the best iPhone App ever!!

Ok well maybe not the best every made but this is definitely one of the BEST apps that I have on my phone (aside from games).

I have been in a habit for a long time of keeping my recipes on my computer in a word document. If I need a new recipe I will have a friend or family member email it to me and then paste it into the every growing word document. (For those who want to know yes the document is impressively organized into different categories and subcategories that includes a table of contents). The pages eventually get printed off and added to my binder (along with any other recipes I collect).

However, I have a recurring problem of not having toner or paper in my printer (or a general desire not to walk downstairs to print the same recipe for the umpteen time).

As such my solution has been to email myself the recipe which has worked well but I figured because of the saying "well there's an app for that" there MUST be an app to keep my recipes on my iPhone. Well guess what - there is LOTS of them.

I have an entire folder devoted to cooking with the following free apps:
MyStarbucks
Jullan
Food Network
CampRecipes by Coleman
AllRecipes
RecipeFinder by McCromick

they are all really good for looking for other peoples recipes. I also purchased:

How to Cook Everything - which is amazing.

However, I still wanted something to use my own recipes so I downloaded

RecipeHolder

which is ok - it comes with a free preloaded recipes and then the ability to add your own and have your own pictures. I am not a huge fan of this app - it is good but I do not like how the instructions are on a completely different screen than the ingredients. I have also had problems add in instructions that seem to be too long for the field.

I then purchased

MealBoard


and I have to say that I LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS APP!!

I was hesitant to purchase it for $2.99 at first (ok compared to the $0.99 that most of my apps are this is expensive)

But I love it for many many reasons:

1. I can enter my recipes in online and then upload/download to my iPhone (which means that mass editing is easy!!)
2. I can use it as a meal planner and to keep my recipes which is AMAZING
3. You can create your meal plan and then have it automatically create your shopping list and then you can ADD to your shopping list the non-grocery items (e.g., toilet paper) to the list

THEN you can email the shopping list and meal plan and it is SORTED by areas in the store.

OK and you can even email recipes to friends at the click of a button.

Downside:
1. you can't add pictures (ok not huge but it would be a nice touch)
2. It doesn't cook the food for you... seriously those are the only things I do not like about the app.

I also have created a "left over" food item for nights when I plan on just having left overs and it comes preloaded with an "eating out" item so that you can load those into the meal planner. It is also very very easy to move meals from one day to the next if you need to rearrange your plans mid week..You can also plan for more than a week at a time (nice nice nice)


Truly I am in LOVE!

(i would also add that you can use this on the iPod touch and I am guessing on the iPad as well but I am not sure).

iPhone4

Well I finally have my iPhone and I have spent the last week getting all setup, down loading apps and generally playing with the phone.

I love the phone - it does everything for me except for washing the dishes. However, that being said o do have a few things that I am not a fan of on the phone.

First you should know that I primarily use my phone for work purposes but I like being able to have my personal life integrated with the phone, which brings me to the first downside.... I love that I can have multiple mail boxes on the phone and being able to send from the different email addresses. However, I hate that I can only have one email signature that is used for all of my emails. I have a work one that I MUST use so I have set that up and them just delete it on personal emails but it is still a pain.

Also the way in which the app store is managed is driving me nuts. I would love to be able to look and review the different apps using iTunes on my computer but alas it is very limiting and not intuitive like all other things apple.

I would also like to be able to cue downloads of apps. I am currently searching and downloading many apps. I do not like the fact that I have to press install and then wait for the app to install before continuing.

Last and not least you can NOT use iTunes gift cards on the Apple Canada app store - boo urns!!

Well we shall see how things go. I am contract free and I am loving that!

Achievements

Have you ever set out to achieve something in your life? Did you accomplish that goal? How did you feel when you reached that goal?

Well 11 years ago I set out to accomplish something. Over the course of 11 years that goal and the path has changed several times. I finally accomplished my goal last Thursday on June 17, 2010.

I am so excited and thrilled to have reach this point in my life but it has me wondering what now? I mean at my age I am fairly lucky, I have a wonderful daughter, a supportive husband, a home, a car and now an official professional career.

I know it sounds silly but in high school I kept a mental "check list" of things I needed have/do in order to consider myself a "success" and I bet you can guess from the previous paragraph what was on that list. As I grew older the only thing I added to the list was the opportunity to travel, as you can probably tell by my posts I also can add that to my "done" list.

But what now? I never would have thought that I would be sitting here days away from my 29th Birthday having achieved all the goals I had set out for myself.

anyways that is my thoughts for today.

Tulip

IMG_5591, originally uploaded by cs.traveler.

at the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden

little C

C - with Sky, originally uploaded by cs.traveler.

This is a picture of little C at the park today. I was talking with one of the guys around the office on friday about having a kid and how they keep reminding what really is important in life.

Today as a part of our long weekend we took c to the park for a picnic. It was tons of fun and I made sure to take LOTS of pictures.

Lose it! - my new favorite App!!

SO we have an iPod touch and I have been playing with it more lately in contemplating the move from a Blackberry to and iPhone and in the course of doing it I have been looking at apps and have found a few new ones that I really like.

I will start that I use my blackberry for many things aside from Phone calls and email. I email myself recipes, use it as my grocery list, my to-do list - you get the idea. The reason why I think I am going to love the iPhone so much is that I can do all of my usual things AND have games. Additionally - when ever I say "gee I wish there was something that did X, Y or Z" I consistently get told "there is an app for that" and well there is.

SO the long story short - I was looking for something to track my food intake, weight, and exercises and I came up with the app "Lose it" (here are some screen shots from the website)

I just love all of it - I love that you can add breakfast, lunch, supper or snacks and then go back to previous days and then just copy something

I love that you can create your own food (such as my morning smoothie) and then having there instead of having to reenter the food each time.

I LOVE that it is on my iPod and that I can literally take it anywhere with me and add what I am eating to it.

While there are some usual downsides (e.g., that it doesn't have every food in it) it is something that was very easily over come.

I can see this being a WONDERFUL tool. I know from my experience a couple of years ago the best tool that assisted in my weight loss was journaling. However, it was not something that I could realistically keep up with the method I was using (pen and note book) for long term.

This is the perfect replacement!!

The app was very simple to use - I put it my current weight, my goal weight and how much I wanted to loose each week. It then suggested a daily calorie limit. As I entered my daily food intake it would show me how many calories I had left and them take into account how calories I burnt through exercise.

I will continue to update as I use it for a longer period. For now, I only put it some test data and then todays information but I must say I love it and highly recommend it!

Orchid

IMG_6487, originally uploaded by cs.traveler.

This picture was taken in April of 2008 in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. By far this picture is one of my most favorite pictures.