What’s For Dinner? Whole Foods iPhone App

I love it. The Whole Foods Market Recipe iPhone app is not exactly new (it’s been out since June of this year), but if you haven’t tried it yet, it’s a great one. Not just because it’s free. But mostly because now, I’ll probably never again find myself wondering what’s for dinner. I love that a highly visible brand such as Whole Foods expands its brand’s goodwill by providing useful “toys” such as this one.

This application provides recipes through some pretty smart filters: I can search for recipes by course (I’m always stuck for good ideas for appetizers), category (“Quick and Easy” is my default category) and special diets (Wheat free? Gluten free? Low sodium?). A search for the Appetizer/Quick & Easy/Vegetarian filter revealed, among others, a delicious sounding goat cheese with spicy pecans recipe.

Or, I can search by the ingredients that I’ve got on hand by entering up to three ingredients and wham, recipes using these will pop up. I promptly entered my favorite ingredients to give it a try: cheese, tomatoes and bread. This combo offered a Tuscan bread and vegetable soup. I would totally make that.

It’s a Whole Foods’ app, but of course, you can use it for shopping in any grocery store. But here’s the power of a great brand: I will naturally trust the quality of its recipes simply because these were issued by Whole Foods Market. Each recipe does, in fact, display the nutritional information.

So, you’re at the office and just found out that Great Aunt Betty is dropping by for dinner. You know you’ve got three onions, chicken breast and frozen spinach at home. What you gonna make? Pick up some pears and blue cheese for the “Baked Chicken Breasts, Pears and Blue Cheese” main dish. You’ll be on her will.