AnyList

All of us eat. To eat, most of us must grocery shop.

Years ago, as a result of my obsession with anti-inflammatory foods, I began cooking more meals. I found myself spending much more time in grocery stores.

I would find a recipe on my phone or iPad and take a screenshot, so I knew what ingredients I needed to purchase. Alternately, I would tell my Amazon Echo to add the items to my shopping list. Once I got to the store, my list was a jumbled mess. I’d find myself roaming back and forth between isles.

Then I came across an intriguing application called AnyList.. Although Anylist is useful for any of your list needs, the best part of the app focuses on recipes and shopping.

The base app is free, but there is a subscription upgrade called Anylist Complete ($9.99/year personal or $14.99/year for a family). The charge for Complete is well worth the price of admission.

Using Anylist Complete, I’m able to import recipes from most of the major recipe sites and blogs. The import function works seamlessly, generating a picture of the dish, an ingredient list, and instructions. I can organize my recipes in all sorts of different ways. The recipe can be shared with other family members that use Anylist.

I’m able to add individual ingredients to my shopping list or with a single press, add all the ingredients at once. Anylist parses each item into specific subsets that correlate with the arrangement of most grocery stores (e.g., produce, baking, etc.)

Better yet, Anylist can interact with my Amazon Echo shopping list. When I tell Alexa to add an item to my shopping list, the new addition is added automatically to the correct subset in Anylist.

AnyList has changed the way I shop. I use the app several times each week.