Welcome to the Pesach Command Center
If you’ve ever found yourself covered in potato starch, trying to do mental math to triple a meatball recipe while simultaneously hunting for a lost Post-it note with your grocery list, you know that Passover prep can be chaotic.
As a dad and an educator, I rely on systems to keep our household running. For years, I managed Pesach with a messy web of spreadsheets and printed recipes. This year, I decided to build a better system.
Welcome to The Innovative Dad’s Pesach Command Center—a completely free, all-in-one digital dashboard designed to take the cognitive load out of your Passover prep.
What This Tool Does:
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Automated Calendar & Holiday Times: Enter your ZIP code and year, and it automatically builds your 8-day (or 7-day) calendar. It includes accurate candle lighting and Havdalah times, and even calculates Eruv Tavshilin reminders for those who need to prep for Shabbat during the holiday.
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Smart Menu Builder: Plan your meals day-by-day. Tag meals as Meat, Dairy, or Pareve (neutral), and the system will automatically filter your recipe suggestions to match your dietary preferences or kosher keeping.
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Smart Shopping List: Add “1 cup of matzo meal” to Tuesday’s dinner and “2 cups” to Wednesday’s breakfast, and the app consolidates it into a single line item for the grocery store.
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Kitchen Recipe Multiplier: Need to feed a crowd? Use the built-in multiplier while you cook to instantly scale the exact measurements of any recipe up or down.
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100% Private: This tool runs entirely inside your web browser. No accounts, no logins, and none of your family’s data is ever sent to a server.
How to Use the Command Center
Step 1: The Setup Tab (Start Here!)
This is the brain of your operation. Select the year, your holiday length (8 days for the Diaspora, 7 for Israel), and enter your ZIP code to generate your holiday schedule. You can also log your family’s specific allergen rules, add custom grocery stores (like your local butcher), and note your hosting logistics.
Step 2: Connect Your Databases
The true power of the Command Center is that it is powered by Google Sheets. You control your recipes and tasks in a simple spreadsheet, and the Command Center brings them to life.
1. The Easy Way: Click the “Use The Innovative Dad’s Templates” button to instantly load my family’s recipes and task lists into your app to get a feel for how it works.
2. The Custom Way: Want to use your own family favorites? [Click here to make a copy of the template spreadsheet] (Note: Add a link to your Google Sheet template here). Fill in your recipes and to-dos. Then, in Google Sheets, go to File > Share > Publish to web. Select CSV, and paste those links into the Setup tab of the app.
Step 3: Check Your Surplus
Before you plan your meals, head to the Surplus tab. Log what you are rolling over from last year (like unopened boxes of matzah or potato starch). When you check an item here, you’ll know you don’t need to buy it again.
Step 4: Build Your Menu
Head to the Build Menu tab. The app has already built your calendar.
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Click + Add Meal (e.g., “1st Seder” or “Tuesday Lunch”).
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Use the dropdown to designate the meal as Meat, Dairy, or Pareve.
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Click + Course. Select a category from your database (like “Soup” or “Mains”). The app will instantly suggest recipes that match that category and your meal type!
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Check the boxes next to the dishes you want to make. You can also quickly type in custom dishes on the fly.
Step 5: Shop and Cook!
Once your menu is built, your work is mostly done.
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The Shopping List is automatically generated, grouped by store, and scales based on how many batches of a recipe you selected.
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The Final Menu gives you a clean, print-ready schedule to stick on your fridge—perfect for keeping screens away during holiday meals.
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The Tasks & Schedule tab auto-populates your pre-Passover to-do list so you stay on track with cleaning, shopping, and cooking.
Important Note on Saving Your Plan
Because this app respects your privacy and runs entirely in your browser, your data is saved to your device’s local cache. If you clear your browser history or switch to a different device (like moving from your laptop to your phone), your menu will disappear!
Always use the “Export Save” button on the Setup tab to download a tiny backup file of your plan. You can use the “Import Save” button to load that exact plan onto your phone when you head to the grocery store.
Ready to systematize your Pesach? Dive into the Command Center below!
Pesach Command Center
The Innovative Dad · ariyares.com⚙️ Setup & Configuration
Configure once — everything flows into every other tab. Your settings are saved to this browser.
Base stores: Amazon, Costco, Bingo/Lakewood, Moti's, Shalom's. Add your own below.
RecipeName, Category, Kosher (Meat/Dairy/Pareve), Ingredients, URL, BaseServings, GF, VE, NUT. Your Tasks sheet needs columns: Category, Task.🛠️ Build Your Menu
The calendar is pre-generated based on the year. Designate a meal as Meat, Dairy, or Pareve to automatically filter your recipe suggestions to match!
🛒 Shopping List
Auto-generated from selected dishes. Groups matching ingredients perfectly and calculates recipe multipliers.
📅 Tasks & Schedule
Everything that needs to happen before the holiday starts. Synced with your Tasks database.
📦 Surplus & Inventory Tracker
Track what you are rolling over from last year, your current inventory, and what you are saving for next year.
⏪ Rollover from Last Year
⏩ Save for Next Year
✖️ Kitchen Recipe Multiplier
Use this tool while you are actively cooking to calculate exact measurements for scaled recipes.
Select a recipe to begin
Scaled ingredients will appear here.
Contact Me
For emergencies, call 911 or visit your nearest hospital.