Menu Planning and Recipe Organization Goes Digital

I'm here today to share with you the new direction I've taken with my recipe organization and menu planning. I'm transitioning to an all digital system and it is rocking my world.

In a good way. It's got me feeling all kinds of on the ball with my inner Domestic Goddess.

Granted it might all crumble like a Chips Ahoy cookie once school starts, but right now it's looking pretty ding dang awesome.

What has changed for me is this little app called Paprika. In the screen shot above, it's the last app on the right, in the row one up from the bottom. Do you see that cute little red spice tin with the yellow circle and the red bird chili pepper inside? It's my new BFF and I'm telling everyone I know about it.

C'mon with me and take a look inside.

This is what my app looked like when I opened it today. So far I have 23 recipes tucked inside, all snuggly and happy.

Watch as I demonstrate how to add a new recipe. Here I am starting with one of my recipes on Pinterest in the Pinterest app on my iPad.

From here, I want to highlight the URL for the recipe by tapping on its web address at the top and tapping "Select All."

Once it's highlighted, I tap on "Copy."

Now I exit the app and go into the Paprika app. If you're lucky, upon opening the app it will give you a message that it has detected a URL and it will ask if you want to load that URL. If that happens, you will want to say yes, PLEASE, and the webpage will open up within the app and everything will go smooth like butter and super slick without a tutorial from me.

If not, you'll follow these still pretty easy steps.

Go to the web portion of the app by touching the globe on the left and second down, and this page will come up with all of these popular recipe sites listed.

Simply highlight the web address in the bar at the top and select "Paste" to drop in the website URL you want to navigate to.

Like this.

There's my recipe. It's magic.

Now, I'm going to tap that little blue button in the bottom right corner that says "Save Recipe" and cross my fingers while it processes. 

If all goes well, the recipe will load in all the appropriate spots in the app, and usually it does. The majority of the time I've been able to input my recipes this easy way. If it does not work perfectly, you will see this.

Dang. Why you gotta be so mean?

Never mind, there's still a pretty easy fix for this.

Start by highlighting the text for the ingredients and tap "Copy."

Next tap that little up arrow to the left of the Save Recipe button, and this opens up:

Now watch this. I'm just going to touch the grey boxed area on the bottom left of the screen where it says Ingredients and the ingredients will magically paste themselves into the box.

Ta DA!

Repeat the same steps for the Directions.

Now here is where I'm going to show you one of my little OCD steps that I like to do. When I'm following a recipe, especially if it's a new recipe, I tend to get a little discombobulated and I get lost easily.

With this app, I'm loving that I can go in and break down the directions into numbered steps with plenty of space between them. I'm not limited on space and I can even go into the settings in the app and set the font size to "Old Lady Has a Problem with Her Seeing."

I can't even tell you how much this excites me.

With my ingredients and directions finished, now I need to add the picture, right? This can happen one of two ways. 

In the first way I click on the picture and this window pops up. If you aren't in the Paprika app, you will want to select "Save to Photo Library" then go into the Paprika app, tap on the spot for the picture, and access the picture in your photo library.

If, however, you are in the Paprika app, which by the way I highly recommend because it will save you time and excessive opening and closing of apps, you can tap on "Copy Image" and it will magically insert itself into the spot for its picture.

Like it did for me here. It's a beautiful thing.

Lastly, I would go in and fill out the prep time, cook time, servings, and difficulty. If your recipe imports without all the cutting and pasting, all this will be done for you.

You will also want to give your recipes categories for better organization. You get to create your own categories so you aren't forced to adhere to someone else's idea of good recipe categories. You do what makes sense to you.

These are some of the categories that I've created so far, although I'm just getting started with my recipes.

I know that I could potentially stress myself out trying to get all my recipes in here, so I just decided that as I collect recipes (when I see them in magazines and am tempted to tear them out, when I find something on Pinterest I want to try, etc.), I will add them then. Another good time to do it is when I'm doing my menu planning (if I'm not rushed for time) with just the recipes that I'm going to make that week, or right after I've made the recipe and the clean-up in the kitchen is done.

You will also want to rate your recipes (0 to 5 stars) once you've made them.

Another feature I love about this app, is that I can tweak and edit all the recipes I bring into it. It doesn't matter where it came from. Honestly, it's a pretty rare thing for me to not change something about a new recipe, so this feature is a must. For example, I absolutely loathe green bell peppers, so if a recipe calls for them, you can bet I'm going to be changing that to red, yellow, or orange bell peppers.

There is also a spot for notes. There are infinite uses for this section. You could keep track of who in your family liked the recipe, comments that were made, adjustments you might like to try next time, and on and on.

This is another super cool feature that I looooooooove about this app. I'm talking super big, pink puffy heart love. You can change the recipe scale! Seriously, how cool is that?

A couple days ago I input a recipe that I swear was for a family that is exponentially larger than my own, so I scaled the recipe down to be a fraction of the original and all the tedious work was done for me.

Not that I don't love to do math, being a math teacher and all. In fact, I admit that I had to double check all the calculations to make sure that this app didn't need some help with its math, and I'm happy to report that it gets an A+ and I probably won't double check its skillz in the future. Probably.

My Mama Llama is visiting this week and I got her hooked on this app. She is cooking for one most of the time, so this feature is a big plus in her world.

And if you still aren't sold on this app, check this my friends. You can share recipes with yo' friends and save them from all that pesky copying and pasting. I did this several times with my Mama Llama, and this is what it looks like when you e-mail recipes to people.

Ya, I emailed this recipe to myself. I had to. Everyone else is in bed and therefore unable to cooperate. In the past when I've woken them to assist me in my bloggy pursuits, it did not end well for me.

I learn the hard way.

So anyway, the recipe is e-mailed so that anyone, including your Grandma, can read it without any problems. That is, of course, assuming that your Grandma knows how to access her e-mail without calling you for help.

This is not a perfect world though and we all have people in our lives who are technologically challenged. We must be patient. It's my mantra because I'm so impatient by nature.

And mean.

And impatient.

And trying to be a better person.

Focusing attention away from my rant, this is the Neato Benito part of sharing the recipe with yo' friends. If they have the Paprika app they just tap that cute little attachment and you, my Friend, have done all the work for them and they will therefore love you for-EVAH.

Next they have to tap the cute little Paprika can. I just get so excited when I do this part.

Then tap on that magical word "Import" and angels will sing as your recipe is added to your app. You will still need to go in and assign a category to it, and rate it when you are ready to, but everything else is there for you.

The last thing I want to show you about this app is the Menu Planning feature. Having my recipes and menu planner in the same app is ultimately what sold me on it, everything else that I love came after that part. I appreciate being able to do all of it within the same app. In fact, it even has a grocery list component, although I have not experimented with it yet because I'm already using another grocery list app. In time, I imagine I will be using that as well.

You access the menu planner from the calendar icon that is highlighted in blue on the left of the screen shot above.

This is what my current week looks like. The menu items with pictures are those for which I have recipes already in the app. The others are added as a note. I love this flexibility because, let's face it, ain't nobody got time to sit down and put all their recipes and their Grandma's recipes into the app in one sitting. It's going to take some time.

This is a screen shot showing you how to access an item to make changes. This is where I go when I want to change the date for a menu item because, oh, stuff happens. Or I don't wanna. Whatever the reason, you have the power.

As a side note, I still have my magnetic menu planner posted so everyone else can see what the plan is and I know, at a glance, what things need to be taken out of the freezer when I'm on the fly.

Because I'm so fly.

Ha ha. Ha. Ha.

Why am I always laughing alone?

Now for the negatives, because you know there are always negatives. This app is $4.99 and you have to buy it for every device you put it on. For example, if I want it on my phone and my iPad, I have to buy it twice. If Peanut Head wants it, and he will because I told him he will, he has to buy it. I'm sold on this app enough that I am willing to pay that. There is no yearly subscription though, like some recipe apps.

Another feature that I like, considering we will be using this on multiple devices, is the ability to synch across devices.

Oh yeah, and Paprika is available for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android, Kindle Fire and Nook Color. I don't know if you can beat that.

So what do you think? Will you give it a try? Are you using it already? Do you think it's stupid? Talk to me.

Finger Snapper Daily Deal Site

If you have been wanting to order a vinyl Menu Planning grid from Thoughts in Vinyl, but you keep putting it off, today is the day for you to order it. For one day only, Thursday, June 28th, you can buy a menu planning grid for only $3.97 each, instead of the original price of $9.00. What a deal! You can't put it off though, get yours at www.fingersnapper.com before the clock strikes midnight.

Quick Shout Out

I'm popping in super quick to tell you about a couple things that I don't want you to miss out on. The first is that I have my second post up at The Teacher's Lounge, and this one is about Technology Timesavers for Teachers.  If you want, you can check it out here. I would love to hear about technology you use, because I'm always looking for things to make my day go more smoothly.

The second thing I'm excited to share with you is that Janae from Thoughts in Vinyl contacted me to let me know she is having a sale on the menu planning vinyl grids through this Thursday, April 8th. She has several varieties for you to choose from, so the sale is for $2 off whichever one you choose. She makes them as small as a two-week grid and as large as a five-week grid. They can also be used as regular calendars instead of menu planning calendars, and you could even put them in a large frame to use as a dry erase calendar instead of right on your refrigerator. To get $2 off your calendar grid, use the coupon code SPRING. You can find those calendar grids here.

Magnetic Menu Plan Magnet Storage

 

I know I'm beating a dead horse here with this topic, but I promise this is going to be the last time.

I think.

It's just that sometimes things need to be tweaked when they aren't just perfect. And the magnetic menu plan, perfect as I thought it was at first, is not perfect.

  

The problem for me was all the extra menu choices. Having all of them on the fridge was making me twitchy because it was too cluttered.

That, and I like to menu plan sitting down, not standing at my fridge. Again with the enormous problems that must be solved.

 

Thankfully this one was an easy problem to solve. Check it out.

Baseball card protectors. 

I know. Doy. You can find these at Wal Mart with the Pokemon cards. Or whatever it is that kids are trading these days. I'm so out of touch, I really couldn't say.

As a general rule I'm always at least a decade behind the current trends. The beauty is that most of the time I don't know what it is that I'm behind on.

What? What's wrong with my perm? People don't wear perms anymore?

What? What's wrong with my Ray Bans? What do you mean I have bug eyes?

What? What's wrong with my tiny spectacles? People are wearing frisbees for sunglasses now? No way!

What are mom jeans? What about them makes them mom jeans?

Seriously, I could go on and on here. It's so sad.

Anyway, I don't know how I got here really, but back to the enormous problem that must be solved.

 

Baseball card protectors. They're way cheap. Get some, cut some cardstock for the pockets, slide your menu magnets in, and you're in business. You don't have to put cardstock in the pockets, but I found that it makes the menu magnets easier to view.

I put all my beef menu items on one page, chicken on another, pasta, and so on. Now it's even easier to menu plan, and I can sit at the kitchen table and deal out menu combos. Then when I have what I want, I get up off my bum and stick them on the fridge. Voila!

You Asked for It . . . Thoughts in Vinyl

So, remember when I did the magnetic menu planning giveway, and then I picked a couple of winners? Well, I decided that since so many people were interested in the vinyl menu planner, I was going to find someone who could cut the vinyl professionally, as in not my make-it-up-as-I go self, and then they could sell it to everyone who is interested.

Well, have I got a deal for you. Janae of  Thoughts in Vinyl  made these beauties for my winners, and you're not going to believe this, but she is selling them for only $9.50 each--and the transfer paper is already on them. What a steal! Trust me on this. Forget buying a $40 Cricut cartridge and wrestling with the transfer paper. This is the way to go.

These are the vinyl menu grids Janae made for my winners, and I have to say, I'm a little jealous because they are way cuter than mine. I love this font and the days of the week are so perfect.

I recently received a desperate e-mail from Mary Ann asking me to please, please, please sell her some Germ-Be-Gone labels, like these, so she could make some ginormous hand sanitizers for Teacher Appreciation Week. In spite of all my whining about my jobsy and my lack of time, people still ask me these things all the time. Instead of replying with a snotty "Did I stutter?" I told Mary Ann that I would work on finding someone whose jobsy it is to cut vinyl professionally.

Enter Janae. She made these super cute labels, which are waaaaaaaay cuter than mine I might add, and she is selling them for  only $4.50 each. How cool is that, Mary Ann? I'm sorry I was so mean. I'll try to be nicer.

These labels are for my classroom, because I never did get around to making them for myself. Before I applied these labels, I cut them into thirds because I find it's just a lot easier to apply a little bit at a time. I don't have the steadiest of hands, and I have that attention deficit thing going on, so this works best for me. I start at the top and work my way down. You might be fine doing it all in one go though. Don't take my word for it.

Before I forget, I want to give you Janae's contact information. She is a pleasure to work with, and she will custom design vinyl to your specifications. I highly recommend her.

Janae Anderson

Thoughts in Vinyl

E-mail: janae@thoughtsinvinyl.com

Website: http://www.thoughtsinvinyl.com/

Phone 208.524.7066

I hope that lots of you will contact Janae and buy so many menu planning grids and hand sanitizer labels, that she will call me and beg me to take the link down. To which I will reply "Nevah! Bwah, ha, ha, ha."

Speaking of hand sanitizer, here's a true funny confession. I was leaning up against the wall at my gym, nonchalantly waiting to get my kids out of the clink, and I leaned right underneath an automatic hand sanitizer dispenser. I got slimed. It was so icky, I can't even tell you. And I did not look cool.

Changing the subject yet again, people e-mail me all the time about this little magnetic pocket that I keep on the side of my fridge (sans ugly sticker, of course). I use this to hold my recipes for the week because it fits my recipe cards perfectly. Well, you'll be happy to know that I was at Staple's the other day, and they had a bazeellion of these babies. I haven't seen them for ages. Anyway, I only bought one so there would be some left for you. Staples is selling them for $7.29. I couldn't find them on the Staple's website, but you can find lots of them by Googling "Oxford DecoPouch."  I even found one on Amazon for $5.99.

And lastly, people have even e-mailed me asking for the 4x6 images that have my menu choices on them. I realize that the vast majority of you have no use for these, but for those that want them, here they are. Personally, if I were you and I wanted to make menu magnets of my own, I would just print my menu choices on some pretty scrapbook paper, cut them into squares mounted on card stock, laminate, and finally, apply magnets. You could even just laminate blank menu squares and write on them with a water-based pen, or with a Sharpie if you want them to be permanent.

If you want to use these, don't forget to click on them first to get the best resolution. Enjoy!

Menu Planning Redo

As you may know, I've talked about menu planning a few times on this blog. What you don't know, is that it is a constant battle for me to keep up with my menu planning. My biggest problem is time, but couple that with the fact that I loathe menu planning, and it's practically a recipe for disaster.

Well, a couple weeks ago the broccoli really hit the fan when we got our taxes done, and I realized that we have been spending way too much money eating out two and sometimes three times a week. That had to stop. 

So I sat down with my monthly menu planning calendar and I got to work.

I've been using this system for over a year now, somewhat intermittently. In spite of what some people think about teachers and their supposed part-time jobs, I regularly spend ten hours a day at my teaching job. Add to that a couple more hours a night that I've been spending lately on the yearbook, volunteering my time, and it's all I can do to keep the vomit from pooling in the back of my mouth when I hear about my cushy schedule and summers off. Although I wouldn't say that teaching is the hardest job on the planet, it is definitely the hardest job I've ever had.

That being said, I, and I'm sure every other mom out there as well, need every time saver available to me to manage my responsibilities. Eating out just can't be one of those time savers anymore.

So, as I was saying, last year I posted about menu planning and this laminated menu planner that I could write on and wipe off. The only problem with this system, for me anyway, is that our schedule seems to always be in flux and I would need to move things. Then I would have to apply spit to a Kleenex to wipe off the menu plan for the day, so glamorous, I know, and have to rewrite that menu item elsewhere. Such a chore for me and my impatient self. My problems are so enormous.

Quickly I took to using mini Post-It notes to write my menu plans on, because they could be quickly and easily moved around. The only negative to that system is that the Post-Its didn't fit perfectly into the the menu squares, so I had to trim them to fit neatly in the squares. Because I'm anal about things like that. Again, I have such enormous problems.

This enormous problem has led me on a quest to design a magnetic menu planning calendar that could work for me. I have seen some pretty brilliant menu planning calendars out in the blogosphere this year, but none of them were a fit for me. The biggest problem being that I don't have any usable wall space where I can post a magnetic menu planning calendar. Any menu planning calendar that I use has to fit on the side of my refrigerator.

Enter the Cricut Lite Chore Chart Cartridge. This cartridge was the springboard for my inspiration. I've been thinking about a potential solution for months, and I had decided that I needed to create a calendar grid in vinyl right on the surface of my refrigerator. The problem being, how do I cut the vinyl for a calendar grid and keep all the lines straight and in proportion? I'm sure some of you reading this could do just that with only your Cricut and possibly a program such as Sure-Cuts-A-Lot, or the Silhouette, without using another expensive Cricut cartridge, but my skill set does not extend that far. As it is, I already wasted an entire sheet of vinyl trying to figure out the correct size to cut for my available space.

For my first calendar grid, I used the Fit to Page button on my Cricut, not 100% sure of what it was going to do. I loaded up my $5 sheet of vinyl and pressed the Cut button before I could chicken out. Then I screamed and watched in horror as the Cricut cut a calendar fit for Ginormica, knowing that hitting STOP couldn't save that piece of vinyl that was already soiled. Plus it had to be done anyway, because I needed the numbers to set up a proportion problem to figure out how big I had to cut my calendar to fit in a 16 inch wide section on my refrigerator.

Listen up people, the next time you open your mouth to say "I've never once had to use algebra in all my life, blah, blah blah" this is a prime example of how useful algebra is. I want you to come back here again, bring your children and your children's children, and show them exactly how

Algebra is Useful

I'm going to make a vinyl sign. Who wants one?

Don't all jump at once.

The ginormous calendar that I originally cut with the Fit to Page button ended up being 11.5 inches by 19.75 inches, which was 3.75 inches longer than my available space of 16 inches. Enter algebra and the following simple proportion problem:

11.5      =   x  

    19.75         16         

Solving for x, I found that my calendar should be 9.316455696 inches high, which I neatly rounded to 9 inches. Sir Cricut can only cut in 1/4 inch increments anyway, so what's the harm in taking it to a nice round number?

No harm.

Now I will stop with the numbers. So scary to some, yet friendly to all.

So, before I show you the end result, here is one of the problems with the Cricut Chore Chart cartridge. It cuts the "C" and the "H" for the "Chore Chart" title with the calendar grid.

I just amputated them with my X-acto knife. Easy fix.

Then I pulled away the vinyl parts that weren't needed.

And there were so many.

It wastes a lot of vinyl, but I couldn't see any other way around it. It turns out that my first wasted cut would have been wasted anyway because I forgot to set my blade pressure to LOW, so it cut right through the vinyl and the sticker backing paper. Doy.

I was able to correct that for my next calendar.

Here is my calendar ready to have the transfer paper applied. By the way, I see no way to transfer this grid without the transfer paper. It's the only way to keep the lines straight and keep the calendar from becoming distorted through stretching.

I didn't take pictures of me transferring the transfer paper to the design because that stuff is like fly paper, and I don't have three hands. I know, excuses.

I was a little excited when I was pulling my excess vinyl away, and I made this little boo boo. Not to worry, it can be fixed later. I just need to fit a small scrap piece over the cut and no one will ever know.

I'm calling this picture "Man Does Multi-task." It's Peanut Head eating a doughnut while helping me to tape the calendar grid up so it's level.

Here I'm getting ready to pull the sticker backing paper away and slowly apply the calendar grid. It doesn't pay to rush this part.

S-l-o-w-l-y, slowly said the sloth.

Pretty slick, eh?

You may have noticed that this calendar grid only covers three weeks. That's really not a problem for me, as I have no plans to add numbers for days or even a month label. It will simply serve as a plan as I go menu plan, and just having three weeks done at a time will keep me super happy.

If you wanted it to be four weeks, you could easily cut little vinyl strips to extend the boxes into the area left for a title. I'm not planning on using that part anyway.

In fact, I just amputated it. It just takes up space. I know it's my menu plan, I don't need a title on it. Space is precious on my refrigerator.

Next, I cut out days of the week and put them on. It's a little squished in the Wednesday region, but it's such a cumbersome day of the week, isn't it?

The last step was to make my menu choices. I just typed six choices to a 4x6 print, layered on top of digital scrap booking paper, then cut my squares to 1.75 inches, mounted them on a layer of card stock, and laminated them to protect them from kitchen mishaps.

Then I applied a piece of magnet left over from my bazeeeeeellion magnetic bookmarks, and I was in business.

Pretty nifty, eh?

Now I think I'm ready to conquer the whole World Peace problem.

Since I first posted this, I have found someone will make this menu grid for you for just $9.50. If you want to buy one for yourself, go read this post for the details.

If you want a way to store your extra menu magnets instead of on the fridge, go read this post.