Recipe & How-To Content Series Planner

Example output

Content series plan — Rowan's Kitchen, "5-Minute Weeknight" series

Series identity
Name direction: "5-Minute Weeknight" or "Rowan's 5" — short, states the promise (speed) directly, and is easy to say out loud in a hook. Avoid a cute name that hides the promise; "5-minute" is doing real work as a viewer filter, since it tells someone scrolling exactly what they're about to get before they commit to watching.

Episode structure, repeats every time
0-2s: hook naming tonight's dinner and the 5-minute promise.
2-5s: the "before" — a quick shot of the raw ingredients, always the same visual rhythm so it becomes recognizable.
5-20s: the cook, sped up, sauce going in at a consistent beat so viewers start to anticipate it.
20-25s: the plate, a bite, a one-line verdict.
25-28s: on-screen text naming the exact sauce and a "save this for later" CTA.
Consistent structure matters more than variety here — the repetition is what makes it a series instead of five unrelated videos.

Episode rotation, first 6 episodes given a 2-week batch cadence
1. Garlic Herb Simmer Sauce — one-pan chicken and rice.
2. Spicy Arrabbiata — 5-minute shrimp pasta.
3. Coconut Curry Simmer Sauce — veggie and tofu skillet.
4. Garlic Herb again, different protein — white bean and sausage skillet. Repeating a top-performing sauce with a new protein is deliberate; it lets you see which sauce is actually driving saves without introducing a new variable every time.
5. Smoky Chipotle Simmer Sauce — steak strips and rice bowl.
6. Viewer-request episode — hold this slot open and ask your audience in episode 5's caption which sauce-and-protein combo to cook next, converting passive viewers into part of the series.

Platform pacing
TikTok and Reels: post the sped-up cook version natively to each, same length, 25-28 seconds — don't stretch it for Reels just because Instagram sometimes rewards longer.
Consider a slower-paced "director's cut" version, 45-60 seconds, unhurried, as a secondary post on Instagram only, for viewers who want to actually follow the technique rather than just watch the montage — a different job for a different sub-audience.

Batching plan given the 2-week cadence
Since you're batching every 2 weeks, film 2 episodes per session, not 1 — this builds a 1-episode buffer so a bad batch day doesn't leave you scrambling to post on schedule. Shoot all the "before" ingredient shots for both episodes back-to-back, then both cooks, then both plates; batching by shot type across episodes is faster than finishing one episode fully before starting the next.

Launch sequence
Episode 1 should over-explain the format slightly more than later episodes — tell viewers explicitly that every week you're cooking a 5-minute dinner with this sauce, so they understand it's a series worth following, not a one-off. By episode 3, drop the explanation; the structure itself should now be doing that work through repetition.

Assumption to validate: this plan assumes a consistent posting day works better than scattered timing for building series recognition — worth confirming against your own audience's typical active times before locking the schedule.

Want me to write the full episode 1 script, shot by shot?