Website Review: Spark Recipes

Tomorrow is the first Wednesday of a new month (FYI it is now the month of June, in case you are like me and suffering from post-vacation brain farts). What does this mean? The need to wrap up last month’s website of the month so that the new site for the month of June can be reviled tomorrow (totally un-relevant, but does anyone else bust out in a rendition of the song “Tomorrow” (best Annie impersonation and all) every time they have to simply spell the word ‘tomorrow’! I confess, I do.)

So here are my thoughts about May’s Website of the Month, Spark Recipes.

Here’s what Spark Recipes is all about:

Pictures: Few

There are a few photos of recipes on this site but not many. And several of the few photos do not even match the recipe, so that is very frustrating and misleading.

Prep Time, Cooking Time, and Number of Servings listed: Yes and No

Some of the recipes have this information provided but not all. This is a bit frustrating that this information is not consistently provided since this can be a determining factor for many if they make a particular recipe of not.

Nutritional Information provided: Yes, every recipe

This really pushed my buttons, since this site advertise and promotes that it is a nutritional site and provides this information. They even have a nutritional data calculator to plug in your own recipe and obtain this information but when I entered recipes from the site which already included this information the results were not the same. Read here and here about my rants about this.

Clear, easy to follow directions and ease of preparation: Yes and No

Since all of these recipes are uploaded from users not all of the directions are 100% accurate or clear.

Easily available ingredients and budget friendly: somewhat
Since this is a “healthy eating” recipe site some of the recipes call for ingredients that may not be pantry staples or may cost more.

Variety of recipes: All types of recipes
This site is huge and has tons of recipes.

Meal Planning Feature: No

Source of recipes: Member submitted and Spark Recipe originals

Cost: FREE!

Special feature: So I have to be honest that this has been my least favorite recipe site to date. I like the concept of having a healthy eating recipe site and community and love the ability to plug in my own recipe and calculate the nutritional data. BUT (read: big fat BUT) this site has a ways to go in my opinion. The nutritional data calculator needs to be more accurate and easy to use.

Despite my heavy opinions about this site every recipe I made was incredible! Take a look:

 

Disclosure: I am not compensated for this review. They are just my thoughts and opinions about a site I love and use!