BigOven Blog

BigOven for iPhone 3.0: Now with Menu Planner!

“All busy parents should use this. It helps a lot with keeping you on budget and always being organized with what to cook on what days. Love, love it.” -- Christy Lucas, busy parent

Just before Thanksgiving, we rolled out a new release of the enormously popular (5+ million downloads), award-winning BigOven for the iPhone.  The big new feature: Menu Planner! 

If you’ve got an iPhone or iPod, you now have easy mobile access to your Menu Plan, which you can create on the iPhone, iPad or web.  Think of your Menu Plan as a calendar that can be filled with recipes and notes, which then turns into a grocery list for any date range with just a couple clicks. 

(BigOven PRO membership is required to utilize the grocery list; Menu Planner itself is also a PRO feature, but is freely available for all users during the beta testing period.)

Menu Plans can be created or edited entirely on the iPhone, but we recommend that you also bookmark the URL www.bigoven.com/plan in your desktop web browser, since it’s very convenient to work with two weeks at a time via drag-and-drop. 

Wherever you are – iPhone, iPad or Web -- you’re working with the same plan – and BigOven synchronizes them for you seamlessly.

 

 

About 170,000+ Recipes BigOven 3.0

Free features:

• View recipes anywhere, on vacation or at the grocery store – no awkward cookbooks or recipe cards
• Find new recipes to try – search by title, keyword, username, course or ingredient
• Use up leftovers – just enter ingredients from your fridge or pantry to find out what you can make
• Save time and money with Menu Planner
• Post your own recipes on www.bigoven.com and view them on the go
• Take and upload photos of any recipe you make within this app
• Save your Favorites and Try Soon recipes so you’re never stuck without dinner ideaqs
• Share recipes instantly via email, Facebook and Twitter
• Read and add your own recipe reviews
• Try importing recipes from text instantly with RecipeScan for free (3 free for a limited time)!

BigOven PRO ($15.99/year) members get:

• Get a grocery list automatically from any days in the Menu Planner
• Import 25 more recipes with RecipeScan
• Remove all advertising from the apps and website whenever you’re logged in
• Post recipes privately
• Detailed nutrition facts for recipes
• Track recipes you’ve made:  Choose “Prepare” from any recipe and BigOven remembers that you’ve made it

Watch a demonstration of the Menu Planner here.  Note how you can:

• Add recipes and notes to the Menu Planner
• Change serving sizes for recipes on the Menu Planner
• Generate a grocery list from your Menu Plan in a few taps

BigOven’s free recipe organizer gets you inspired and organized in the kitchen and on the go

 

 

Handy Tips

• Viewing Random Recipes and want to see another?  Just shake the phone.
• Don’t want to hear any click sounds?  Launch the Settings app, and choose “BigOven”.  You’ll see the option there to turn off sounds.
• Want to prevent the screen from going into “Lock” while you’re making a recipe?  Choose “Prepare” and view it in that mode.
• Want to find all the dessert recipes that, say, BigOven user “sgrishka” posted?  Choose “Advanced Search” and enter “sgrishka dessert” in the “Keyword” box.
• All your BigOven.com information is synchronized behind the scenes for you across devices.   You can simply log in and BigOven will keep track of your additions/removals at any point of service.  For instance, you can modify your grocery list using Internet Explorer from work, and then just grab your iPhone, and there it is!  If you add items on your iPhone, and check the web, it’ll also be there.
• BigOven will group items by department for you automatically.
• Want to give someone PRO membership?  You can now gift it, (or ask for it for Christmas!)

 

Like the app?  Nominate us for the Crunchies, and tell a friend!

Do you find BigOven useful?  We’d love your nomination for the Crunchie Award, Best Mobile App:  http://is.gd/Tp4hUw

We’re so pleased that so many of you like the app.  You voted us “Readers Choice, Best Recipe App 2011” on About.com, and we’re working hard to constantly improve it for you. 

As you know, BigOven gets much better with every new user that joins – more photos, reviews and great recipes -- so we’d love for you to spread the word with your friends!

 

7,000+ RecipeScans and Counting!

A RecipeScan progress report

Last week, we completed our 7,000th RecipeScan, and we’re on our way to completing our 8,000th in another week or so.  This new service, unique to BigOven, lets you scan recipes -- digitizing them into a searchable library quickly and easily. 

In other words, by simply snapping a photo, you can turn this:

into this:

which is also available via our free apps for iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Phone and anywhere you have access to the web.

Why Use RecipeScan?

If you’re like many home cooks, you have a drawer full of recipe clippings or paper notebooks somewhere in your kitchen.  Or, you might run across a great recipe in a newspaper that you’d just love to save for later.  Most of the time, they just sit there, forgotten, even when you’re completely stuck for dinner ideas, or out at the market.

Once your recipes are digitized, you can access them on the go, via any of our recipe apps for iPhone, iPad, iPod, Android, or Windows Phone.  You can add recipes to a Menu Plan and generate a grocery list easily.  You can search for it on the go.  You can look it up at any time.  You can calculate the nutrition facts.  In short, your cooking life gets easier.

Example Uses

• Your friends have invited you over for Thanksgiving dinner.  You enjoy a great meal and terrific company.  The dinner finishes with a delicious dessert -- butter pecan pie.  You ask the host for the recipe – she pulls out an old handwritten card from her grandmother.  You pull out your iPhone, launch the BigOven app, snap the photo, and click upload.  Later, typically within the day, you’ll get an email back with the recipe entered for you into your BigOven account.
  
• You want to digitize your own recipe collection.  You pull out that recipe drawer, and your iPhone, Android Phone or Windows Phone.  You snap photos of the recipes, and upload them.  RecipeScans are $0.99 each if bought one by one, or $0.59 if you buy them 100 at a time.  Note that when you join BigOven PRO, we give you 25 more RecipeScan credits, in addition to the 3 free ones that everyone gets.
  
• You want to digitize your Mom’s recipe collection to make cooking easier for her.  You do the same as above, and also buy her a gift membership for BigOven PRO.  Our support team will be happy to manually transfer over ownership of a set of recipes between any two BigOven PRO members – just contact support@bigoven.com with the list of Recipe ID numbers when you’re ready.  (Please do not do these one at a time, however; we’d appreciate it if you’d bundle your ownership-change request in a single one-time request for ownership transfer.  And both you and the recipient need to be BigOven PRO members.)
  

Tip:  You can Edit a Recipe You’ve RecipeScanned

RecipeScan is meant to dramatically speed your collection of recipes in the cloud – but it’s not perfect.  It’s simple to edit any recipe you’ve posted – including those that you’ve RecipeScanned.  Just like recipes you post to BigOven, a RecipeScan recipe shows up under “Recipes I’ve Posted”.  Since they are private recipes by default, no one will see it but you.  (If you’re a BigOven PRO member past your free trial period, you can make the recipe public, if you so choose.) 

You can edit a recipe simply by finding the recipe on BigOven.com (from any desktop web browser, not via the mobile apps), and clicking “Edit” on the right hand side of the page.  There, you can make any finishing touches you’d like.  You can also upload a photo, add ratings, add the recipe to your Favorites list, Try Soon list, Menu Plan and more. 

On BigOven.com, you’ll be able to see the original image or images you submitted right under the recipe title, for handy reference.

 

Tip:  To submit multiple photos for a single recipe, you MUST use the web interface

Our mobile apps only support one image per recipe.  To submit up to 3 images per recipe, upload your JPGs here:  http://www.bigoven.com/recipe/scan.  Submission of individual photos that need to be pieced together via the mobile phone will result in your RecipeScan request being rejected.

Tip:  Be sure to make it clear which recipe you want entered!

Some RecipeScan requests contain multiple recipes.  If it’s not obvious which one is to be entered, the request will be rejected.  For example, this submission was rejected for that reason:

Tip:  RecipeScan does not divine a recipe from a photo of food – we need written (handwritten or typed) recipes!

Here’s another RecipeScan request we received.  Care to type up the recipe?  (Is it sweet?  A hint of cinnamon?  Or nutmeg?  Filled with a cream cheese based filling… or is that ice cream?  You get the idea…)  Truth be told, we actually considered such a service, but we determined that even if professional chefs couldn’t tell you exactly how to make something without tasting it, neither could we.

 

RecipeScan:  A demonstration

If you haven’t seen our demo video, take a quick look below:

Linking Facebook and BigOven Accounts

Cooking is social!  People love great recipe suggestions, seeing pictures of food, and talking about food.  And BigOven can be as social as you want it to be. 

With new-and-improved Facebook features, BigOven has made it easy to connect your Facebook friends with your cooking successes.

The new features make it super-easy to:

• Add a photo to your BigOven profile
• Get informed when Facebook friends join BigOven
• Keep your Facebook friends updated on your cooking successes
• Welcome new members to BigOven

There are features for existing BigOven members and those new to BigOven.  Each case is described below.

Already a BigOven member?  Link to Facebook here.

Are you already a BigOven member?  Link your BigOven and Facebook accounts and:

1. BigOven will pull in your Facebook photo, upgrading your presence on BigOven if you don’t already have a photo
2. You’ll be given the option to:
   • Automatically post recipe raves to your friends (only done when you rate a recipe a 4 or 5) [now implemented]
   • Get an email when one of your Facebook friends joins BigOven (with their Facebook info)
   • Notify your Facebook friends when you post a photo [coming later this month]
   • Notify your Facebook friends when you post a recipe [coming later this month]

If you choose to notify your friends about recipe raves you make, every time you rate a recipe a 4 or 5 on BigOven, your friends will see a photo of the recipe, a link to the recipe, plus your personal comments.  This is only shown when you rate it a 4 or 5, and only if you’ve chosen that option.

(Change your mind?  No problem!  You can change your options at any time via the Edit My Profile link on your chef page.)

For example, I’ve just made and rated the Asparagus and Gruyere Tart very highly (4 stars = “Great”) on BigOven.  Without any extra effort, my Facebook friends now have a suggestion they should try:

I can easily disable this setting by visiting my “Edit My Profile” page at www.bigoven.com/account/me.

In 2012, we’ll be adding more Facebook-connected features.

So, existing members, give it a try: Link your Facebook and BigOven profiles.

Not yet a BigOven Member?  It’s easier than ever to join.

You can join BigOven via Facebook and save a bunch of time.  We’ll create a username, and import your Facebook photo and basic information to create your BigOven account. 

You won’t have to confirm your email, and you won’t have to separately upload a photograph or customize your profile. 

Are you new to BigOven?  Join BigOven easily via Facebook.

 

We’re kicking around a lot of ideas for how we can better integrate Facebook and BigOven.  Got an idea you’d like to share?   Drop us a line!

This holiday, give that cook in your life the ultimate kitchen tool.

We are pleased to announce that you can now give BigOven PRO membership to friends, family, colleagues… any cook in your life!

About BigOven PRO

Designed by home cooks for home cooks - our premium membership level, BigOven PRO, delivers great recipe organization and planning tools, including:

• A drag-and-drop Menu Planner, from which you can create grocery lists
• A fully mobile, synchronizing Grocery List
• Detailed Nutrition Facts
• Upgraded features on our free mobile apps
• Private recipes – letting you organize all your recipe collection
• 25 free RecipeScan credits – just snap a photo and we’ll enter them for you! (More are purchasable starting at just $0.59 each)
• BigOven PRO membership removes all advertisements across our website, smartphone and tablet apps – for an entire year – making for a cleaner, faster experience

How To Give BigOven PRO

Here’s how giving BigOven PRO works – it takes only a few moments.

It can be done from any web browser:

1. Visit www.bigoven.com/gift
2. Decide how many memberships you’d like to buy, and their duration (1 for $15.99, 2 years for $30.99 or 3 for $45.99).  You'll need one for each recipient.
3. Upon purchase, you’ll have a printable gift certificate, or you can email it to the lucky recipient.
4. The recipient simply enters their redemption code to upgrade to PRO!

 

 

 

Answers to Questions You May Have

When you purchase, you card will be charged for the total. This is a one-time purchase; you will not be added to any recurring billing in any way.

You can purchase as many gifts as you'd like, and you need one unique certificate for each recipient. A gift can either welcome a new member to PRO, or extend an existing PRO member -- even yourself. Refunds are happily provided if the code is unredeemed, by contacting our support team within 90 days of purchase. Because we incur credit card processing and service costs, refunds do carry a 10% processing fee. Go ahead and give the gift of cooking organization and inspiration. We know they're going to love it.

Questions about your purchase? Just jot us a note at support @ bigoven.com.

Know a cook in your life?  Give them the ultimate kitchen tool!

BigOven PRO is a gift that your friends, families and neighbors can enjoy all year long.  It’s a perfect gift for the home cook – experienced or novice.  It makes a great stocking-stuffer or thank-you gift for the busy host or hostess in your life.

To get started, visit www.bigoven.com/gift

To learn more about BigOven PRO, visit www.bigoven.com/pro

Happy cooking,

The BigOven Team

How America’s Spending Habits on Groceries have Changed over the Decades

I ran across the Infographic below from the folks at BillShrink.com and wanted to share it with you. 

We all know that food prices on many of our favorite items are rising, but did you know that the percent of household income that Americans spend on groceries has actually declined rather dramatically over the past five decades? 

In the 1950’s Americans spent approximately 30% of their household budget on food.  By the new millennium, it had shrunk to just 13%.  However, don’t think that we’re eating better.  Unfortunately, other data strongly indicates that what we are buying with our food budget tends to have much lower nutritional content per calorie than it did back in the 1950’s. 

 

Source:  BillShrink.com

 

Want to eat better?  Stick to the outer ring of the grocery store.  In general, produce, meats, dairy and other high nutrition items are on the outer ring of American grocery stores, with packaged goods and highly processed foods in the center aisle. 

Wired Magazine published a great Infographic in 2007 that illustrated this in terms of “cost per calorie”. 

Cost per calorie in your local grocery store aisles (click to enlarge):

Source:  Wired.com