How to Organize Recipes Cook 'n Recipe Organizer Software Program Giveaway (RV $79)1/30

How to Organize Recipes Cook ‘n Recipe Organizer Software Program Giveaway (RV $79)1/30

When you find a great recipe on the Internet that you want to refer to again and again, how do you organize it? If you are like me, you print it and shove it in a folder called “recipes.” It’s not really working out for me! That’s why I figured I’d be a great candidate for Cook ‘n because I need to learn how to organize recipes. Cook ‘n is a recipe software program that is used on either a Mac or PC to keep track of Internet recipes, to make shopping lists, menus and meals and to create cookbooks that can be printed and more. One Moms Own Words reader will win a copy of Cook ‘n for their own Mac or PC!

Cook ‘n Recipe Organizer Software Program Review

I received a link and easily downloaded the program to my PC. I watched the Demo on how to use the program before getting started.

Search

I searched Cook ‘n in a few different ways. On the home page, I searched the Internet for recipes right in search box under the words Cook ‘n. I also selected “advanced search” which allowed me to narrow my search to the recipes auto programmed in Cook ‘n, or my own recipes that I either enter or capture in the program.

I did a search for chocolate cake. When I selected a chocolate cake recipe from “All Recipes” Dark Chocolate Cake I and the Pioneer Woman’s Chocolate Cake recipe, “The Best Chocolate Cake Sheet Recipe. Ever.” the capture feature worked and the recipe was automatically uploaded and formatted in the program. I also found “Hershey’s Chocolate Cake“. When I tried to capture it into the program, the feature didn’t work. I tried this a few times and even rebooted my PC to make sure it wasn’t an issue with my computer. (Perhaps this is due to copyright issues.)

Organize

Once a recipe is captured, there are several things you can do with it. You can organize it within a cookbook. For example, I called my first cookbook “Kristi’s Favorite Recipes” and I placed these cake recipes in a chapter called “Cakes”.

Edit

If the program captures any unnecessary info., and it did on the All Recipes cake recipe, I easily deleted it from the recipe. In the edit mode, I can also change the serving size to make enough to serve 8 people verses 4 and the ingredients are automatically updated, which is a wonderful feature of the program.

View

Once I save the recipe, if I select the view tab, then I see my recipe formatted with a nice graphic. If I click on the options tab (upper toolbar) I can change the graphics to “summer day” or “cutting board” or whatever suits the cookbook that I am creating. There are 23 different themes to choose from. Also under options, I can add a photo, sound, video, email a recipe, and export one to html. I tried to add a photo and it was very easy. The photo replaced the original photo that was captured.

Add a Recipe

I added a recipe to the program very easily. Up on the toolbar I simply selected “new recipe” and typed in my info. I first selected which cookbook and which chapter that I wanted the recipe to be filed. Next, I filled in each section. The program has a nice auto-fill feature so that for example, if you type “su”, it will recognize that as sugar and you just select “sugar” from a drop down menu for faster input.

Grocery Lists and Nutritional Info.

Once I selected a recipe and was either editing it or viewing it, from the upper toolbar I selected “list” and it automatically formatted a grocery list with item prices. I selected nutrition and it displayed a nutritional analysis based on the serving size. For accurate nutritional info., I found that I have to look at individual ingredients to make sure the program is correct. For example, it indicated that two large eggs are 93 calories. According to my carton, large eggs are 70 calories each which would be 140 calories for 2 large eggs.

Menus

The program has templates for menu planning. I can plan a menu for a day, a week a month or three months. With the cookbook library displayed on the left, I can easily drag and drop recipes into the menu template. If there is a separate item needed, I can click on “add food” to add milk (for example) to my lunch menu.

Print

I can print individual recipes with the option of several different formats – 3 x5 or 4 x6 cards, full page, custom size, PDF or a text file. To print a cookbook, I select the cookbook that I want to print from the cookbook library, and click print. The program asks if I would like to print in a cookbook format. I have the option to print the images, nutritional info. reduce white space and so on.

Pros

This program is very easy to use.
Capture Internet recipes and organize them in one click.
The menu templates, grocery lists and nutritional info.are great organizational, time saving tools.
The program is customizable with options to change cookbook styles and to add other media.
The ability to print an auto formatted cookbook is a wonderful feature. Print as a PDF and bring the file to a printer and print several copies of your own cookbook!

Cons

The capture feature doesn’t always capture every recipe perfectly. I found with one recipe, for example, it captured the ingredients but missed the instructions. In one instance, I found it didn’t work at all. Fortunately there are ways around this. In a case like this, you could simply type in the recipe yourself and add your own photo.
I found some nutritional info. that was not 100% accurate, again, unless you input your own ingredients and nutritional info.

This is my quick evaluation after using the program for a few days. Thus far, I think it is a great organizational tool. I look forward to discovering more features and finally getting rid of my lame, unorganized recipe folder.

About Cook ‘n Recipe Organizer Software Program

Whether preparing a home-cooked meal for loved ones, printing a family cookbook, making a menu to simplify meal preparations, analyzing nutrition to help you eat healthier, or syncing a shopping list to your mobile device to save time and money at the grocery store, Cook’n puts your favorite recipes at your fingertips to help you create the things that make mealtime enjoyable.

Cook’n is the #1 Recipe Software program for over 19 years! It’s the best way to organize all of your recipes!

Buy It

The Cook ‘n recipe organizer software program is available on www.dvo.com for $79.95 in either a download or CD format.

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