Review: Appetite – Your recipe, meal and grocery list manager

Developer: SimpleLeap Software LLC

[Rating: 9]

Cost: $9.99 at the Berryreview Store

I know that this application has been out there for a bit and there have been a few reviews done on it already, but for what it’s worth, I wanted to give it a try myself. I love to cook and pretty much do so almost every night of the week. I’m not just talking about hamburgers and hot dogs here. My husband works in construction and I have 3 kids (2 of which are growing boys) so that just wouldn’t do. No, I have to be creative and yet, with my busy schedule, I admit keeping track of recipes and shopping lists can sometimes be hard.

Enter Appetite…the Blackberry application that not only handles your recipes, but also helps you keep your shopping lists for them in perfect order.

Getting this application up and running was easy. Immediately upon opening the app, you come to a main screen (shown below left) that is pretty simple and direct. From there you can select from the four icons ‘My Recipes’, ‘Get Recipes’, ‘Grocery Lists’ and ‘Ingredients’. My first move was to the ‘Get Recipes’ section to see from what sites I would be able to download recipes. First is Appetite’s own recipe website where you can choose from a fairly large selection of recipes, from appetizers to desserts (shown below right). You can also open an account on their site and upload your own recipes to share. There is a bit of a process to get it fully submitted (information has to be entered just so), but once it is entered, it automatically sets the recipe up for you in Appetite’s easy to use format. Aside from that channel, there are 3 other channels from which you can download recipes: ‘Skin Care Recipes’, ‘Make Life Delicious’ and ‘Top Secret Recipes’. However, there isn’t much in any of these sites so you’ll probably be sticking with Appetite’s site for a bit.

From there you can browse the recipes by category. I decided on seafood. Something with shrimp and pasta. Ahh found it! Shrimp Linguine… Hmmmm… Select ‘Download Recipe’. With a click of the application button I can select a variety of options. ‘View in Step Mode’ (for easy, step-by-step instructions), ‘View Picture’ (if there is one), ‘Make Grocery List’ (from there it actually formulates a shopping list of items needed based on the recipe as well as a few other options). All very neat.

There are other features of this application, some of which are listed in the product description below:

Features:

• 52 Recipe Categories
• Merge grocery lists together
• Add and edit recipe categories to fit your preferences
• View photos of each recipe (when available)
• Add photos to your recipes online or on your phone
• Create recipes on your phone or download them to your phone
• Loads of presets, including pre-installed common cooking measurements
• Share recipes with friends, family, and other Appetite users
• View recipe cook time, preparation time, and recipe rating
• View recipes in “step mode”, for easy readability
• Automatically create grocery lists from recipes
• Create and share grocery lists on your phone
• Thousands of ingredients already stored on your phone

My only ‘con’ about this application, and the reason I gave didn’t give it a ten star rating, is that I wish there were more sites for downloading recipes. At the moment, there is really only one, Appetite’s. Actually, I wish I could download recipes from ANY site. However, I am hoping at the very least that more recipe sites will be added to really ‘spice’ things up a bit.

All in all, Appetite is a pretty nice and convenient application that allows you to find a recipe, download it for later use AND formulate an easy list of items so you can quickly get what you need at the market on your way home. Now all you have to do is actually cook. 🙂