If You Cook, And If You Grocery Shop...

Before I share a life-changing app ... and I do not use that term lightly ... I just wanted to send out a big, heartfelt thank you for all of your sweet comments yesterday regarding my blog's 2nd birthday.  The great thing about having a blog turning 2 is that you get to skip out on the "terrible twos" ... it just gets better and better!

So, ready to see the app that I consider life-changing?

Meet ZipList.

I first learned of this app when Erin from Blue Eyed Bride mentioned its' amazingness on Twitter. 

(and by the way, it's free!)



 

What I love about this app is that it lets you effortlessly search for recipes and then add ingredients to your shopping list.  You can also add other staples to your shopping list, i.e. red wine and double-stuffed Oreos. 

 

So, last week I had a hankerin' for baked ziti.  Ya'll know we don't do a lot of pasta, but it was a chilly Sunday night and we were in the mood to splurge on some classic comfort food.

 

All I did was start by choosing the "Recipes" option in the above screenshot and then I looked through a few versions until I found the one I wanted to use.  

I saved this recipe in my "Recipe Box" for ease, so it now appears when I select the "Recipes" option highlighted in blue above.

Then you just click the icon in the upper right corner and it brings up this menu:

From here, I selected "Add To Shopping List" and it then imports all of the ingredients into this pop-up box below.  Everything defaults to having an "x" beside it which means that it will be added to your shopping list.

 

 

From there, you just deselect the items that you already have on hand or won't be needing, and then you click "Add".

 



 

And just like that, you are taken to the "List" tab of the app, where all of these ingredients are added to your list.  Furthermore, they are organized by section, which makes grocery shopping so efficient.  You can see below the items that you need to get from the produce section, the dairy section ... couldn't be easier.

 

 

The app also allows you to email the recipe out.  In my family, we love sharing recipes.  This makes it so easy!

 

I loved the recipe that I chose and followed the instructions completely except for substituting the ground beef for sausage (I told you it was a bit of a splurge night!).

So there you have it, a life-changing app.  No more jotting grocery store lists down on the back of a receipt for me and going from the canned foods aisle to the frozen foods section and then back to the canned foods aisle. 

Efficiency at its best!