On Working With Pepperplate

Last week I committed myself (noooo, let me finish) to using Pepperplate for meal planning, shopping, recipes. And oh my word, how my life has changed.

I think this will be more meaningful if I show what my meal planning process used to be ...

Imagine it: Every Saturday (ideally, usually Sunday or Monday) I sit with my favorite cookbooks, recipe books, a notepad and paper. I write up what's on sale or what I have a coupon for. Then I plan out the week. I make the list on a sheet of scrap paper with three columns drawn. I add items from recipes, leaving off things I already have, and I organize the items - sort of - according to the layout of the grocery store. So long as I don't forget to add something, I'm good. But look at those cookbooks! One is a beautiful out-of-print thing from the 90s. The others? Yes, they are photo albums with index cards as dividers. Useful for keeping my favorite recipes close at hand, but a pain in the !#$#& when I'm looking for something a little out of the ordinary. And a real pain when I forget to replace the recipe after I've used it.

Add to that, lately when I've wanted to use up the frozen blueberries, or a can of tomatoes, I'll just look online. Allrecipes, food.com, and others have become my favorite places to type in "zucchini bread" and surf until I find a recipe that uses coconut, chocolate chips, zucchini, and apple sauce. My old homemade recipe books? They've collected a layer of dust.

So using Pepperplate is natural, right? Indeed, it is! I've added 96 recipes so far. My favorites from Taste of Home, plus a heap of new ones that look so delicious I can't wait to try them. Cornmeal pancakes? Mexican quinoa? Can you say YUM?

Planning meals for the week is as easy as a click. I can search for what I have on hand, then I add it to the weekly plan. Another click adds all the ingredients to the shopping list. I thought I would be annoyed having to go through and delete the items I don't need to buy, but it's a good way to double check. I may think I have enough flour, but if I need flour for bread, pancakes, and three other meals, I may just have to buy more. Plus! (wait for it) I personalized the grocery list so items automatically fall into categories that are then organized according to my store's layout! Woot!

The final bonus? The grocery list automatically syncs with my little tablet and with Dr. D's phone. So he can stop at the store on the way home, and I don't have to worry that he'll forget something. I've resisted the whole paperless movement - I love the feel of a book in my hand - but first my e-reader, now Pepperplate. What will be next? An iPhone?

Pepperplate Ziplist Allrecipies Online, Oh My!

Over the weekend I got in my head to transfer all my recipes to an online recipe box and meal planning account. Here's why: I've been wanting to change our eating habits, less "comfort food" (Taste of Home) and more whole foods, Mediterranean cuisine. So I ventured to Bargain Books to find a new cookbook (I love cookbooks). I found one, but most of the recipes were things I knew I'd never in a million years make. I mean, I have four kids. Let's be realistic.

I figured I'd just find recipes online - it's what I've been doing lately anyhow. Chocolate Zucchini Bread? Something that uses beets or green tomatoes? First stop, Google! Send myself a link. Search again the next time I want the recipe and bang my head when I can't find it.

And then I had the brilliant idea: collect recipes online! "An online recipe box! I wonder if such a thing exists?" (Wow, I'm blown away by my own smartness.) Not only does it exist (imagine!), most of the programs are FREE, incorporate meal planning, and automatically make shopping lists. Oh my word, why did it take me so long to discover this? See how smart I am?

Um, yes. The big question now: Which service to use? It came down to Ziplist and Pepperplate. The blogger Casey Watts talks about the pros and cons of each, and her post ultimately helped me decide. In case you were wondering, and I know you were, here's how I made my decision:

Things I liked about Ziplist:
--I could search and add recipes right from the page.
--Flashy options like guessing what you already have in your cupboard before adding to the shopping list, seemingly incorporated with my local grocery store (though only one of my regular stores showed up).
--Recipes on the meal plan link to the actual recipe. HANDY, THAT!
--A huge number of partners.

Things I didn't like about Ziplist:
--I had to leave Ziplist and go to other sites to get directions for most recipes.
--Format of each recipe is different.
--Bizarre navigation/slow website.
--Meal planner planned one meal each day. What if I'm hosting a brunch and serving dinner on the same day? I know, I know, two meals in one day. It happens.

Things I didn't like about Pepperplate:
--No link from meal plan to recipe.
--Shopping list is a little more clunky - adds everything from ingredient list.

Things I LOVE about Pepperplate:
--Formatting is consistent and beautiful.
--Easy to add recipes even from non-partnered websites.
--I can add categories to recipes: i.e., "brunch" or "pork."
--I can build menus (main course plus salad, side, etc.) and plan three meals a day.

The winner, if it isn't obvious, Pepperplate! Now I get to hoard recipes, too!

Simplifying Cyber-Hoarding

Cable on-demand is pretty fun, I must confess. I've watched two episodes of Hoarders in the past two days - terrifyingly accurate. I grew up in a house of horrors hoarders, so the scenes with kids climbing over piles of stuff are all too chilling. I remember well riding a tricycle in the clear basement floor around age four, a floor that was lost to sight, a narrow path threading through it, by age seven or eight. The "stuff" was confined to basement and garage until adolescence, when it began the sneaky creep up the basement stairs, into the kitchen, living room, up more stairs to the second floor, until I went away for a semester of college and came home to find half my bedroom stacked with boxes. Last I looked (about four years ago), my old room was full to eye level, a mattress balanced on plump garbage bags and sagging storage containers.

Dr. D and I have a bit of the opposite problem. We make Goodwill runs every few months. Not to buy, mind you, but to give things up. The only exceptions: for Dr. D it's books; for me, files. Every time I do a rewrite on a manuscript, I save it with a new name (usually just an added number: TITLE_05 or TITLE_19), and I keep - obsessively - the previous draft(s). I don't really consider this a problem. Maybe once I max out Dropbox and fill my external hard drive, I will, but thus far I see it as freeing. I can tinker with scenes as much as I like. I always have the old version if I really ef things up. And so long as I always title docs sequentially, I never have to wonder, "which version is the most recent?"

I worry, though, if those files aren't a sign of the same illness. Over the weekend I rearranged my office and cleaned my desk (seen above, after I got crazy in PhotoShop). Maybe it's time to clean up my hard drive?

Every Day New

Ah, Thursday. A hint of Friday, the faintest fragrance of Saturday. Not that Friday or Saturday will be different, mind you, not with Dr. D at his conference. But we can pretend.

Unlike the pretending I usually do when giving the kids popsicles. I always avoid reading ingredient lists on sugary treats, or cling to the bright, "Made with REAL Juice!" on the box. Not this time.

This time we made our own popsicles, just like I did as a kid. (See, Mom, I DO remember the good things.) Only I didn't whip up pudding or break out the Kool-Aid. We juiced pineapple, strawberries, a beet, some chard, some cherries, a little fennel, and I think a plum ... maybe a few other things too. All for truly delightful, wonderfully healthy Juicesicles!

That smile says Yum.

Summer Vacation Day 3

Here's how my week (first week of vacay for the kiddos) has looked:

Monday: in tears (me) by 8am.
Tuesday: in tears (me again) by 11am.
Wednesday: so far so good (me) and it's 3pm! St. Nick and Mud Pie, however, have both shed a few tears. And Rowdy, well, you know babies.

Waxing In-elegant: Credit Jumping and Ballet Recitals

The definition of Inelegant. Of tacky. Of rude. Of crass. Of immoral. Of just plain wrong. That would be: Credit Jumping. Which, for those who might not know, is leveraging an author (extorting? intimidating? coercing?) into hiring an "editor/writer" who then gains a credit for the work via shared byline or outright stolen byline - for very little work.

Keep back. The ginger is breathing fire today.

On a happy note. Proud Mama's little Mud Pie performed her first ever ballet recital. She loved every minute.

Unlike this dear creature (the girl on the left). Poor thing, but hooray for her for walking on the stage at all.