Recipe Generator

A full-stack food waste reduction app that helps users turn the ingredients they already have into practical recipe ideas.

The project combines a React frontend with an Express backend to support recipe discovery, saved ingredients, bookmarks, onboarding preferences, and personalized recommendations. The goal is simple: make it easier to cook with what you already have instead of letting food go to waste.

What The App Does

Users can:

• create an account and log in
• save ingredients they currently have at home
• search a large recipe dataset
• open detailed recipe pages
• bookmark recipes they want to come back to
• get recommendations based on bookmarks and saved preferences

Features

• User authentication with signup and login
• Ingredient management for each user
• Recipe search and browsing
• Recipe detail pages
• Bookmark support
• Recommendation flow based on saved activity
• Onboarding/preferences support
• Local-first data storage using CSV and Excel files

Tech Stack

Frontend

• React
• React Router
• Axios
• CSS

Backend

• Node.js
• Express
• JWT authentication
• bcryptjs
• ExcelJS
• csv-parser

Project Structure

RecipeGenerator/
├── backend/
│   ├── controllers/
│   ├── routes/
│   ├── middleware/
│   ├── models/
│   ├── data/
│   └── server.js
├── frontend/
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── components/
│   │   ├── context/
│   │   ├── pages/
│   │   └── services/
├── package.json
└── README.md

Main Pages

Frontend pages currently include:

• Home
• Recipe Search
• Recipe Detail
• Bookmarks
• Recommendations
• Ingredients
• Login
• Signup
• Onboarding

Backend API Areas

The backend exposes route groups for:

• /api/auth
• /api/recipes
• /api/bookmarks
• /api/recommendations
• /api/ingredients

There is also a health check at:

• /api/health

How Data Is Stored

This project does not rely on MongoDB or a hosted database.

Instead, it uses local files inside backend/data/, including:

• recipes.csv for the recipe dataset
• users.xlsx for user accounts
• bookmarks.xlsx for saved recipes
• user_ingredients.xlsx for pantry items
• user_preferences.xlsx for onboarding/preferences

That makes the project lightweight and easy to run locally for demos or class/project submissions.

Run Locally

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/Sanjana-Gondariya/RecipeGenerator.git
cd RecipeGenerator

2. Install dependencies

npm run install:all

This installs:

• root dependencies
• backend dependencies
• frontend dependencies

3. Optional backend environment variables

Create a file at:

backend/.env

You can add:

PORT=5001
JWT_SECRET=your-secret-key
NODE_ENV=development

Important:

• login and signup now work locally even if JWT_SECRET is not set, because the backend includes a development fallback secret
• if you deploy the app, you should set a real JWT_SECRET

4. Start the app

Run both frontend and backend together:

npm run dev

5. Open the app

Frontend:

http://localhost:3000

Backend API:

http://localhost:5001/api

Available Scripts

From the project root:

npm run dev

Runs frontend and backend together.

npm run dev:backend

Runs only the backend server.

npm run dev:frontend

Runs only the React frontend.

npm run build

Builds the frontend for production.

npm run install:all

Installs dependencies in all project folders.

Authentication Notes

• passwords are hashed with bcryptjs
• authenticated routes use JWT tokens
• tokens are stored in localStorage on the frontend
• the frontend automatically sends the token on API requests through the shared Axios client

Notes For Reviewers

• the frontend expects the backend API on port 5001 by default
• the frontend API base URL is configurable through REACT_APP_API_URL
• the recipe dataset is loaded by the backend when the server starts
• this project is intended to be easy to run locally without extra infrastructure

Future Improvements

• deploy frontend and backend for a public live demo
• add filtering by dietary restrictions and cooking time in more places
• improve recommendation ranking
• add tests for auth and recipe search flows
• add better seed/demo data for user onboarding

Team

• Riddhi Patel
• Sanjana Gondariya