With 5000+ vegan recipes, and new additions daily, this recipe app could replace virtually every other veg-friendly cookbook in your kitchen.

While there are a number of things we can do to try to live in a more eco-friendly manner, one that keeps coming up (with good reason) is the move to a more planet-friendly diet, whether that's a full-on switch to a vegetarian or vegan diet, or just doing a variation of Meatless Monday (such as Vegan Before 6). However, it can be difficult to make the commitment if it's rather new to you, so for those who find it hard to get inspired and creative in the kitchen when preparing meatless or dairyless meals, there's a new recipe app that could be a great tool for seasoned cooks and newbies alike.

Food Monster, from the folks at One Green Planet, is an iPhone and iPad app (Android version coming this summer) that delivers mouthwatering photos, detailed ingredient lists, and step-by-step instructions for a huge number of planet-friendly dishes, and it allows users to search for recipes by ingredients, by diet preference, or in themed collections (dairy-free cheeses, raw vegan desserts, veggie burgers, seasonal favorites, etc.). With some 5000+ recipes already on the app, and new recipes being added daily, this app could be a phenomenal addition to your kitchen, whether you're an old hand at vegan cooking, or you're just veggie-curious.

"The real war against climate change is being fought on our plates, multiple times a day with every food choice we make. By choosing to eat more plant-based foods, we can drastically cut our carbon footprint, save precious water supplies, help ensure that vital crop resources are fed to people, rather than livestock and give thousands of species a fighting chance for survival. We have the potential to make an enormous positive impact by just changing the way we eat." - Nil Zacharias, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of One Green Planet

Here's a quick video introduction to Food Monster:

The app is available as a free download, although with limited access to recipes and instructions, but a monthly fee ($1.99 per month) or yearly subscription ($19.99) unlocks all of the recipes and features in the app. Even though we're mostly conditioned to expect free apps and free services all the time these days, many of us would gladly pay $20 for a new cookbook, especially if it enabled us to quickly get up to speed on a new skill or get access to the resources to support our lifestyle and habits, so I don't think the price is unreasonable at all. After all, if we are what we eat, and we are what we eat eats, and our diet can have a huge impact on our health and well-being, then investing in our health through a new recipe app or better ingredients is probably money well spent (your mileage may vary).

The Food Monster app has a great search feature, allowing users to find new recipes in a variety of ways, and favorite recipes can be bookmarked for later use or shared via email or social media, and a community feature enables discussions with other users, as well as the ability to ask questions about specific recipes.

I've been using the app for the last couple of weeks, and even though my family and I are long-time vegans, with a huge number of recipes in our cooking toolbox, so to speak, I've found plenty of great new recipes and meal ideas in Food Monster. Plus, with all of the drool-worthy pictures in the app, it really does inspire one to try making new dishes (and new approaches to vegan mainstays), and could very well suck you right in for hours at a time, just because of the sheer volume of recipes. I think it's well worth trying out the free version, or even paying for one month's subscription just to see if it's a good fit for you, even if you're an experienced veg-head like me.

Learn more at the App Store: Food Monster.