Project Story

About the Project

The idea for this project came from a very simple daily problem: standing in the kitchen, having ingredients at home, but no idea what to cook. I wanted to build an app that solves exactly this — fast, intuitive, and personalized.

The inspiration was to combine AI-powered recipe generation with diet preferences like keto, vegan, vegetarian, or gluten-free, while also allowing users to track what they actually cook and eat in a personal diary. The goal was not just inspiration, but long-term value.

What I Learned

Throughout this project, I learned a lot about:

• Designing a clear and simple user flow for AI-driven features
  
• Integrating the OpenAI API in a meaningful, user-focused way
  
• Implementing subscriptions with RevenueCat
  
• Balancing free vs. premium features to keep the app useful and sustainable
  
• Thinking more deeply about UX, ASO, and monetization early in development
  

How I Built It

The app is built with React Native using Expo and TypeScript.
Key components include:

• An AI-powered assistant that generates recipes based on ingredients and preferences
  
• A structured recipe output with step-by-step instructions
  
• A diary feature to save meals with time, notes, and optional images
  
• A subscription system to unlock unlimited recipe generation
  

The backend logic is kept lightweight, focusing on fast responses and a smooth mobile experience.

Challenges I Faced

One of the biggest challenges was defining where to limit free usage without hurting the user experience. Another challenge was making AI-generated content feel reliable, consistent, and easy to follow.

Handling subscriptions across platforms, edge cases in the user flow, and keeping the UI clean while offering flexibility were also key challenges — but solving them helped me grow a lot as a developer.

Overall, this project pushed me to think not just like a developer, but like a product builder.

Built With

• ai
• css
• expo.io
• firebase
• openai
• revenuecat
• typescript