The Top 10 Apps For Cooking With Ingredients You Have On Hand
Good or bad, wanted or unwanted — our lives have changed. A major area of change is food preparation. My husband and I used to eat out a lot. We used to be at our grandchildren’s sporting events on weekday afternoons. No time to cook there; eating out was a must. Even when we were at home, we might look in the refrigerator and not see anything to cook. Another eating out opportunity!
But COVID-19 has changed all that. No excuses. I had to cook more. Fast food drive-thru eating can get boring quickly, not to mention how unhealthy that can be. But I still look in the refrigerator and ask myself what do I cook for dinner? (And now, that includes breakfast and lunch!)
So I researched apps that would give me recipe ideas based on the ingredients I have on hand. One or more of these could help solve that staring into the refrigerator paralysis. These are the top 10 apps based on consumer ratings. I only included apps that were available for download on both IOS and Android devices.
Even though the apps were presented in order of user ratings, their value depends on the needs of the user. The ninth app listed might be more useful to the user than the number one rated app.
All of the apps reviewed allow the user to search for recipes based upon ingredients on hand and generate grocery lists. However, each delivers a different food preparation experience. A summary of what might be most important to a user and the app to choose follows:
· For customizing the entire food preparation process from searching for recipes, creating a cookbook of saved recipes, generating grocery lists based on recipes, shopping for groceries and having groceries delivered (only by Walmart) — choose TASTY
· For starting with the main ingredient to search recipes resulting in beautifully detailed instructions for cooking — choose EPICURIOUS
· For creating a personalized cookbook and publishing to a community of like-minded individuals — choose KITCHEN STORIES
· For a broad and varied way to filter recipes based on ingredients and different combinations of ingredients — choose SUPERCOOK
· For “foodies” who follow food blogs — choose YUMMLY
· For specific food diets based on nutritional needs — choose SIDECHEF
· For recipes based on utilizing leftovers — choose BIG OVEN
· For a social experience that includes sharing and chatting about recipes and cooking — choose COOKPAD
· For a personalized file of recipes that continually responds to your personal preferences and previous choices — choose ALLRECIPES
· For a more automated family-inclusive process from selecting a recipe to grocery shopping — choose RECIPE TO TABLE
The best way to select an app that fits your cooking preferences and lifestyle is to download ones that sound like they would work for you and try them out. And there may be other apps that would be more appropriate for your circumstances. If you find yourself cooking more than ever before and need to get out of the rut of preparing the same things over and over, a food app might be your solution.
This article was previously published on my blog HER Life Hacks at https://herlifehacks.com/10-best-apps-for-cooking-with-ingredients-on-hand/
I’m Vicki Peel, a retired educator, proud grandmother, and blogger. As a former high school home economics teacher, I started H.E.R. Life Hacks to share my expertise in areas of home-style, lifestyle, and food. H.E.R. stands for Home Economics Reimagined
You can download the cooking apps chart here: https://vickiloves.me/AppsIngredients
