Ok.... So.. I am on CAD and my best friend is doing Atkins.. He doesnt cook so I do all his cooking for him. Its turning into quite the project. I have recipes ALL over my house.. I can no longer find anything when I want it.. its in books, on papers, on cards, in email

I need a good recipe program and I was wondering if there is one like Fitday that once you put in the recipe, it spits out all the nutritional information.

Also one that will last me a long time, that is easy to save and recopy onto other computers. I know absolutely nothing about this software and am not all that computer savy so I can use any advice anyone can give.

I apologize in advance if I posted this in the wrong place, I wasnt sure where to post


PS . I have not even been able to figure out how to work fitday!

Jaden

I don't use it, but a lot of people swear by MasterCook software.

Here's their site:

http://www.mastercook.com/

Karen

HI Karen.
THanks for the tip... I went to that website and there is no information on MasterCooks features. and it doesnt seem downloadable from online..

Does anyone here have info on Mastercook? Does it calculate nutritional values? is it fairly easy to use? what are its features that make you use it above other programs?

If Im going to put the time to put all my recipes into one of these things Id really like to get one that Im going to stay happy with .

thanks for any info.


Also has anyone tried "Recipe center"? www.recipecenter.com I downloaded a 30 day trial of this last night and would like to know if its any good and how it compares to others
jaden

Hi Jaden,

i use Mastercook and am in the process of corralling all of my recipes. i was in the habit of just printing one out when i found a recipe that interested me, so i, too had them scattered all over. Kept having to go back to the websites where i THOUGHT i found it and search all over again when i lost one that i liked.

It will be a long process to get them all into Mastercook, but it really is a neat program. Yes, it calculates nutritional values. Like Fitday, you can enter new items and their nutritional values. You can create a new cookbook to hold your Low Carb recipes. You can even create a new category (Entree, Eggs, Fruit, Breakfast, Dairy, etc.) i created a "Low Carb" category and went into the cookbooks that come with the software and am marking some of those recipes as "Low Carb" so i can search for those more easily. You can import recipes directly from a website or an email into Mastercook, which saves time. It IS a somewhat cumbersome program to use, but you can print a comprehensive and easy to understand manual. Now it costs (i think) about $25-$30 but i got my copy (new and still sealed) from eBay for $6.00 plus S/H.

i'm not an expert yet but i like it so far.

Mastercook was once a Sierra program, but they sold it to another company called ValuSoft, who repackaged it and now sell it for a deep discount.

Find details here.

I use it all the time; you'll notice that all the recipes I post here have that "Exported from Mastercook" tag at the top. I have created a separate cookbook at the collection level that contains all LC recipes that I've created, adapted or found. If anyone's interested, I've attached it here.

There is one thing to note about using MasterCook as a nutritional database; they don't use the USDA "Nutrition Info" database, so their counts can be off, sometimes widely. Don't be afraid to double-check against a different source, such as FitDay, CalorieKing or the USDA database itself. The ingredients database in MasterCook is 100% editable, so feel free to correct as you need. I mention that because the counts in the cookbook I've included may be off in your version of MasterCook because I've corrected a lot of ingredient data over the years. (I'd include my "fixed" version of the ingredients database, but even as a ZIP file it exceeds the upload limit here. )

Hope this helps!

Attached Files

Hysmith Low Carb Cooking.zip (28.1 KB, 54 views)

would you guys mind looking this over and telling me if its any good.

http://www.recipecenter.com/software.asp

I use RecipeCalc, and like it. You can download a trial version at www.recipecalc.com and try it out, then purchase for about $20 if you like it.

Jaden- I looked at RecipeCenter amd didnt care for it. The nutrional piece requries you to link ingredients to USDA data base which was very cumbersome. I use and like MasrerCook....J

I downloaded your file, but when I try to import it, it says there are no recipes. Can you help? I have Mastercook4. Thanks

Hi, saltnpeppa!

The recipe file was created in MasterCook 6, so I don't think it will work in your version.

s.

Scott - can you repost this file:

Hysmith Low Carb Cooking.zip

I downloaded it and WinZip said it was coruppted...i.e. trouble with it long before getting to MasterCook. Thanks.

I just use my Microsoft Word and made me a file called Recipes. When I want to make something I just print it up and go cook. To put recipes in I just highlight the recipe on the net and copy it then paste it on a page in word. It works great for me.

Anyone know of the equivalent of Mastercook, for those of us who use Macs?