Best App for Recipe Organizing and Menu or Meal Planning: Paprika

I'm a planner.  I love planning.  And I love to cook.  And I love technology.  Using technology to plan my cooking is the trifecta of joy for me.  I've tried several recipe curating apps and have finally settled on the end-all Best of Show app: Paprika.

Before I tell you all the reasons I love it, I'll tell you about the (free) runner-up: Pepperplate.

Pros:

• Free.  Free is good.
• Kept all of my online recipes organized in one place.
• Allowed me to insert recipes into a weekly or monthly calendar for menu planning.

Cons:

• Ads.  Goes with free.  If I'm not paying, I'm the product being delivered.
• Said it would sync between iPhone/iPad and website (desktop) version, but the syncing was unreliable and unpredictable.  Either it wouldn't sync, or it would only sync part of the week.
• The tagging, or categorizing interface was bulky and annoying to use.
• Could not export or sync weekly menu to my main calendar.  I didn't like having to open a separate app to see what's for dinner.
• #1 annoyance: Could not add to my recipe hoard from a mobile device, had to use the desktop version or manually type it it.

I used Pepperplate for about a year.  It was okay, but I not great.  Then I met Paprika. Elegant, and intuitive -- does everything I had wished for, and more.  Really really impressed with this app.

Pros:

• No ads.
• Easy Recipe Import:  
• It's easy to add a recipe to my hoard from within or without the app.  If I am browsing along and see a recipe I want to keep, I click on a bookmarklet in my desktop browser toolbar, or in my mobile device browser, and the recipe is saved.  Occasionally, if I am in an off-the-beaten path website I have to massage it a little, but for all the big ones I frequent (Food 52, Pioneer Woman) it's a simple one-click import.  I moved all my recipes over from Pepperplate this way.
• I can also easily add from within the app. The outer shell of the pic below is the Paprika app.  From the inside, I can browse the web.  When I see a recipe I want -- in this case a Dutch Baby recipe, I use the toolbar on the bottom to import it.

 

•  Menu planning: I can easily add recipes to different days and move them around.  Here is what we are eating this week.

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•  Plus, this weekly plan syncs to iCal.  I love love love this.  Without even opening Paprika. I can easily see what's on for tonight as well as what I need to thaw for later this week.
• Menus: Things I always serve together can also be arranged in menus and then I can just add that combo to a day's plan.
• Pantry: It includes an easily populated list of what is in the pantry.  I don't use it as such, I use it for what's on the produce shelf, what perishables do I need to use this week.  Super handy for that.

• There also some nice features when you actually are using the recipe from your mobile device.
• After you put in an ingredient, touch it and it greys out to help you keep your place.  Great feature for cooks-in-training and for the highly distracted mom training them.

• Similarly, if you touch a chunk of directions it becomes high-lighted to help you keep your place. 
• Where the recipe says cook at 350 for 30 minutes, touch the "30 minutes" and the timer starts.

Cons:

• Not free, but pretty cheap: $4.99 for the iPhone version and $19.99 for the Mac desktop app.

Download them.  You won't regret it, I promise.