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plllog

Do any of you use MealBoard (app)? I just got it and love it.

plllog
4 years ago

I've looked at a lot of recipe, meal planning and entertaining apps, but I don't want a big commitment to making an app a way of life. I just want to be able to cook from my iPad. I used to do it all on my desktop computer and make and print lists, but I've replaced it with a less cooperative laptop and a wifi printer that doesn't always want to connect, and is a real pain just to turn on. Plus, my binders are overstuffed, and adding another means getting buried under more paper. Still, they had the tech just perfect for awhile, but that doesn't fit the expand or die income model, so they messed it all up.


I found myself scribbling the essentials on paper out of the recycling bin. I even had a nameless couple of those that I posted so the group could tell me what they were. I was given a cute journal that says Have A Happy Day! on every page, which would be annoying for serious use, but I thought would be a better place to scribble recipe bits, lists, etc., but it's not actually nice to cook from or take to the store. I've been known to e-mail recipes to my iPad and just cook from the mail server. It's so annoying with goopy hands when the energy saver lock blacks the screen, and I never remember to turn it off. Otherwise, the bigger objection is that there's no way to make notes that way unless one copies the email into a document app. And then there are formatting issues.


I don't use a lot of recipes, but sometimes I want to know a proportion or temperature or something, or make an exact thing, or try something new. Generally a few scribbles are fine, and sometimes I want the whole recipe.


I just found MealBoard. It's old and simple. Almost simplistic. It looks like it was designed in a database front end system. It's AWESOME. Some apps claim to do everything for you, but they're not quite successful, or want to change you to fit them, rather than them fitty you.


MealBoard has an online computer app that lets you copy and paste, and will do its best to put the quantity and preparation of ingredients in separate cells, which it gets pretty much right with my highly notated lists. You can also rearrange the order and insert subheadings You can just put the whole danged description of the ingredient including "size of a softball" or whatever else you want to say in the main field and it accepts it. There may be a limit, but I haven't hit it yet.


The online app also lets you write (or paste) whatever you want in the other main fields or write different things that they intended in other fields. Like, instead of description, I put the web address if I got the recipe online. It even lets you crib a picture just by pasting the image address. In other words, it's pretty stupid. The website isn't secure (it's just recipes so I don't care) but it also serves as a backup for your device, besides letting you look at your saved recipes from your computer, though they're merely alphabetical (I think). You can force sync to get it right away in your iPad.


In the iPad app, it's similarly old school, but has the basic functions you want. You can categorize the recipes and add your own categories (though they don't alphabetize into the native ones). You can enter recipes there as well. There's a meal planner that will list your recipes for a meal together. I wanted a notes page, and usually I have a guest list or similar, but, because it's so simple, it doesn't care that what you're writing in a recipe form isn't a recipe. I make a list of toppings to prepare for tonight's chili bar as a "recipe". It worked great! I could also just make my guest list in a "recipe".


To get that info out again, it's a simple select/copy/paste. There may be an export function, but it's not necessary. Huzzah!


There's also a customizable grocery list, and you can set it up to know what's in your pantry, and decide whether you want ingredients on your recipe put on the shopping list--and which shopping list, so you don't have to use the same list if you're going to multiple stores. It does its best to categorize by department (aisle) at the store, and you can fully customize that as well. Thank Heaven for basic!! What features it has, it does well, but it's so basic, it's actually useful.


Oh! And best feature of all? It doesn't lock and go black when you're displaying a recipe (maybe doesn't lock at all, but I haven't tested to be sure).


I wouldn't bother putting all my recipes in MealBoard. I'm happy using Word or plain text. It does take a little more effort to copy them in. Not much, but a little. For scribbling down something I'm about to make to take into the kitchen? Perfect!

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