Living Cookbook 2011 Review

For the last several months I have been scouring the Internet in search of a good recipe database tool. I am happy to report that I have finally found one that I am very happy with. Although its not the online accessible, anywhere tool I was looking for, it does have almost every other option that I wanted including a great interface and ease of use. The app I chose is called Living Cookbook 2011 and here are the features that won me over.

Pro's

• Easy to use - I was able to get up and running very quickly with this app which makes it a huge plus. I also want my entire family to be able to use it so a steep learning curve would have been a big turn off for them.


• Easy to add ingredients and directions - LC2011 has a great feature that allows me to copy and paste an entire recipe into it and then tag the the specific parts that make up the recipe. Some of the other programs I looked into required me to enter each ingredient manually. I don't have time for that!


• Nutritional data - Since I am huge fan of nutritional facts, it's only natural that I choose an app that has the ability to pull the nutritional data from any recipe within its database.


• Shopping list functionality - What is a great recipe database app without the ability to create shopping lists from the recipes you choose to make? Fortunately for me, Living Cookbook has this feature.


• Calendar functionality - Planning a week's worth of meals can be tough. The application makes it easy with its built in calendar that is capable of separating meals out for each day. Plan a week and then export those meals to your shopping lists.


• Huge database of recipes - Living Cookbook comes with a huge assortment of recipes already in its database.  Huge plus!

Cons

• Cost - Currently I am using a version which has a limited 30 day trial attached to it. Once the trial is over, I will need to spring the $34 dollars to actually obtain a license key to use it. $34 is actually pretty reasonable compared to some of the other apps I have seen out there. I also like the fact that I was able to try before I buy. Some other apps don't have that option. I don't know about most people, but I always like to test out software before I purchase it.

RecipFox

One of the coolest things I have found to help me import recipes into Living Cookbook is a FireFox extension called Recipfox. It allows me to export recipes I find on the Internet directly into Living Cookbook. For sites that recipefox recognizes, it can import the entire recipe with one click. That tool alone has made Living Cookbook something I cannot do without. I am constantly finding great recipes online and it was always a burden to try and copy and paste those recipes to a word doc or Onenote app. This little FireFox extension makes all the unnecessary work...well unnecessary.

In conclusion, if you are looking for a recipe database that can do it all, is easy to use, provides great nutritional stats, and is a lot of fun to use,  then look no further than Living Cookbook 2011.