Do you find yourself opening the fridge after a long day and wondering what you could possibly concoct for dinner? If you are anything like me, this story is far too familiar and ends in a pan of eggs dressed with whatever else may soon go bad. My combinations get creative, to say the least, and more often than not leave me unsatisfied.
Despite what my lack of effort may suggest, I love to cook. I am one of those people who spends too much time surfing food blogs during the day for new recipes. Even so, I often find myself missing a key ingredient and revert to last-minute creativity.
Handpick for iPhone and iPad is the app that solves my problems.
The app allows you to select ingredients and returns recipes taken from a database of food blogs and Instagram posts. No need to eat a random scramble — just select what you have in the fridge and cook away! What if the suggestions are not exactly what you had in mind? Clicking on a recipe shows related recipes so you can find the perfect dish for you, and without an extra trip to the grocery store.
Handpick is not just the app to solve my evening laziness. There are several other fantastic features.
For foodies who follow too many different blogs to keep track of, Handpick’s daily feed combines the top recipes from Instagram and food sites and allows you to filter based on categories like ‘breakfast’, ‘salad’ or simply ‘dishes with recipes’. You can share the recipes with friends or save them by adding them to personalized folders in the app.
The feature we are missing out on here in Seattle is the grocery delivery service, which is only available in California for the time being. Users can choose from different bundles and have all the ingredients for a perfect meal in no time. And it’s cheap! Select the ‘Flavors of Asia’ bundle and you’ll get 12 ingredients to make 3 recipes delivered to your door for $32.
Here is what the bundle includes: chicken thigh, ground beef, Asian egg noodles, ginger, soy sauce, oyster sauce, bok choy, honey, sesame oil, green onion, romaine lettuce, and garlic to make chicken chow mein, Asian lettuce cups, and garlic ginger chicken and sesame noodles. You can easily up the order from the standard 2 servings to feed a larger group or if you want leftovers.
Keep your eyes out for the grocery delivery to come to you. In the meantime, start cooking! Visit their website or find them on Facebook for more.