App-etite: Trufflehead

With budget constraints, sometimes you have to satisfy your craving for fancy foods by dining in rather than eating out. But what to do if your cooking skills simply aren’t up to snuff? Trufflehead was designed to help you with that problem. With a catalog of 270 full-flavored recipes—from vegetarian to dairy-free to gluten-free—Trufflehead will have you eating well and eating healthy. The recipes are also geared to be waistline- and budget-friendly, with nutrition data accompanying each one. Links embedded in each recipe will also show you exactly what you need for specific ingredients, or unfamiliar equipment, plus multimedia demos that allow you to get the recipe right the first time. You can also generate “smart” shopping lists from each recipe, to make trips to the grocery store easier. And for those home cooks just starting out, most recipes come with “simple” and “not so simple” versions, so that you can start slow and grow as you master new techniques and ingredients. The $4 price tag of this app might save you hundreds in the long run—or at least give you a little extra kitchen cred with your dinner guests! Available in the iTunes app store.