Mealmate

Inspiration

We wanted to help college students eat healthier, save money, and reduce food waste. Often, students have random ingredients but no idea what to cook. Mealmate was designed to solve that everyday problem.

What it does

Mealmate lets users input the ingredients they have on hand, and it suggests quick, affordable, and tasty recipes. The app is designed to be simple, intuitive, and perfect for busy student life.

How we built it

We built Mealmate using JavaScript for the front end and Node.js with Express for the back end. The app connects to a recipe API and uses a MySQL database to manage user data and search history. We deployed it on Vercel.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into challenges integrating the recipe API effectively with our custom ingredient search logic. Database deployment and managing user sessions securely were also tricky at first.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud that Mealmate delivers fast, accurate recipe suggestions using a free Spoonacular API and has a clean, user-friendly interface. We also successfully implemented search history and favorite recipes features.

What we learned

We learned a lot about API integration, database management, and handling authentication. We also improved our skills in designing for usability and deploying full-stack applications.

What's next for Mealmate

Next, we plan to add a meal planner, grocery list generator, and social features so users can share recipes with friends. We also want to optimize the app for mobile use and expand the recipe database.

Built With

• css3
• javascript
• spoonacular
• vercel