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Well, I don’t really love MacGourmet. At least not in the same way that I love my family… my faith… and, occasionally, an exceptional pizza from one of those deliciously run-down mom & pop establishments. But, I do have to say that MacGourmet ROCKS!

Let me tell you why. I’ll give you 12 reasons.

  1. It comes in regular and deluxe – The deluxe version adds three plug-ins to the regular version, and it does so in an affordable bundle. I have MacGourmet Deluxe. Why? Because I love the plug-ins. Numbers 2 through 5 below will tell you why.
  2. Menu planning – With MacGourmet you can easily plan a weekly menu, and you can do it with drag-and-drop simplicity. Drag in recipes, print out a weekly meal plan, print menus, send your meal plan to iCal, and you can even create shopping lists from your meal plans.
  3. Build your own cookbooks – I love cookbooks. And I’ve always wanted to write my own (and I am now writing one, by the way). But, before I have my own cookbook published, I can create as many as I want with MacGourmet Deluxe. It makes building cookbooks so easy. And once your cookbook looks just the way you want it to, you can print it on your own printer, save it as a PDF, or have it printed by an online printing service (like Lulu.com, CafePress.com, or CreateSpace.com).
  4. Nutrition Analysis – I admit that I don’t use this feature very often. I know. I need to be more healthy. I am reminded of this on a regular basis. My wife loves me and says that she wants me around for a long time. But you… you’re health-conscious, soMacGourmet’s Nutrition Analysis will help you keep track of your healthy eating.
  5. Shopping lists – This is one of my favorite features. I can drag and drop a recipe into the shopping list tab and MacGourmet will automatically create a shopping list for me. Very cool. And the next feature makes shopping lists even cooler….
  6. MacGourmet Touch – That’s right. An iPhone app. For $4.99 at the iTunes app store, you can get a wonderful app that syncs with the desktop version of MacGourmet. Shopping lists sync for easy shopping. And you can check off the items as you put them in your buggy. I LOVE THAT!
  7. Wine Notes – If you are like me, you love wine, but you may not remember all of the wonderful labels you have tried. Well, now you don’t have too. Just shoot a photo of the label (or snag one from a website), import it into MacGourmet and make a few notes about why you liked that particular label. You can also do this for wines that you definitely do not like. If it’s a bad, you certainly don’t want to drink it again!
  8. Smart Lists – to help you stay organized. This is a great feature that gives you lots of flexibility, allowing you to customize how you organize your recipes.
  9. Powerful search tools – that let you search for recipes based on ingredients you have on hand… and more!
  10. Chef View – This is cool. You can display your recipes in a large easy-to-see format so that you can use MacGourmet in the kitchen. Not only does it store and organize your recipes, it actually helps you to cook!
  11. Easy Import tools – Importing recipes into MacGourmet is so easy. Cut and paste. Drag and drop. In just a matter of seconds you can clip your favorite recipes from any site on the web and import them into MacGourmet. You can also import recipes from other applications like MasterCook, Meal-Master, SousChef, and others. There are even free recipe packs that you can download, and a user forum where you can swap recipes with other MacGourmet users.
  12. Web publishing – If you have a blog or website, you can export recipes in html format for easy web publishing.

MacGourmet and MacGourmet Deluxe is developed by Advenio. You can learn more about it, download a free trial, and purchase MacGourmet at http://macgourmet.com. It’s $24.95.

MacGourmet Deluxe, which include the three plug-ins as part of a bundle is sold by Mariner Software. You can find it at http://macgourmetdeluxe.com. It’s $49.95.