Every few weeks I used to run an archaeology dig in my own fridge. Bottom drawer: half a zucchini, going soft. A bag of spinach, bought with the best intentions two Saturdays ago. Something that was once a lemon. I build a shopping list app for a living — an app that knows exactly what I bought and when — and I was still composting my groceries. That felt less like bad luck and more like a bug.
So the latest Listo has a feature I've wanted since the day I started: Use it up. It looks at what you've bought, guesses what's probably still sitting in your kitchen, and suggests real recipes built around exactly those things. Not "browse 10,000 recipes" — dinner ideas anchored to the food you already paid for.
From “what do we need” to “what do we have”
Every list app, mine included, has spent its whole life on one question: what do we need to buy? But the moment groceries land in the fridge, they fall off the radar — and a third of what households buy ends up thrown away. Listo already has the missing piece: your purchase history. If you bought spinach twelve days ago and haven't bought it since, odds are it's either eaten… or waiting.
That's what the Use it up card on your lists screen does: it quietly surfaces the groceries most likely to be lingering — bought a while ago, not replaced since. The same purchase-history brain that powers restock suggestions, pointed in the opposite direction: instead of “you're probably out of milk”, it says “you probably still have that cabbage”.
Tick, tweak, cook
Tap the card and you get a checklist pre-filled with those candidates. Tick what you actually have — the app guesses, you decide. Adjust amounts the lazy way (“a little”, “some”, “plenty”) or the precise way: type “1 egg” and the recipes will genuinely respect that you have exactly one egg. Add anything the list doesn't know about, and — my favorite part — leave a note in plain language: no mushrooms, something quick, kid-friendly. Then ask for recipes.
The first ideas arrive in seconds; more brew in the background while you read. Don't like them? “More recipes” never repeats anything you've already seen. Found a keeper? Bookmark it — it lands under Saved recipes in the menu — or share it as plain text to anyone, no app required on their end.
Honest print, before you preheat anything
Use it up is part of Listo Premium, alongside receipt scanning and voice input — recipe generation runs on serious AI, and serious AI costs real money per request. It needs an internet connection for that step. On a fresh install the pre-filled list will be thin — the feature gets sharper as your purchase history grows, and until then you can simply type in what's in your fridge. And the recipes themselves are honest home cooking: reliable, seasoned, doable on a Tuesday — not a tasting menu.
Try it
- Update Listo and look for the Use it up card on your lists screen.
- Tick what you have, fix the amounts (“1 egg” works), and add a note like no mushrooms or something quick.
- Get recipes, cook one, and bookmark the keepers — they live in Saved recipes, on your phone only, shareable as text.
It works in all ten of Listo's languages — I've been testing it in Romanian with notes like “fără ciuperci”, and the recipes obey. If it ever suggests something absurd with your one egg and half a zucchini, I want to hear about it: support@rolisto.com. I read every message, and half of Listo's best behavior started as one of them.
— Andrei