A New Way to Help Pepper Your Plate

Thanks to an old golfing buddy and high school friend, I have learned about a site that I think is about to be my new fav:

The Pepper Plate
www.pepperplate.com

I just joined yesterday (and it was free) so I cannot give a thorough rundown of all the features. However, I can share what made me fall in love and perhaps you will fall too.


The Pepper Plate allows you to compile your recipes and then use their planning tools to create menus and shopping lists. There are two ways to add recipes to your account. The easiest is by url. There are 20 supported sites with convenient links down the right side of the page (including my go-to Food Network). Just copy and paste the url from the page of the open recipe and it will appear in your recipe box. The other option, while not quite as simple, is an absolute must. It allows you to enter your own recipes manually, like your g-ma's perfect pumpkin pie (if your g-ma doesn't have one, I can share my g-ma's) or your other family favorites.

Once you've loaded up your recipe box you are ready to start planning meals and menus. This is simple, under the planner tab just click to add what you want, when you want it.

Next up is the shopping list feature. You can customize your shopping list by how you shop: certain categories and order. I have no reason to justify this, but I shop from left to right in any grocery store I go to. It has nothing to do with cold items last, in fact at my usual spot it means I do dairy first and then the freezer. A few weeks ago I attempted right to left and it was a disaster. I left without critical items, my bill was $14 higher than my norm and I am pretty sure that's where I lost my chapstick. Anyhow.

When you plan to use a recipe you click add to shopping list. All of the ingredients are magically added to your list. You then can sort your list by dragging items around and you can remove the pantry basics you know you have on hand.

I am sure there are other handy tools and gadgets I will discover in the coming days and weeks (I promise I did not stay up all night playing on this site) and if I find some real jewels I will be sure to share. In the meantime, check out this site, get the app for your Android, iPhone/Pad or Kindle Fire, and happy cooking!!