February 4, 2009
cooking with my iPhone
I have limited multitasking skills; while I can juggle multiple jobs, I cannot ALSO remember to do the laundry. Or if I remember the laundry (which I only barely did this week) I forget to grocery shop.
Or, assuming I DO go to the grocery, I forget staples like bread and half and half (yes half and half is too a staple when you drink as much coffee as I do and happen to be a princess who needs her coffee to be PRECISELY the same shade as her J. Crew khaki capri pants, and you can ALL just shut the hell up right now thankyouverymuch).
Where was I? Oh right! Groceries.
When I was a kid, I remember my mother making her grocery list; she would plan her menu for the week, and then arrange the list to correspond to the various sections of the grocery (and that, my friends, is a Lost Art, I’m telling you). I have tried the menu thing, but I am hampered by two things: my husband is picky, and I like to eat the same things all the time. Mostly cheese, really.
But for some reason, my family doesn’t think that a cheese platter actually constitutes dinner, even when I do serve it with a nice pitcher of martinis. (I kid — I never make martinis by the pitcher. Only by the glass.)
Grocery shopping, for me, is really just a way to get out of the house and maybe drink coffee while it’s hot.
This year, though, I have resolved to cook more! possibly even for people who are not related to me by marriage or blood! So far, I’ve had my in-laws to dinner, which was lovely but technically doesn’t count, because they’re related (thank god).
(Oh wait I cooked for Heather! And she videotaped it! Wow that is scary.)
What I really need is some combination of meal planner and grocery list maker, something to keep me from just tossing a whole lot of cheese in my cart. And it needs to live in my handbag so that I have it with me every time I run into the grocery for bread and half and half.
I either need a very small personal assistant who will fit in my J. Crew tote, or an iPhone app, with recipes and grocery lists. Wouldn’t that be great?
Fortunately, there actually ARE apps for the iPhone that provide you with recipes AND grocery lists! I’ve been using Kraft’s iFood Assistant, which the New York Times called “the most detailed and user-friendly mobile cooking app yet.” And they’re right! The iFood Assistant comes with recipes and directions AND it uses your phone’s GPS to locate the nearest grocery, just in case you’re not sure where that is.
While I can typically find my way to the Homeland without GPS intervention, I love this app because it lets me choose a recipe, bookmark it, and then it will arrange a shopping list for me by grocery aisle. Yes, really! Just like my mom used to do it.
It’s kind of like having my mom in my handbag. Although she would probably be annoyed that I never have a tissue in there, so maybe that’s not so good.
Everything I’ve cooked so far from the iFood Assistant has been delicious. Wade’s favorite thing was the meatloaf, which was juicy and just a little spicy (it had stuffing and bar-b-que sauce in it — mmm delicious). The iFood Assistant is a little short on vegetarian recipes, but since we’re not vegetarians, that hasn’t really slowed us down any (I just feel compelled to point that out, since I know that some of you don’t eat the baby cows — okay, I don’t either but whatever).
I genuinely love, though, that I can plan my dinner (and lunch! and breakfast!) sitting in the car before I go in to the grocery, and STILL have a complete list right there on my iPhone. I am SUCH a geek.
Now if it could just remind me to get bread. And half and half! And put the laundry in the dryer. THEN it would truly be perfect.
You can get the iFood Assistant at the iPhone App Store, for ninety nine cents! Totally worth it.
Thanks to the people at Kraft for hooking me up with the Kraft iFood app.
Posted by Susan @ 8:39 pm • pretty things
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February 4th, 2009 at 10:55 pm, Tricia Says:
I have a recipe for roasted cauliflower mac and cheese- Yummy. and it has cheese in it! I’m too lazy to get it at the moment- but if you want it I’ll send it your way.
February 5th, 2009 at 7:24 am, Shannon Says:
OK, I don’t even have an iPhone, and I am bordering on technologically illiterate (note: I don’t feel technologically illiterate at all; I can use my laptop and dial my cell and I feel just FINE about the whole thing), I just have to say–
I go grocery shopping regularly but I ALWAYS forget some major staple like bread. Every single time. Also? I too consider half & half a staple, and I feel exactly the same way about my coffee as you do (and I drink way too much). Oh, and one last thing–your mom would be so proud of me: I actually make menu-driven grocery lists that are separated into the various sections of the grocery store! (But I still forget the bread.)
February 5th, 2009 at 10:59 am, Headless Mom Says:
Just so you don’t feel alone, half and half is a staple. I’ve actually gone out at 5 am to get some.
I do nothing at 5 am for anyone.
See? A staple!
February 5th, 2009 at 11:46 am, SoMo Says:
I only have one question, does the iPhone make phone calls?
February 5th, 2009 at 12:19 pm, Sue @ My Party of 6 Says:
Half and half is totally a staple. Once I used Similac (because we were also out of milk) - eww… I don’t recommend that!
Feeling like I want an iPhone now…
February 5th, 2009 at 1:31 pm, Dianna Says:
I love it! Whoever thinks of these things is a genius.
February 5th, 2009 at 2:37 pm, MamaChristy Says:
GroceryIQ for the iPhone is the BOMB. You can organize your list to fit your store! You can be like your mom without the effort or writing on the back of an envelope. AND it tells you when everything is checked off the list. If you haven’t gotten the little “Clear list?” question, you check the list again. Ta-Da! No forgotten creamer!
February 5th, 2009 at 4:26 pm, Cherylp Says:
I ABSOLUTELY believe that creamer is a STAPLE! Hello?! Who Doesn’t?
Anyways - I used to do the whole menu planning/grocery list arranged by store aisle thing on paper….consider me mildly OCD. Thank goodness for Grocery IQ! Its arranged for my store and I love it! And I never, ever, EVER forget things because it leaves a little number on its icon and its red and annoying and messes up the look of my phone(the whole OCD thing again)so I am forced to buy everything on the list!
It is SUPERB! Those IPones do everything!
(unfortunately it can not tell me where my cream Jcrew Corduroys are….they have been impossibly lost for months! Grrr…)
February 6th, 2009 at 11:13 am, Miriam Says:
I absolutely despise the menu-planning and grocery list making cycle. But, I have been using a website called thescramble.com that I absolutely love. You pay a small fee for 6 months and they e-mail you a 5-meal menu plan for the week as well as the grocery shopping list all categorized, etc. All the meals are primarily made with in season fruits & veggies and don’t rely on a lot of processed food. The foods sound gourmet, but they really are easy to make. Now it won’t fit on your phone, but I just print it out and stick it in the car for whenever I have a chance to go shopping.
February 6th, 2009 at 12:21 pm, Katy (formerly June C.) Says:
Oh my freaking God. This is amaaazing. I’ve been doing the menu thing like your mom for years, and I’ve been whining all week about how I’m OVER the monotony of domestic divaness, so you toally just tipped me into the “yes, please” section for buying an iPhone. And I’ve been hard-core against buying one until now, b/c my old phone works just fine, thank you.
Apple should be paying you a service fee, my dear.
February 6th, 2009 at 10:37 pm, Amanda C Says:
I LOVE CHEESE!! Sometimes I think I plan our meals around cheese, luckily my husband isn’t lactose intolerant or anything.
Anyway, I have to plan my grocery list by aisle or else I make at least five trips own each aisle and still forget things - then again I can’t talk on the phone and grocery shop at the same time either (I tried talking on my headset once and that didn’t even work - grocery shopping requires concentration!). My trick to not forgetting the staples (as well as the random things you need once in a great while) - I keep a running list (one of those pretty notepads attached with a magnet) on the fridge of things that I run out of or are running low. I just grab the list before I go to the store and VOILA
Otherwise, I wouldn’t realize I didn’t have any tartar sauce until I already had some fish sticks on my plate!
February 20th, 2010 at 2:42 pm, SuzieP Says:
I was cooking a meal for my other half for Valentines and came across an app called “cookit” on the iphone store. It’s pretty good and helped me with the timings when cooking the meal. My man loved it by the way!
March 10th, 2010 at 11:05 am, Friday Playdate » mmm delicious (a Twitter contest!) Says:
[…] I have to rely on my iPhone — not to cook, of course, just to help me plan. Last winter, I wrote about the Kraft iFood Assistant app – I loved it then, and I love it now. Kraft has relaunched the app, with videos, which are […]