I still remember back when my mother used to prepare a meal. Whenever she wanted to try something new, she’d reach out for one of her gigantic cookbooks and spend about half an hour going through the recipes until she finally decided what she wanted (and could) prepare. She genuinely enjoyed doing that and when I moved out, I bought my own cookbooks hoping to do the same. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm got crushed by the lack of time and will to prepare something new. So I did like everyone else, either prepare something I already knew or order.
But recently, I wanted to expand my cooking menu but I needed a way to make it a bit more efficient – at least time wise. This made me search for cooking apps and naturally, with just a few clicks I discovered too many to choose. Apps with supposed easy dinner recipes, easy chicken recipes, easy crockpot recipes and so on. They were all supposedly “easy”, but the few I initially tried didn’t really have what I was looking for and the search alone took more time than I’d prefer.
But what could I do but search more? Upon more endless research, I stumbled upon a website that lists the supposed best 10 apps and provides a nice amount of info on each one. This made me sigh in relief and I was able to pick three apps I thought were good. So here I am now with my review of the top 3 apps.
Yummly – Organize Your Cooking in a Fun Way
Since YUmmly was on the top of the list, I had to try it out. And fortunately, the app solved one of the initial problems I had with the previous ones – grocery lists. Although it might not be important to some people, I simply like how with one tap on the recipe, the app automatically generates a shopping list for that specific meal. Also, since one of the reasons I decided to do this was to improve my health, I was pleasantly surprised to discover the app also has a nice feature to customize your diet. You can even pick a specific diet and filter only the meals that fit the category. Also, the overall design is user-friendly and fun to use.
But, although the design would make you think it’s a polished app, I did occasionally run into some bugs. Sometimes the app would say I need to connect to the Internet although I was clearly online. So I’d refresh and refresh until I finally managed to read the recipe. It didn’t happen often, but it did a couple of times in my one month of usage. So just a small heads up.
Cookpad – Turn Meals You Don’t Like Into Something Awesome
Cookpad has a lot of similarities to other apps like creating your own cookbook, sharing recipes, images and so on. But one thing that stands out to me is the ability to find alternative versions of a recipe. For example, I’m not much of an egg guy, but oddly enough I enjoy a good omelet as long as I can’t taste eggs – which I know, sound extremely weird. So what Cookpad allows you to do is to find alternative versions to a meal. In my case, it obviously didn’t find an omelet recipe doesn’t have eggs, but it did suggest recipes that include ingredients that “smoothen” the taste of eggs. So now, I’m preparing different kinds of omelets every other day and enjoying the minimal egg taste.
One thing I did notice about this one is that it has fewer recipes than Yummly. It didn’t bother me personally, but someone who’s a more “advanced” cook, might get a bit disappointed. There’s definitely a lot to choose from and it might be just the way the recipes are organized, but they did feel more “average”. Still, if you’re a simple person like me, you’ll definitely find almost everything you need with this one.
Tasty – Recipes From Around the World
I know I said I’m a simple person, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like to eat something different occasionally. That’s where my third app, Tasty, comes in. I like how the app’s UI makes it easy to discover recipes from Asia, Europe, Africa, the Americas and so on. They even have this funny filters like “recipes for a date” which was extremely funny to browse through. Overall, I like the accessibility the app provides. Finally, if you’re more into videos, step-by-step video guides are professionally made and are easy to follow. What I’d usually do is turn my tablet in landscape and simply have the video run on my kitchen table. It does get a bit messy when you need to pause, but since the videos are easy to follow, it didn’t bother me much.
The only thing I don’t like about the videos is that some recipes are stuffed into a single video. So if I want to prepare the one that’s somewhere in the middle, I have to browse until I get to that specific video time. They are all connected thematically, but it would be much better if they are all individual videos or design it so it’s easier to skip to what you want.
Conclusion
For the conclusion, I want to mention I’m an average person when it comes to food. I don’t have any specific food I highly prefer like meat-only or vegetarian. So I apologize if I didn’t include any diet-specific apps. What I can recommend is to check out the list I used for the article so I’ll share the link.
If you’re looking for something specific, I think you’ll be able to find there. Also, don’t be afraid to let me know if you find any app you really like. I’d love to test out more and expand my cooking skills because, in the last month, I manage to find some enjoyment in the whole process. So yeah, just hit me up with awesome recipes and apps. Enjoy and have a nice meal.
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