Save your favourite meals once, with costs, allergens and method, ready to plan on any week.
Childminders who cook the same favourite meals regularly. Needs the Standard plan or a free trial. It takes about three minutes a recipe.
Save a recipe once in your Meal Library, with its cost, allergens and method, and you can pick it for any meal on any week.
Open the Tools tab, choose Menu Planner, and tap the book icon at the top. Search your recipes with Search meals..., filter by category, or sort by A–Z, Popular or Recent.
Tap +. Enter the Meal Name and choose a category, like Lunch. You can add a photo of the dish, which parents see on the published menu.
Tap Auto-fill Ingredients & Steps to have KinderAssist suggest the ingredients and method from the name (this uses KinderAssist credits).
Enter a rough cost per portion. The Menu Planner uses it to estimate your weekly food budget and the shopping list total.
Tap Add for each ingredient, enter its name and quantity, and tap each allergen it contains, like dairy or eggs. The planner uses these to warn you when a meal doesn't suit a child's allergies.
Tap Add Step for each step of the method, then tap Create Template.
Tap a recipe to see its ingredients, allergens and method on one card. Use the portion buttons to scale the quantities, and tap Edit Recipe to change it. KinderStart also flags foods that are a choking risk for young children, like whole grapes.
Turn on
Share with Early Years Communityand add a short description, and other childminders can find your recipe and save a copy. Your business name isn't shown.
Allergens are tagged on each ingredient, not typed as a note, so every menu, diary entry and kitchen sheet that uses the recipe can check them for you.
Next guide
Finding recipes from other childminders
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KinderStart strives for accuracy. Competitor features and pricing comparisons are based on publicly available information as of May 2026. Details are subject to change by respective providers.