Top 4 free apps to help you in the kitchen

If you’re hosting a holiday dinner or just having a party and serving food, the kitchen can get crazy. From the prep to cooking, here are the top four apps that will help you stay organized and sane while you create delicious recipes.

4 best apps for the kitchen

1. Kitchen Stories

Did you know that there are over 400 different kinds of Italian cheeses? We didn’t, either. Kitchen Stories has it all, and puts a comforting and quirky spin on recipes by giving a little background in the form of relatable stories before you start. This app knows that we aren’t all world-renowned chefs, and begins by asking at what level you think your skills are.

From there, you can view a wide variety of different dishes categorized by cuisine, season, holiday, and more. Follow recipes step-by-step with videos to accompany them.

Also included are tasting notes if you decide to step outside of your comfort zone to make something new, and you’ve never tried an ingredient before. Kitchen Stories is a must for your arsenal of holiday apps. Available for iOS and Android.

Kitchen Stories Recipes DOWNLOAD FREE

2. Substitutions

Let’s say you’ve just returned home from the store and only have a little time to cook until people start arriving, and you realize that you forgot an ingredient. Or the cousin with a different girlfriend every month texts you out of the blue to say that she is allergic to a certain spice that plays a large part in most of your recipes. Substitutions helps you by listing meats, seafood, spices and herbs, and other cooking ingredients and giving you something else that you can use instead.

Substitute is a potential life saver for any cook. Available for iOS and Android.

Substitutions DOWNLOAD FREE

3. Food Monster

Not everyone eats meat and dairy, and Food Monster is the perfect app if you have vegan guests. The pictures alone are enough to pull anyone in.

There are a ton of different categories to choose from. Seasonal fall recipes include Roasted Sweet Potato, Black Bean and Kale salad, and for winter holidays you have a hearty Lentil Loaf with Celery Root Mash. You can make meal plans, see what dishes are trending, and make your own collections for recipes that are five ingredients or less, or creative salads. Your vegan guests will be shocked by your delicious food. Available for iOS and Android.

Food Monster - Vegan Recipes Download Free

4. Timer +

Timer + is the most simple app on our list, but the most crucial. There’s nothing worse than getting overwhelmed with preparation and losing track of time. The smell of burning is a death sentence to any holiday meal.

Simply add a new timer, name it for a meal that’s cooking, and start. The best thing about this app is that you can set multiple timers at once, so if you’ve got to do housework as well, you won’t forget about the wet laundry. Hiding in another room to wait until your shirt dries while the guests arrive is a thing of nightmares. Available on iOS and Android.

Timer + DOWNLOAD FREE

Having all these apps at your disposal will make your party prep a breeze. Happy hosting!