I recently trialled the app Change4Life Smart Recipes – NHS Choices for Best Magazine (and what an honour to be featured on the same page as Jane Fonda!). Here’s a detailed review of the app.
Contents
PROS
– Attractive design, good idea to use the mix ‘n’ match recipe option as a “lucky dip” to decide how to plan the meals for the day.
– I think the option to add the recipes to the shopping list is useful as you get a ready made list with quantities to take to your supermarket
– About 200 recipes to choose from
– Gamification element of meal planning is fun and is definitely a plus point
– Great for families because there are recipes for children to encourage them to eat more fruit and veg
CONS
– most of the recipes are too fatty in my opinion (for example, most recipes have too much cheese, which I don’t eat)
– 200 recipes are not enough for me; I enjoy more variety in my meals and some recipes were quite similar. In an ideal world, the app should feature a different recipe for breakfast, lunch and dinner for each day of the year (365 x 3 = 1095 recipes in total)
– many recipes feature bread (pitta bread, sliced bread) which I don’t particularly think it’s healthy
– Search option for recipes needs improving: if you search for “fish” for dinner the app only gives you only 4 recipes but if you type “tuna” you get a further 3 and so on. The search is based on what words are included in the recipe title, not in the ingredients list.
VERDICT
Change 4 Life can be helpful for families with young children to encourage them to eat more fruit and veg and, who knows, maybe get children to start helping out in the kitchen and familiarise themselves with different types of foods.