Great Apps for ABI: Pepperplate
Many of my clients with brain injury describe difficulties when it comes to getting back to cooking. The find that many aspects of this daily task become difficult including:
- remembering all of the ingredients they need to buy
- navigating the grocery store to find all that they need
- following the steps in a recipe
- scanning back and forth between ingredients and instructions
- altering recipe portions
- forgetting food on the stove or in the oven
The Pepperplate app has built-in solutions to many of these problems. Read on to learn about the many benefits of one of the great apps for ABI!
Organizing and Planning
Pepperplate is a great app to help with organizing and planning. The app has built in weekly meal planning capabilities as well as party menu planning. It also allows you too add recipes to your shopping list and will generate a grocery list for you that is already organized into the appropriate departments in the grocery store! This is a lifesaver for those who have difficulties with generating an organized grocery list and end up wandering back and forth in the grocery store to find missed items.
The app syncs across all devices (phone, tablet, computer) so that the meal plans and shopping lists are always up to date. Anyone with access to your Pepperplate account (e.g. spouse/kids) can add items in real-time and you can add additional non-recipe related items to your list so you can use it as a one stop-stop for your shopping lists.
Memory
The Pepperplate shopping list function also allows you to cross off items as you find them in the store to ensure that nothing is missed.
Once you are home and have started cooking, the app also has a handy portion calculator which will automatically recalculate ingredient amounts based on how many servings of your meal you would like to prepare.
The timer function on the app allows you to set multiple timers while cooking, handy if different steps of your recipe require different cooking times! This function is perfect for those who have a tendency to walk away from the kitchen and forget how long their food has been cooking.
Processing
The Pepperplate app also gives you full control over how the steps of your recipes are broken down and explained. If you miss steps within the longer paragraph-style instructions in most recipes, this app is great as it allows you to shorten and separate the instructions into as many individual steps as you like.
Attention
The layout of the Pepperplate app on the iPad is perfect for those who struggle with the back and forth scanning between ingredients and instructions in a traditional recipe layout. The ingredients and instructions are set up side by side and can each be scrolled through individually.
Finding the recipe you need is also a snap with this app thanks to the “category” feature. You can assign any category you can think of to your recipes such as "vegetarian”, “holiday”, “Italian”, etc. and can filter your recipes by these categories or search them by name.
An app for everyone!
Although Pepperplate is a fantastic app for someone struggling with difficulties after an ABI, is truly is a great app for anyone who enjoys cooking and is one that I use everyday! This is only of of many great apps that we teach our clients about to use as strategies to overcome their cognitive-communication difficulties and make their lives more efficient! Contact us today to find out other ways we can help!
Melissa Kiley is a registered Speech-Language Pathologist with a special interest in concussion/acquired brain injury as well as literacy skills development. She has been working with clients for over 10 years and is highly skilled in developing functional and innovative treatments.