For many people, the New Year is an opportunity to clean the slate and create new, lofty goals (a.k.a. New Year’s Resolutions). If you’re anything like me, you might have a hard time keeping track and sticking to those resolutions.

Last year I made a goal to “eat less sugar”. I had a good run for about 4 months… but by the time Easter rolled around, it became harder to avoid the candy isle and resist those heavenly Cadbury Eggs. Don’t get me wrong, it's great to aspire change, but is there anything out there to help us reach our health goals?

Yes, it is helpful to create goals that are specific, realistic, and include a time frame, but these tips are not what I’m referring to. I’m referring to a certain computer program… that can help you plan out meals, analyze nutritional value and search for healthy recipes… any guesses? J

That's right, you guessed it- Cook'n Recipe Organizer!

So before throwing in the towel this year, check out some ways Cook’n can help you with your health goals:

Menu Planning:

If you haven’t tried this feature of Cook’n, I suggest you do- it’s awesome! This feature is especially helpful if you are focusing on portion control. You can plan a years worth of meals including snacks and beverages. By printing off your menus, and the corresponding recipes, you’ll have a visible health plan to keep you in check!

Menu planning can also help with financial resolutions. From your menu, you can create a shopping list with an approximant cost of ingredients. This list can save you time at the grocery store by categorizing ingredients in specific isles.

Nutritional Facts:

By adding ingredients to the proper “ingredient” tab, you can see the nutritional facts from your recipes. I absolutely love this feature of Cook’n, What a great way to see what our bodies are consuming! This is especially helpful if you have recipes with no prior nutritional information. Also, Cook’n has a database of over 10,000 nutritional labels from different food products. This database can help you compare which food brands are healthier.

Live Recipe Feeds:

Lastly, find recipes with healthy ingredients using the live recipe feed. By typing in “healthy recipes” you have endless possibilities at your fingertips. You can also search for specific ingredients in recipes. For example, if I waned to find a healthy salad including spinach, carrots and tomatoes, I can type this in and “tada”! Dozens of recipes are shown.

As you can see, there are endless ways Cook’n can help us with our New Year’s Resolutions. In what ways has Cook’n helped you reach your goals?