Feasting on Apps

Sorry to those of you looking for something along the lines of pigs in a blanket, this is not the post for you. We're talking about iPhone Apps here my friends.

Finally said buh-bye to my BlackBerry and got in iPhone this summer. I'm in love. A month later I've finally got the hang of the touchscreen and what not.

Getting fun, free/nearly free apps is the highlight of the phone for me. I love them. Here are some food related apps I think you'll enjoy. While I've linked to the iTunes store many of these apps have a Droid app which you can find on their main website, also linked here.

UrbanSpoon
Cost: Free! Category: Travel
Web: UrbanSpoon.com
Pick the neighborhood, cuisine and price point you'd like, shake your iPhone and ta-da UrbanSpoon has found you a restaurant

Open Table
Cost: Free! Category: Travel
Web: OpenTable.com
Make instant reservations at over 15,000 OpenTable-enabled restaurants in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom. Earn points each time you make a res. which can be redeemed for a dining coupon.

Epicurious Recipes & Shopping List
Cost: Free! Category: Lifestyle
Web: Epicurious.com
Browse through the extensive list of recipes. Sort by meal, cuisine, main ingredient as well as other choices. Create a shopping list based on the recipe. Save favorite recipes from app and website.

Grocery Store IQ
Cost: Free! Category: Lifestyle
Web: GroceryStoreIQ.com
This amazes me. Scan the barcode of grocery store items and this app will find it in their system and add it to a shopping list. You can email the shopping list to yourself or I don't know, your husband perhaps :) ? I want to go all around my kitchen and scan everything! No more forgotten items because I left my list on the coffee table.

Fooducate
Cost: Free! Category: Lifestyle & Fitness
Web: Fooducate.com
Just downloaded this today and I can tell it will be Life.Changing.
Fooducate uses the same barcode scanning technology (amazing!) as Grocery Store IQ but goes a step further. It gives you a letter rating of the item (A, B+, C-, etc) and calorie information. Then, the best part!!!, alternatives and an option to compare items. So for example my regular box of pasta got a B+ rating so my alternatives were whole wheat options rated As. Reminds me of the book Eat This, Not That...

Grocery IQ & Fooducate obviously require a little bit of time to get started and while you're grocery shopping. For me, the scanning part is so fun I don't mind the added time. I think I'll love grocery shopping even more with these 2 apps.

Got any favorite apps to share?

xo,

Michelle