Go Vegan! with Sarah Kramer app review, part 1: Tried and true recipes

I finally purchased the Go Vegan! with Sarah Kramer app for the iPhone. This is the first cooking app that I have ever downloaded but it is definitely not going to be the last because I'm smitten with it. (I hope Dreena Burton releases one next.) 

So far, I've made two of the fifty recipes offered. Forty of the recipes are from Sarah Kramer's previously published cookbooks, ten are new. (Tomorrow, in part two of this review, I'll try a couple of the recipes debuting in the app.) I do wish that the app would cite the specific cookbooks that each of the recipes are sourced from. It would be a handy to be able to reference the original recipe. For example, if you want to recommend it to your iPhone-less, cookbook-loving friends.    

Owning this handy app is like having Kramer's Vegan A Go-Go! in an even more portable version--which I didn't think possible because that book is already pocketable. Below is a photo of how the app sizes up against Kramer's previous pink-covered cookbooks. 

In terms of design, this app is uncluttered eye candy with attractive, functional menus. Each recipe is broken down into an ingredients page and a steps page, with pink apple and whisk icons to toggle back and forth. The app has an easily manageable favorites section and a helpful shopping list function. (Although it is funny that the app adds water to your shopping list. I tend to get water from the faucet, not the grocery store.) 

Other new content in the app includes informative short videos and audio intros for select recipes. And there are drool-inducing photos for every recipe, a feature that Kramer's cookbooks haven't always offered. 

My one personal pet peeve about the app is that it played music automatically on start up. While the music is peppy, I don't like to be blasted by audio unawares. However it was easy to set the music to "off" and it hasn't bugged me since.  

Here are photos of the two recipes that I've already added to my favorites que. Above is Sarah and Tanya's You-Must-Make-This Dressing. This salad dressing recipe is one of my all-time favorites. For this batch, I used a mix of fresh garlic chives and regular chives.  

I also made another familiar favorite, the "Anything Goes" Fruit-Filled Muffins. These muffins are nice because they are flexible; you can add anything (fruits, nuts, chocolate, etc.) into the mix. For this batch I used apple, raspberries, and blackberries for the fruit filling. I also added some whole wheat flour to make it slightly more healthy. I wish the recipe had more spice suggestions but maybe that is a challenge to experiment further.

Update: Here's part two of my review.