro essay, plan length, a few preview days, and the price (one-time, or recurring with its interval).
• To buy, readers go to Stripe Checkout. The plan unlocks when they return to your site.
• Readers also get an email with the plan's days, recipes, and shopping list. See Product email delivery.
• After unlocking a plan, readers can schedule it onto real dates, adjust meals, open Cook Mode from any meal, and build a grocery list for the whole plan.

Use Preview in the portal to see individual plans and whole products the way readers will. For the reader side, see Meal planning.

Promoting your plans

• Email - for a published plan that's in a product, open the plan's menu and choose Promote by email. You can copy or download the email HTML, or, if Kit, Mailchimp, or MailerLite is connected, create a draft campaign there. Allspice never sends it; you review and send it from your email platform. Flodesk can't receive drafts, so use Copy HTML. See Email integrations.
• WordPress blocks - add the allspice/mealplan-products block to show your products as a grid on any page, or the allspice/mealplan-feature block to feature a single product. Buttons in both blocks open the product in the widget. See Blocks & shortcodes.

Publishing workflow

1. Create a plan in the Plans tab, and fill it by hand or with AI.
2. Add the intro essay and day writeups, then preview it as a reader.
3. Connect Stripe if you're selling it.
4. Create a product. Choose the access type and set the price and currency (plus billing interval and update cadence for subscriptions). These can't be changed later.
5. Attach the plan. For subscriptions, schedule the first releases.
6. Publish the plan now or schedule it. It then appears in the widget on your site.

Best practices

• Start with one good free plan. It shows readers how planning, shopping, and cooking fit together, and it leads into your paid plans.
• Write the essays. The intro and day writeups make a plan read like something you wrote, not just a list of recipes.
• Pick a cadence you can keep. Subscribers see the update cadence, so choose one you know you can deliver.
• Reuse plans. Put strong plans in more than one product, and rotate evergreen plans into new bundles.
• Set prices in your audience's currency if it's USD, CAD, EUR, or GBP.

FAQ

Do I need my own checkout, membership plugin, or delivery system?

No. Allspice handles checkout (through Stripe), access, and the reader experience. You need a connected Stripe account for paid products.

Can one plan be in multiple products?

Yes.

Can I sell plans built from another site's recipes?

No. Plans use recipes from your own indexed library. If you run more than one site, you can choose which of your domains a plan pulls from.

Can I change a product's price?

No. Access type, price, and currency are fixed when you create the product. To change them, archive the product and create a new one.

Are payouts live?

Yes.

Is there a limit on plans or products?

There's no set limit on how many you create. The only caps are on AI drafting: up to 30 days and 21 meals per session.