Embodiments provide a generative group-based meal planning system and method for the creation of candidate meal plans based upon a pre-selected list of ingredients. The meal planning system can create parent meal plans based upon one or more recipes having one or more of the pre-selected ingredients. Child meal plans can be created by the random crossing of the recipes contained in the parent meal plans. The child meal plans can be scored against a genetic algorithm, such as a fitness function, which takes into consideration cost of ingredients, waste, flavor compatibility, preparation time, and ingredient shelf life. The meal planning system can utilize a cognitive system with natural language processing abilities to generate new recipes based off of waste or flavor compatibility. The child meal plans having the highest fitness score can be used as the parent meal plans in the next iteration of analysis. After a pre-determined number of iterations, a candidate meal plan can be output by the system.