everyday food app is a good thing!

This photo was taken grocery shopping with Owen on my new iPod Touch. This is my first experience with mobile wireless anything - so it's a big jump forward for me - and I LOVE IT! The reason I'm blogging about it is because I can now take advantage of apps! So the first one I downloaded was the Martha Stewart Everyday Food app. 

Where was this for the past 9 months?! My life could have been so much easier with this because a good portion of her recipes are available on it and it automatically creates grocery lists based on your chosen recipes. I don't know how many times I found myself running over to Fresh Co just to buy one single item because I hadn't coordinated my list properly. Furthermore, my handwritten lists were always on Hello Kitty note pads, so Nuno wasn't exactly enthusiastic to shop from them. 

I gave this app a test run this week and it was everything I imagined. My list was pretty much automatically generated when I chose my 3 Martha Stewart dinners this week. From there, I added a few extra items we needed. Then I went through and modified the list based on what we already had in the pantry and fridge - which was very quick and simple compared to my lists which get scratched and rewritten several times during the week. 

When it came time to shop I felt so techie walking up and down the aisles checking off each item. I don't know if people thought I was playing games and ignoring my baby in front of me while recklessly scooting around the store. Which brings me to the only drawback of this way of shopping - the iPod is particularly interesting to one year olds. Steering a grocery buggy with a curious boy and an iPod in hand is a disaster waiting to happen. Luckily I developed a technique of slipping it in my coat pocket between items, which sort of helped. 

This app is useful because it now changes the way I cook. I'm able to cook straight from the iPod instead of the magazine or book. I'm geeky, and I hate splashing food or creasing the seam of my books. I just have to be careful I don't drop the iPod down the chute of my food processor. It has also come in handy because it shows all of our dinners for the week and with photos it helps us decide what we want to eat based purely on what looks like something we'd like to eat for dinner.

I'm in the process of starting a ziplist.com account to further coordinate my lists because this app works with this site. I have yet to try the barcode scan feature but I like the idea of it. There is also a grocery store feature which locates the closest stores based on your location - but it's quite dated (it told me that there are several Commisso's near me - a now defunct chain). 

This app has made me curious to try other lifestyle apps. I might try out the Food Network app as well and compare it against MS's. If anyone out there has any recommendations of suggestions on apps please let me know.