Yesterday I told you that I have a ton of recipes (no surprise, I’m sure) and that I decided I wanted “an app for that” and what I was looking for in an app. (This article will make more sense if you go back and read that one first.)
What’d I find?
After paying for the one that had no trial (Ouch!), that I like a lot of features on but it doesn’t have the customization I need, I went back to one that I really liked when I was using trial versions. But it doesn’t have ability to add new info on the iPhone and iPad versions–which are 2 different apps to pay for. Again, double Ouch! I hate paying for things double, triple–5 different apps! It was really hard to decide as various ones had various features, but no one app had all of them. So I had to work on trade-offs.
The app that had the most features for doing what I want on the computer is MacGourmet. So I went with it (as my second, make that third, paid recipe management app.) The Meal Planner, Nutritional Info, and a Cookbook Builder are “add-ons” to it; or come all together as MacGourmet Deluxe. (So glad I got a free gift card to the App Store.)
In MacGourmet, I LOVE the ease of adding recipes that are already on my computer or online. Just utilize “Services” to clip and add, making it very easy to put the right info in the right place in the template. I LOVE the ease of putting together Meal Plans–just drag ‘n drop.
Some of the added features, that I wasn’t looking for but are nice, are:
- I can add pictures, not only of the finished product, but also of each step of preparation, if I want. I’m REALLY glad it has this feature.
- I can mark equipment needed for preparing the recipe.
- I can divide out prep times as needed.
- I can add notes–including pics.
- I can divide out the recipe ingredients into groups, such as salad and dressing, or a sauce to be added, or layers, etc.
- I can rank recipes, and note if I’ve prepared them or not. (Good for having a category of “want to try”.)
- I can even export the recipes and import them to the other app I bought. 🙂 (But sadly, not vice versa.)
One of my FAVORITE features is Relationships Manager. I can add Relationships between recipes. Each recipe that has “Relationships”, such as is served with, or needs another recipe to complete this one, includes links to the other Related recipes. This is great for things like: Ranch Valley Dressing calls for homemade Mayonnaise (recipe linked). Or Chicken ‘n Noodles linked to the Noodle recipe. Or Salads linked to their best Dressing recipe. Or even “serve with”. I LOVE this unexpected feature!
I have loved quickly adding most of my own recipes that are on my computer or online. And quickly adding new recipes I find online that I’d like to try. I’ve also added several of our family favorites that from recipe cards. Adding all the recipes we prepare, that are in cookbooks or on cards, will take quite some time. But I’m thinking it’s a project for children and teens that need typing practice. 🙂
What don’t I like? If I only wanted a computer app, I don’t think I’d be unhappy about anything about MacGourmet. BUT… A key thing for me was having cross platform apps, so I could add recipes or make meal plans on my mobile devices when I wasn’t at my computer, and so I could take everything with me to the kitchen or the store.
The other app I bought does allow this, but doesn’t have the customizable features. So at this point there is not a good app group (computer and mobile) for just what I’m looking for. But I’m happy with the computer version of MacGourmet, and hoping the mobile versions have some updates in the future to allow more versatility.
More to come on the other apps I bought – and the mobile MacGourmet ones, if I decide to give them a try, even with their low reviews and the above drawback.
