My-Next-Meal

Overview

My Next Meal is designed to help you pick your next delicious meal in an easy to-use and friendly way. With 14 categories of dishes to choose from, you will find more than enough recipes to keep your belly happy and full.

Description

This is an iOS app built with UIKit (via programmatic UI, no storyboards) and the MealDB API.

Motivation

This was a take home project for an iOS Developer position I applied for. The project required I explicity use UIKit and the MealDB API to fetch the data and display it to users.

Challenge

The main challenge of this project was building the app with the provided API. The API has little documentation, verbose field names and is bad formatting, take a look for yourself...

{
  "idCategory": "1",
  "strCategory": "Beef",
  "strCategoryThumb": "https:\/\/www.themealdb.com\/images\/category\/beef.png",
  "strCategoryDescription": "Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle, particularly skeletal muscle. Humans have been eating beef since prehistoric times.[1] Beef is a source of high-quality protein and essential nutrients.[2]"
}

Here is my favorite...

{
  "idMeal": "52965",
  "strMeal": "Breakfast Potatoes",
  "strDrinkAlternate": null,
  "strCategory": "Breakfast",
  "strArea": "Canadian",
  "strInstructions": "Before you do anything, freeze your bacon slices that way when you're ready to prep, it'll be so much easier to chop!\r\nWash the potatoes and cut medium dice into square pieces. To prevent any browning, place the already cut potatoes in a bowl filled with water.\r\nIn the meantime, heat 1-2 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Tilt the skillet so the oil spreads evenly.\r\nOnce the oil is hot, drain the potatoes and add to the skillet. Season with salt, pepper, and Old Bay as needed.\r\nCook for 10 minutes, stirring the potatoes often, until brown. If needed, add a tablespoon more of oil.\r\nChop up the bacon and add to the potatoes. The bacon will start to render and the fat will begin to further cook the potatoes. Toss it up a bit! The bacon will take 5-6 minutes to crisp.\r\nOnce the bacon is cooked, reduce the heat to medium-low, add the minced garlic and toss. Season once more. Add dried or fresh parsley. Control heat as needed.\r\nLet the garlic cook until fragrant, about one minute.\r\nJust before serving, drizzle over the maple syrup and toss. Let that cook another minute, giving the potatoes a caramelized effect.\r\nServe in a warm bowl with a sunny side up egg!",
  "strMealThumb": "https:\/\/www.themealdb.com\/images\/media\/meals\/1550441882.jpg",
  "strTags": "Breakfast,Brunch,",
  "strYoutube": "https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=BoD0TIO9nE4",
  "strIngredient1": "Potatoes",
  "strIngredient2": "Olive Oil",
  "strIngredient3": "Bacon",
  "strIngredient4": "Garlic Clove",
  "strIngredient5": "Maple Syrup",
  "strIngredient6": "Parsley",
  "strIngredient7": "Salt",
  "strIngredient8": "Pepper",
  "strIngredient9": "Allspice",
  "strIngredient10": "",
  "strIngredient11": "",
  "strIngredient12": "",
  "strIngredient13": "",
  "strIngredient14": "",
  "strIngredient15": "",
  "strIngredient16": "",
  "strIngredient17": "",
  "strIngredient18": "",
  "strIngredient19": "",
  "strIngredient20": "",
  "strMeasure1": "3 Medium",
  "strMeasure2": "1 tbs",
  "strMeasure3": "2 strips",
  "strMeasure4": "Minced",
  "strMeasure5": "1 tbs",
  "strMeasure6": "Garnish",
  "strMeasure7": "Pinch",
  "strMeasure8": "Pinch",
  "strMeasure9": "To taste",
  "strMeasure10": " ",
  "strMeasure11": " ",
  "strMeasure12": " ",
  "strMeasure13": " ",
  "strMeasure14": " ",
  "strMeasure15": " ",
  "strMeasure16": " ",
  "strMeasure17": " ",
  "strMeasure18": " ",
  "strMeasure19": " ",
  "strMeasure20": " ",
  "strSource": "http:\/\/www.vodkaandbiscuits.com\/2014\/03\/06\/bangin-breakfast-potatoes\/",
  "strImageSource": null,
  "strCreativeCommonsConfirmed": null,
  "dateModified": null
}

Not so nice to play around with, which is why I used Insomnia to help me explore the API endpoints and the data it returned.