This program is a recipe storage medium, grocery list generator and nutritionist all rolled into one.

www.bigoven.com

INTRODUCTION

BigOven is simply the next logical step for kitchen organization. It provides recipes to make, a means of tracking what is going to be needed to make your masterpieces and for the health conscious, it will provide the nutritional information for what is being prepared.

INSTALLATION

To install this program just download the program from the website and run. It will ask basic configuration questions (where do you want to install it; what is the destination location for the library of recipes you will create, to be stored). At the end of the installation it will ask for the registration key to be entered and after that you are done. You will need 11 Megabytes of space for the original program download, the finished installation will take up a small 13 Megabytes of storage space.

CONFIGURATION

One of the extremely user friendly aspects of this program is that there is no configuration requred. As soon as you have finished installing it, BigOven is ready to use. You can immediately launch right into laying out meal plans, determining grocery needs or start looking for recipes to setup for the future.

INTERFACE

The interface is very straightforward with multiple ways of doing the same thing. There are the usual text controls along the top, these are duplicated by quick buttons just below that. Along the left side is a selection of headers that allow you to view the recipe choices based on what your preference is (mexican, thai,etc.), main ingredient, course or even to view any recipe boxes you may have put together.

FUNCTIONALITY

BigOven works on several levels toward organizing your kitchen. The most obvious and straightforward is providing various recipes to be prepared. In this the program shows an excellent selection of items just from the default database that comes with the program. If you take the time you will find available recipes for most any taste you might want to try. The display on the left will show you the available recipes already stored or imported, the larger window on the right will display the specifics of the recipe that you choose to examine. The layout of the larger display window makes understanding what to do rather easy. I would have appreciated if the text had displayed showing some of the instruction information in another colour to make it stand out, but it was not a significant problem

The second aspect of the program is the grocery management element. Here BigOven provides the option to list everything that is in the dish that you want to make and asks you to remove from the list what is currently in your cupboard. The resulting list can be printed out and used as your grocery list. BigOven takes it one step farther by breaking down and sorting the components to where they would be found in a regular grocery store (bread, meats, vegetables, etc). If you use the meal planner for a week long menu, you will be able to get a list of ingredients for the week instead of for just one meal.

The third significant aspect of BigOven is it's ability to show you the nutritional value of the meal. Whether you are watching what kinds of food you are eating because you are on a diet or because of medical reasons, this feature will be invaluable. You can measure the nutritional information for a specific ingredient or for the combined nutritional values of a whole meal. In a culture more interested than ever in what kinds of foods are we consuming, this feature is a necessity.

The Piece de Resistance for this program is that it will also soon be available for the PocketPC handhelds.

CONCLUSION

BigOven is easy to install, very straightforward to use and provides access to a whole slew of resources for the most discerning chef. This program will make organizing dinner, lunch or a mid-afternoon snack easy for 1 or 10. The biggest problem you will have with this is deciding what meal to make.

	PROS: a. very good user interface b. excellent selection of meal choices CONS: a. need to have an internet connection for some features b. not all the recipes have an accompanying picture