Review: My Healthy Cooking Coach for DS

I recently had the opportunity to try out and review My Healthy Cooking Coach for Nintendo DS.

My Healthy Cooking Coach is a recipe “game” from Ubisoft that makes a hectic life just a little easier! My Healthy Cooking Coach suits those constantly on-the-go who still want to make yummy nutritious meals for themselves and their families.

You start off by entering your first name and birth date, then answer a few questions about your eating and cooking habits and rituals so it can recommend recipes that are adapted to your needs.

It also asked me if there were any ingredients I’d like to exclude from the recipes, and what my favorite ingredients are. To select favorite ingredients you get refrigerated categories including meats, fish, dairy, fruits and vegetables. Within each category are typical ingredients you’d expect, listed alphabetically. For example, in meat is displays beef, chicken, duck, pork, etc., and you click on which ingredients you like.

You also get a cupboard option for things like pastas and grains, legumes, oils and condiments.

It then moves on to your kitchen equipment, asking if you have an oven, grill, food processor, what unit of measure you prefer, and how many people you generally cook for. It then tells me my profile is complete and it knows which recipes to suggest for me.

The first recipe it pulls up is a daily suggestion, which for me was Sweet & Sour Chicken. From the suggestion you can put together a shopping list, calendar, and you have access to a timer.

It’s also got a virtual kitchen game/tutor for those who need a break from the real thing, or want a test run before they get started!

The full program features include:

~ Create a personalized profile to set your preferences such as budget, time constraint, calories or ingredient preferences. Daily suggestions will show up depending on your profile.

~ Browse through 260 healthy and delicious recipes developed by chefs.

~ Learn more about each recipe with the nutritional tips provided by a certified nutritionist.

~ Handsfree option can be activated for step by step voice assistance and the ability to use your own voice to control the pace of each recipe.

~ Find recipes that you can make with the ingredients you already have at home with the use of the virtual refrigerator and the virtual cupboard.

~ Plan weekly meals with the calendar.

~ Make your grocery shopping with your shopping list based on the ingredients needed for the meals you want to prepare.

~ Visual glossary to look in if the player doesn’t know about an ingredient, a utensil or a cooking technique.

~ Practice recipes in the virtual kitchen before trying them for real to avoid any mess.

I really love this and my daughters do too. As I try to teach them how to work their way around the kitchen and make some simple dishes, the Healthy Cooking Coach makes it a little more fun for them, and since it’s interactive they get a little more of a boost when it comes to learning.

My Healthy Cooking Coach is available for both the Nintendo DS and the new Nintendo DSI, and retails for about $29.

[images used with permission from ubisoft]