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Recipe Management
Copy recipes from the Internet
Import recipes from Meal-Master and MasterCook
Import recipes from Big Oven
Import recipes from Cook'n
Calculate recipe nutrition
Share recipes with other users
Export recipes as HTML
Include images, videos and attachments in export files
Scale recipes
Convert recipe units
Add images to recipes
Add multiple images to a recipe
Add images to recipe procedures
Scan images directly into the software
Add media (audio or video) to recipes
Add file attachments to recipes
Organize recipes into folders and subfolders1
Enter recipe reviews and ratings
Advanced recipe searches with "and" and  "or"2
Share searches with other users3
Flag recipes as favorite
E-mail recipes from within the software
Customizable recipe displays
View nutrition for each recipe ingredient4
Calculate recipe costs
Automatically eliminate duplicate recipes5
Recipe spell checker
User-defined recipe attributes
Undo and redo recipe additions, changes and deletions
Meal Planning
View daily, weekly and monthly meal plans6
View meal and day total nutrition
Calculate meal costs
Share meal plans with other users7
Move and copy meal items
Add an entire meal plan to a grocery list
Menu Management
Calculate menu nutrition
Scale menus
Share menus with other users
Calculate menu costs
Add images to menus
Add media (audio or video) to menus
Add file attachments to menus
User-defined menu attributes
Ingredient Management
Create new ingredients
Add images to ingredients
Add file attachments to ingredients
Add any number custom measures to ingredients8
Import USDA nutrition updates
Share ingredients with other users
Enter multiple prices for an ingredient
User-defined ingredient attributes
Cooking Reference
Searchable library of cooking techniques
Add images to cooking techniques
Add media (audio and video) to techniques
Add file attachments to techniques
Searchable cooking glossary
Add images to glossary items
Add file attachments to glossary items
Share reference information with other users
Shopping
Create an unlimited number of grocery lists
Create grocery lists from meals, menus or  recipes
Calculate grocery list cost
Group grocery lists by grocery aisles
Share store and ingredient pricing data with other users
Create grocery lists involving multiple stores
Inventory (Pantry)
Track what you have on hand
Determine what you can make with what you have on hand9
Create a grocery list to restock inventory
Deduct on-hand items from grocery lists
Share inventory data with other users
Publishing
Publish cookbooks in Microsoft Word
Create user-defined cookbook formats
Print recipes on index cards
Tools
Password-protect recipe database
Unit converter tool
Backup application database
Compact application database
Database of cooking web sites
Built-in support for pen scanners
Help and Support
Illustrated online help
Searchable help with index
Animated training tutorials

See the August 2004 issue of Smart Computing magazine for a review of the best cooking and recipe management software. Living Cookbook was their top pick and their "Smart Choice" for August 2004. Click here to see the full article.

¹ Refers to the ability to organize recipes in a hierarchy. For example, you can create a cookbook chapter named "Main Dishes" and a subchapter named "Meat Main Dishes" and a sub-sub-chapter named "Beef Main Dishes", etc.

² Refers to the ability to create complex searches with boolean operators (e.g. search for all recipes that have fewer than 200 calories or fewer than 75 calories from fat and have "chili" or "stew" in the recipe name).

³ Refers to the ability to save search criteria to a file and share that file with other users. For example, you might have a search named "Low Calorie Recipes" that searches for all recipes with fewer than 200 calories. You could save this search to a file and share it with other users. They could then search their database using the same criteria.

⁴ Refers to the ability to see the contribution of each recipe ingredient to the total recipe nutrition. For example, a recipe might have 600 calories. Living Cookbook can tell you that 150 calories came from one ingredient, 25 from the next, etc.

⁵ BigOven eliminates duplicate recipes during import, but can't eliminate duplicate recipes once they are in the database.

⁶ Refers to the ability to see day, week or month views of your meal plan (without having to print them first).

⁷ Refers to the ability to save all or part of a meal plan to a file and share it with another user such that they can view and edit the meal plan in their copy of software.

⁸ Refers to the ability to add an unlimited number of custom measures (units) to an ingredient. For example, you might want to add pound, kilogram, ounce, cup, pint, tablespoon, etc. as valid measures for an ingredient.

⁹ Refers to the ability to tell the software what you have in your kitchen and have the software list the recipe that you can make with the ingredients that you have. BigOven has a similar feature, but it is limited to three ingredients.