We're navigating the confusing world of cooking apps -- and emerging with a few winners. 

The days of misplacing a favorite recipe are thankfully behind us. 

Cookbooks about foraging aren't all inaccessible and heavy. Jonathan Sundstrom has delivered an accessible, gorgeous cookbook -- and iPad app! -- full of recipes native to the Pacific Northwest, but suitable for your kitchen.

We've rounded up 7 apps for your iPhone or iPad that will help you get through the holidays without breaking a sweat.

Our friend Susan Pachikara writes the always-excellent Kitchen Basics column at Whole Foods Market Cooking. This time, though, she's not teaching us how to freeze avocados, all about melting chocolate, or the whys of caramelizing onions -- Susan now has an iPad app that shares a name with her blog: the Cardamom Kitchen app, currently $1.99 in the iTunes App Store.

Between Nicholas Day's family cookbooks, tips for trying new foods, Amanda's kids' lunches, and eating by example, we talk a lot about eating with and cooking for kids here on FOOD52. Today we have a digital solution to your lunchbox woes: LaLa Lunchbox, a new app for iPhone that brings parents and kids together to plan and pack lunches.

With the philosophy that kids who plan their own meals grow up to be better eaters, LaLa Lunchbox combines adorable graphics with truly helpful tools for busy families. Kids feel empowered because they get to choose their own meals, parents save money (the app generates a grocery list for you -- no more wasted, unwanted food), and everyone saves time -- both in the mornings when packing lunches and at the store.

It's interactive, it's educational, and it can be 100% personalized to your pantry. You can easily add your kids' favorite dishes -- whether that's mac and cheese or pickled ramp and cream cheese sandwiches -- to the database, and you can share your children's lunch ideas via Facebook, Twitter, or email. ("You'll never guess what our oldest picked for lunch -- maybe yours will like it too!")