So I was searching through the internet the other day and randomly came across this blog.  I just had to write about it quickly, because while all of her recipes might not keep with my “no-time-to-cook, so-this-better-be-quick” mentality, I found myself very inspired by the creativity of her recipes (I found the recipe that I posted for checkerboard cake from her blog).  This girl is the type of cook I want to be someday…creative, and daring!  She uses different ingredients (I hope I’m not the only one, but sometimes I find myself falling into a sort of pattern, feeling like I’m making the same things over & over!).  She posts her meal plans every week, and I’m amazed at the meals she makes every week (this week she’s making some things we’re all fairly familiar with like chicken & white bean chili and country fried steak (although I can’t say I’ve ever actually made country fried steak!)…but she’s also making Wonton & Bok Choy Soup and shrimp & sweet potato cakes with slaw, and last week she made Marinated Tofu with red curry, peas and scallions…wow, don’t think I’ve ever put that on a weekly menu!).  I think if you have some extra time you should check it out…if not to find quick recipes you’ll have time to cook, then at least to be inspired to be more creative and daring!

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I came across a cool tool today and just had to share! The website is CookingByNumbers.com, and basically how it works is that you click on some of the ingredients that you have on hand in your fridge and pantry, and it’ll show you recipes that you could make with those ingredients! Genius! It tells you how many ingredients are needed for each recipe it gives you, and what percentage of those ingredients you have on hand, so that helps you narrow the search even better (if you only have 20% of the 12 ingredients needed, maybe should try a different recipe!).

The other thing I really liked was that it tells you if you’re missing an essential ingredient, like potatoes or eggs or something, basically the ones that you probably wouldn’t be able to find a simple substitution to in your fridge or pantry. All of the recipes I checked out that it provided me with were also quick, so that is ALWAYS a plus!

For instance, I checked that I had chicken, cheese, and garlic in my fridge, and oil, herbs, stock cubes & canned tomatoes in my cupbard. It provided me with recipes for things like chicken and cheese parcels and chicken and tomato pasta (it said I had 80% of 5 ingredients for both of those).

One thing to watch out for, though, is that they provide you with the recipes for very small servings on some of their recipes (like those 2 recipes I told you about above were for 1 and 2 servings), so make sure you pay attention to that and convert the amounts of ingredients if needed, or you’re gonna end up with some hungry people!

A lot of the recipes that I looked at seemed pretty basic, maybe even a little bit boring, but hey, when you’re standing in your kitchen thinking you have no food and wondering what to make, I think this tool could help a ton! Check it out!

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