Cooking Planit App - Honey Mustard Glazed Salmon

I recently downloaded the Cooking Planit App and have been having fun perusing recipes and seeing how it works. I'm just scratching the surface and know there's so much more I can utilize from this cool app to help me out in the kitchen.

I tried it out over the weekend and started with something really simple. That's one nice thing, there are great recipes, but everything from easy stuff for the novice or time-strapped up to more complex full-meal instructions. The recipe I chose was Honey Mustard Glazed Salmon. Although the recipe instructs you to cook this in the oven, we already had the grill going and I decided to prepare them on there. But,  they were a little drier than I would have liked, so I'd definitely advise sticking with the original directions.

What is awesome about Cooking Planit is that it offers a step-by-step slide show. So it walks you through every single step. It sets a timer for you and lets you know when it's time to move on to the next step. It even has voice activation so that you can talk to your iPad and let it know what you want to do, which prevents you from having to wash hands in between every step. I loved that!

The app also gives recipes for a complete meal, so you don't have to figure out what to make along with it. I already had some side dishes going, so I didn't use the full-meal feature, but it's great to have that option and I'm sure I'll use it in the future.

I also love that you can look through the recipes, add them to your "cookbook" and then you can transfer the items from the recipe onto a grocery list with one click. Then, when you do your shopping, you have a full list at your fingertips to prevent you from getting home and discovering that you forgot some key ingredients.

I can see the benefits of Cooking Planit in many kitchens. I think it will be a great way to draw my kids into the kitchen to help as they'll love having the technology to help them along. Novice cooks need not be intimidated when the recipes are broken down by steps and put out there in such a convenient manner. And for those like me who aren't great at planning out meals or shopping lists, I think it will be a huge help.

I loved trying it out for this simple, yet delicious meal and look forward to trying it out on future meals. The Cooking Planit app is available for iPhone ($2.99) and iPad ($4.99) in the App Store. You can also use the basic Cooking Planit through the website, www.cookingplanit.com.

Beyond the actual cooking, Cooking Planit also:

- Offers an extensive selection of bre-buildt, chef-recommended meals (over 300) and the ability to customize meals.

- Automatically create a grocery list of everything you need for the selected meals.

- Saves time at the grocery store by aggregating ingredients and organizing them by grocery aisle.

- Voice control allows you to manage steps without touching your screen (on iPhone and iPad only.)

The glaze smelled wonderful as I mixed it, using some honey I'd gotten at a media dinner at Artisan Table in Naperville. The restaurant is in the Marriott Chicago Naperville and they have rooftop hives. The jar I got had a piece of the honeycomb still intact. Can't get much better than that!

The salmon was cooked on a grill pan with holes in it, which I think allowed to much of the glaze to drip off. The flavor was still spectacular, but just a little weaker than I would have liked. Next time it's going on the oven. Or if I do attempt it on the grill again, I'll reserve some sauce to pour on after cooking. Take a look at the picture below. On the side was a veggie skillet (I'm going clock-wise here) that had tri-color potatoes, three peppers, onions, cremini mushrooms and broccoli all thrown in a skillet with some extra virgin olive oil. It was fantastic! 

The next scoop is a quinoa pilaf. The recipe came from the back of the Nature's Earthly Choice quinoa package and was delish! Below that are some portabella mushrooms that were marinated all afternoon in Italian dressing and then put in a covered foil pan on the grill. Lastly is a veggie mix of zucchini, onion, mushrooms and grape tomatoes put in a foil packet with some butter and seasoning mix on the grill. Recipes for all the side dishes will be up on the blog soon, with the exception of the veggie skillet, which is already up - click here for that recipe.