I am a recipe junkie. And the iPad is making it really easy to get my fix. Cooking’s never been more convenient. Here are my favorite apps:
EPICURIOUS
As a long time Bon Appetit subscriber, I’ve been a fan of Epicurious.com for a long time.
Pros: The Epicurious app has a lot of great features– you can browse recipe collections, search food and drink recipes by keyword, save recipes and add items to your shopping list. The app also has a great “cooking-friendly view” that makes it easy to follow a recipe while you’re cooking.
Cons: The app can be buggy. When making selections of ingredients (see screenshot above) I often can’t delete items once selected. There’s also some heavy advertising built in to the free app. Reading through other user’s reviews, an ad-free paid app would be a great option.
BIG OVEN
BigOven’s iPad app consistently makes “best of” lists and it’s easy to see why. Browse over 170,000 recipes from BigOven.com and sync your grocery list. Like many cooking apps, this one’s built to be used while cooking. And, you can find new recipes by title, keyword, username, course or ingredient. With a free BigOven.com account you can take and upload photos, save your Favorites and share recipes instantly by email, Facebook and Twitter. With a Pro membership you can import your own recipes (iPad 2), edit recipes and create a grocery list. A Pro account also allows you to store your recipes privately and remove all ads; a single membership covers all platforms.
WEIGHT WATCHERS KITCHEN COMPANION
The Weight Watchers Kitchen Companion app gives some great ideas for what to cook and how to cook it. Each recipe is assigned a WW points value, making it easy to stick to the plan. Anyone can access the ten latest featured recipes and save up to ten favorite recipes. Subscribers to Weight Watchers Online & eTools can also:
• Search through thousands of Weight Watchers recipes
• Access complete shopping, ingredient and equipment guides
• Get cooking primers and technique videos
• View exclusive recipe collections hand-picked by our editors
• Use the WeightWatchers.com Recipe Builder to create and edit recipes
• Send recipes to your Plan Manager for tracking
WHOLE FOODS MARKET RECIPES
The Whole Foods app makes it easy to cook healthy food. You can search recipes by ingredients and dietary preferences such as gluten-free, low fat, and vegetarian/vegan. Every recipe includes nutritional information and cooking instructions. You can also enter up to 3 items you have on hand to find recipes using those ingredients.
Add ingredients to your Shopping List from a recipe automatically, including quantities so you don’t buy too much. You can also add items by hand, edit, rearrange, and send your list via email.
