Yes, the spice Paprika is quite wonderful, especially the sweet smoked version but what I am in love with right now is the recipe app Paprika 3. Being an avid home cook and past personal chef, I have collected recipes for years, created recipes and shared recipes with friends. My recipes were stored too many ways, paper copies, photos and several places online. Most of my favorites resided online in an email folder which had made them easy to access in the past but if the wireless connection was not good (or non-existent on the boat) there were issues retrieving recipes. Not to mention they were in no particular order so it was often frustrating to find recipes or remember what recipies I have. Additionally, this archaic system was really hogging a lot of my precious iCloud storage.

 

 

I finally decided that it was time to find an app to migrate my recipes to, so after copious amounts of research I purchased Paprika 3. Within a few minutes I was off and running…downloading recipes via their browser and reloading recipes that I had saved in my email folder. I wish there had been an easier way to mass import my existing recipes but alas there was not. The good news is that it just took a few keystrokes for each one and voila my recipes were in Paprika. I would estimate it took me about 4 hours to get all 300 plus recipes migrated. Yes, a bit of an investment of time but think of it as a hiatus from the book you might be reading or from watching mindless TV!

 

 

The other function in Paprika that is awesome-sauce is the shopping list. Simply pull up the recipe and touch the shopping basket icon and the ingredients are brought into the shopping basket where you can check off the ones you already have on hand. Then hit add for the remaining items…TaDa…now you have a shopping list!! Need some paper towel or dishwashing soap too? Yes, you can easily add these to your shopping list which will organize your items. This well organized shopping list makes it easy to breeze through the store. LOVE this function. The list is easy to access from the app on my iPhone and I can delete or flag items as I shop.

 

 

You can also create a menu plan for the week, then create your shopping list and off you go to the store. Creating a menu plan certainly can make your week easier from a cooking perspective and really cuts down on impulse shopping.

If you are really feeling tricky, create a pantry of all the things you already have on hand and then add the things from your shopping list. I haven’t used this function yet but definitely will on the boat as it is hard to remember what is in the bottom of the under counter pantry or stashed under the bed.

I really needed this app during the holidays when I was cooking multi-course dinners as Paprika allows you to pin recipes. Pinning recipes makes it a easier to juggle between several different recipies. Open up a recipe and tap the pin icon in the bottom left. Once you have a few recipes pinned, tap that same pin icon to bounce between them. Paprika will remember any ingredients you’ve crossed off and the directions you have highlighted so you don’t lose your place.

 

 

Scaling recipes is another handy function that the app has and is really great when you are trying to feed a crowd but the recipe is scaled for 4 people.

 

 

Overall, the $4.99 investment for the Paprika App was well worth it. I have been using the app now for about 8 weeks and still love it. Just today I created a one week meal plan, a shopping list and went off to the store knowing exactly what I needed to purchase – SWEET!!!

 

Instant Pot