Review & Giveaway: Nom Nom Paleo App

As you can probably imagine, I’m super picky when it comes to food blogs and recipe sites. I have high standards for myself and when it comes to stuff I really care about — like food, recipes, and writing — I tend to expect high quality from others, too. My list of go-to blogs for recipes and snappy writing is pretty short, and Nom Nom Paleo has a prominent place on that list.

I’m not sure if she knows this, but our friendship was launched before we’d ever exchanged an email or met each other. Way, way back in the day, when Dave and I first started tossing around the idea of a cookbook, we planned to call it “Paleo Nom Nom.” We even bought that URL and started planning the web site. Then one day I stumbled across Nom Nom Paleo. I was devastated — my new web site and cookbook title were gone. But then I got over it and started to get excited, because I liked Nom Nom’s vibe, her recipes, her photos… she won me over with her Nom-Nom-iness. And now I can’t imagine the world any other way.

Until recently, we didn’t have an iPad, so aside from the sneak peek I got at PaleoFX, I didn’t have the good fortune of enjoying the Nom Nom Paleo app. But that’s all changed because Dave, as the IT Direction of Smudge Publishing, feltit was essential to our business that we have an iPad. I’m so glad he did because the Nom Nom Paleo app is awesome. And if you have an iPad, you should get the app right now. And if you don’t have an iPad, you should consider getting one so you can use the app. (I’m not really kidding about that.)

With Nom Nom Paleo and FitBomb at the helm, I knew the recipes were going to be delicious and the photography was going to gorgeous — but it’s also a very good interactive app. The user interface is flexible and easy to use, with plenty of ways to move through the information, depending on your preferences. It’s slick and friendly and beautiful.

Use It Your Way

The app includes 53 mouthwatering recipes to start, and you can beef that baby up with additional 10-recipe sets. One of my favorite things about the app is the various ways you can browse the recipes. They’re categorized by ingredient (Bacon!), meal part (Sides, Main Dishes, etc.), Cooking Method (Slow Cooker, Sous Vide), and Whole30 compliance.

And once you’ve picked your recipe, the options don’t stop there. You can page through each recipe step by step or use the card view to see ingredients and instructions on one page.

In addition to instruction marked by Nom Nom Paleo’s trademark wit and friendly voice, the app lets you add recipes to a list of favorites for fast reference, easily add ingredients to a shopping list that you can email to yourself (or your designated grocery shopper!), and convenient links to the web to buy cooking equipment or visit the Nom Nom Paleo web site. The whole experience is smooth and seamless.

The Photos & Recipes

FitBomb worked his camera magic, and these two — who are crazy in just the right way — documented each step of each recipe. That means the app is bursting with 1,500 stunning photographs. No, that’s not a typo. Fifteen hundred BEAUTIFUL photos. I can tell you from experience, getting that many good shots is not easy.

And the recipes. They’re 100% Nom Nom: flavorful, bold, easy to make, meant to be shared. Here’s a small sampling of the succulent choices:

Moroccan Lamb & Chestnut Stew
Magic Mushroom Powder
Slow Cooker Kalua Pork
Broiled Bacon-Wrapped Tuna Medallions
Prosciutto-Wrapped Frittata Muffins
Great Balls of Fire

I am especially excited about dukkah, a condiment made of pistachios, hazelnuts, sesame seeds, coriander, and cumin. It sounds like it was invented from a list of my favorite things!

More Than Recipes

But it’s more than just recipes. There are all kinds of extra bites of content to help paloe newbies and old-hands refine their approach to eating,managing the kitchen, and getting meals on the table.

– an overview of paleo
– a list of essential kitchen equipment and pantry staples
– a month of meal ideas for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and sides
– ridiculously adorable illustrations

Plus, there are some revealing truths about the smarty-pants behind Nom Nom Paleo. For instance, she confesses, “I once paid my cousin five dollars for a single piece of grape-flavored Bubble Yum.”

And the story behind the blog name:  “You know — the sound you make when you’re eating something incredibly mind-blowing, and you’re just scarfing it down. Like this: NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM.”

One of the reasons I love books is that I when I turn the pages, I can feel the humans that made it: the writer who had the ideas, the designer who laid out the pages, the photographer who captured special moments in time, the printer who applied ink to paper. Too often, the Kindle and the iPad leave me cold, but every screen of the Nom Nom Paleo app is infused with the warmth of these people:

See It In Action

Get in on the Giveaway

Now we get to the really good stuff. Nom Nom has graciously offered up three prize packs, so I’ll randomly choose three winners from the entries.

UPDATE 07/16/12: We have our winners! Congratulations to Stephanie F., Mandi, and JAM!

The Prize: Nom Nom Paleo app + Nom Nom Paleo socks

To Enter:
1. Sign up for the Nom Nom Paleo newsletter to get delicious news delivered to your inbox.

2. Sign up for my newsletter for a communique from me once a month with cool stuff that doesn’t make it into my blog.

Then post to comments to let me know you signed up, and you’re good to go! That’s it! So easy!

Deadline to Enter: 11:59 p.m. Central, Thursday, July 12, 2012

Buy It!

Of course, instead of leaving it in the hands of fate, you could just go buy a copy of the app now. You should probably to that! Available in the iTunes Store!

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Posted by Melissa Joulwan July 09, 2012
IN Blog
TAGS: cookingdino-chowpaleoreview

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