Shop’NCook Blog

Users ask me sometime to add a pantry manager to Shop’NCook software. So here is the news flash:

Shop’NCook has had a hidden pantry manager for years.

OK, now I see you become a little sceptic. I mean, why would I hide such a useful feature in my software?

The truth is, when I wrote this feature, I didn’t realize it was a pantry! For lack of a better term, I called it: “The list of items that are automatically deselected” - which is an apt description of what it does but that doesn’t help understanding what it’s useful for. That is, until a customer pointed out to me that it is actually a pantry.

The pantry manager is a very useful feature and I warmly encourage you to use it, if you aren’t already. It lets you keep track of the ingredients you have at home so that they don’t get added to the shopping list. Without it, you get a lot of things you don’t need to buy on your shopping list - like water, salt, pepper, etc. - and have to remove them manually each time. The pantry manager is still rudimentary: if you would like it to do more, let me know!

I tell you below how to set it up, what it does and the best way to use it.

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As a follow up to yesterday’s post on sending your grocery lists to your mobile phone, here are below Shop’NCook e-mail settings for some main providers. I have written when the settings have been confirmed by users. If you know other working settings or if you confirm some unconfirmed ones, leave a comment below. I will be updating the list regularly.

You enter the e-mail settings in the E-Mail tab of the Preferences. If you cannot find the correct settings for your configuration, try the solution proposed here that should work for everybody.

Important note: After modifying the e-mail settings, you must restart Shop’NCook before sending e-mails.

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In the last post, I published a video showing a Shop’NCook grocery list on my iPhone. There seems to be some confusion about this - somebody even sent his grocery list to my iPhone!

Anyway, in case you are wondering, you don’t need an iPhone - or a Blackberry, an Android or other smart phone - to get your grocery list on your phone.

Shop’NCook Pro comes with an e-mail feature that makes it really easy to send grocery lists to your phone. It isn’t either a new feature. Actually, it had this capability from the very beginning, - even when it wasn’t usual to read e-mails on mobile phones, - as I wrote Shop’NCook partly because I wanted to be able to send my grocery lists to my husband. But that’s another story…

So what do you need to have your grocery list on your mobile phone?

If your phone supports e-mails, it’s very easy. You just need to set up Shop’NCook to send e-mails to your phone.

If it doesn’t support e-mails but has Java (and chances are that it does), you can sign-up for a browser-based e-mail account like GMail, set up Shop’NCook to send the grocery lists to your new account and install Opera browser for mobiles to view your grocery lists.

In both cases, you get a practical shopping list with checkboxes that you can mark as you go.

Now, even if your phone does not support Java - or if it does, but installing Opera sounds a bit too complicated, - don’t despair! You can probably still have your grocery list sent to your mobile phone very easily. You see, most mobile carriers have a free “SMS gateway”, which takes e-mails and delivers them to your phone as SMS text messages. For example, if your carrier is AT&T, you send an e-mail to your-10-digit-phone-number@txt.att.net - now your have to replace your-10-digit-phone-number by your actual phone number - and receive it as SMS on your phone. Just ask your carrier for the e-mail address you should use (or check this list).

That’s it for sending grocery lists to your mobile phone. More to come soon on setting up Shop’NCook to send e-mails.

I have put together the video below to illustrate the steps from finding a recipe on the internet to having a store-ready grocery list on your iPhone.

And YES, you can send your grocery lists to your iPhone with Shop’NCook - a question I get often. I’ll write more about the iPhone in a future post.

Don’t just watch the video: download the software if you haven’t already - it’s free for a 45-day trial - and go through the steps. See for yourself how easy it is to plan your meals.

I hope you like it! After trying it, I’d love it if you let me know how you did in the comments below.

Shop’NCook software comes with about 2000 grocery items, most of them with nutritional data. It is sufficient for many purposes, but does not cover everything. Occasionally, you will encounter ingredients not in the database. This post shows step by step how easy it is to add an ingredient to the database and include it in the nutritional analysis of your recipes.

1. Adding an ingredient to the database

Display the Shopping List manager tab, click on the Edit button to open the database editor. Select “Extended List” in the Tools menu to display all the categories and items of the database. Choose the appropriate category. Click on the NewItem button and type the new item name. In the Pro edition, you can also input the cost information to include the ingredient in your cost calculations.

Click on OK to save the change to the database.

2. Accessing the nutritional information

Locate the new item in the Shopping List panel and click on the question mark next to it.

This will open the nutritional information window (still empty). Click on the Edit button to reach the nutritional information editor.

In the Nutritional information editor, you can add the nutritional data and the unit conversion data.

3. Adding nutritional data

You input the nutritional data in the bottom area of the Nutritional information editor window. The default quantity of the ingredient is 100 g. If you want to input the nutrient values for another quantity, make sure  to first set the correct ingredient quantity and click on Apply. Input then the nutritional values corresponding to the quantity selected.

When you don’t know the value of a nutrient, leave it just empty. A good place to find the nutritional values of your ingredients is the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference.

4. Adding unit conversion data

Unit conversion data allows Shop’NCook to compute the nutritional information of ingredients for a vast number of quantities and units of measure.

For example: Ginger snaps in recipes is often specified in number of pieces, like: 3 ginger snaps. In order to compute the nutritional facts, Shop’NCook needs to know the weight of the cookies. This information is input in the top part of the nutritional editor window. Click the Add button in the Unit information area to add Unit conversion information. Type the name of the unit and the corresponding weight. For no unit, type “each” or leave empty. Click then OK to save the unit.

In the same way, you can input the weight of one cup of crumbs. Note that it is enough to add the weight of one volume unit (like cup). Shop’NCook will deduct from it the weight of all the other volume units.

Here is below the completed nutrition editor window:

Click then on Save to save the nutritional information.

The new ingredient can now be correctly included in the nutritional analysis and costing of the recipes. Here is a recipe as example to conclude this post:

GINGER SNAP PIE CRUST

Yield: 8  servings  of 1/8 of 9 inch pie crust
Total food cost: USD2.24
Food cost per portion: USD0.28

1 1/2 c.    ginger snaps crumbs
2 tbsp.    sugar
1/4 c.    butter, melted

Combine ginger snaps and sugar in a small bowl. Add butter, mix well. Press mixture into bottom and sides of a lightly greased 9 inch pie plate. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool. Yield: one 9 inch pie crust.

Nutritional facts per serving (daily value): Calories 163kcal; Protein 1g (3%); Total Fat 8g (12%)(Sat. 4g (18%)); Chol. 15mg (5%); Carb. 22g (7%); Fiber 1g (2%); Sugars 8g; Calcium 20mg (2%); Iron 2mg (9%); Folate 21µg; Vit. B12 0µg (0%); Trans fat 0g
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Exported from Shop’NCook Pro 3.4.3

Combining recipes is a powerful feature of Shop’NCook software that makes it easy to reuse recipes by combining them with other recipes, like recipes for sauce or dough that may be common to several preparations. Combining recipes makes it easier to manage your collection, as you only have to make changes in one place to update all the recipes using this preparation.

A recipe that includes other recipes looks as follows:

The ingredient “hollandaise sauce” is underlined to show that it links to a recipe.

If you click on Hollandaise sauce, the following recipe opens, correctly scaled to the required quantity:

Also, the nutritional analysis of the Brussels sprouts recipe, the list of ingredients to add to the shopping list, as well as the cost estimate include the ingredients of Hollandaise sauce.

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Shop’NCook Pro lets you estimate the cost of your recipes in a mostly automatic way, but you may need to some adjustments to get an accurate costing. I will show you how in this post.

Adding cost data

To cost out recipes, you have to make sure first to input cost data for the ingredients in the database. The first time you start Shop’NCook Pro, you have the possibility to import a cost database. If you skipped this step, don’t panic! You can still import it by selecting “Import cost data” in the Costing menu of the Shopping List manager tab. The cost database is there to help you get a quick start with the costing functions. For accurate costing, you will have to input your own cost data from your suppliers. Staple prices greatly vary depending on the region and the season!

Inputting your own cost data

To add your own data, click on the Edit button of the Shopping List manager tab. This will open the database editor. Select “Extended list” in the Tools menu to display all the 2000 items of the database. The cost data is input in the three columns on the right: quantity, cost unit and cost.

For example: quantity: 1, cost unit: quart, cost: 2.59, i.e. the cost of one quart of the ingredient.

Tip: you are not limited to the choice displayed in the pull down menu of the cost unit, but can type any unit of your choice in the field.

Automatic cost estimate

Once the software knows the cost data, it is able to compute automatically the cost of your recipes. Here is how the costing window may look initially:

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This video explains why ingredients are sometimes converted to shopping units when adding from recipes - and sometimes not. It also shows how to change the preferred shopping units to any units of your choice.

You can watch below three new features of the recipe editor in action. They are small improvements which should improve the usability and user experience of the editor. Do not miss the previous post on how to import a recipe in less than 20 seconds.

This video shows how a recipe can be imported into Shop’NCook in less than 20 seconds.

Note: The recipe costing is in the Pro edition and the meal planner in Menu and Pro editions only.