Recommended New Website Recipe Key

How often do you look in the pantry and refrigerator and go blank trying to figure out what to have for dinner with the ingredients on hand?  This month while participating in the Eat From Your Pantry Challenge I have faced that dilemma over and over again.  I stand in front of the pantry and look at all the items and a spark of inspiration does not appear.  Then I think of something and realize one key ingredient is missing.  I ponder again and am sure there are 100's of combinations I have not tried.  But what are they?

Today I found a website that will take the ingredients I have on hand and with the click of a button, list out possible recipes that can be made.  I am thrilled!!  Recipe Key is super simple and user friendly.  Foods are listed in categories like vegetables.  Click on vegetables and a page including pictures of vegetables in alphabetical order appears.  You simply click on the pictures of all the veggies you have on hand and send them to your virtual pantry.  You can choose if it is a main ingredient or a secondary ingredient then search for recipes that contain only the ingredients you have.  It is a wonder, a miracle, a solution to my hours of debating what to have and then resorting to a can of soup or bowl of cereal simply because my creative juices are just not flowing.

Recipe Key has thought of so many things like allergies, a blog, a forum and a way to add recipes.

I am going to spend some time today and enter in the contents of my pantry.  It might take hours but I think for someone like me it will be a great tool and another internet marvel to make life easier and more convenient.

After thought:  I just finished entering all the ingredients they had pictures for and it did not take much time at all!  In fact, it gave me some ideas to add to my shopping list and things to keep in my food storage.  What an easy way to know what you have on hand and be able to at a glance make a shopping list and a weekly menu!  I am sold.

Frugal Pantry Challenge

My pantry spice racks

Challenges make me sit up and listen. eat-from-the-pantry-challenge-for-january is a great challenge.  The premis is to see how many meals you can create from the stores in your pantry and freezer without going to the store.  I am taking on the challenge beginning January 1rst.

I have a very abundant pantry.  Crazy actually.  My freezer is bursting and needs to be thinned out.  This is a great opportunity for me to test my food preparedness again and see what I have learned since the last time I participated in a test like this.

This quotation from the Bible was given in the article that is worthy of posting here. 

“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! ” – Luke 12:22-24

I can honestly say I have observed crows quite a bit in the past 6 years because they are frequent visitors to my yard and roof.  I know them to be great savengers because they bring things to my bird bath and little bitty water pool.  By things I mean bread, pizza crusts, corn cobs and other unidentifiable food items stolen from garbage cans.  They put the items in the water and let them get soggy then they eat them.  We have all seen crows eat road kill but I had never really thought about how they find food year round.  I guess crows are good runners for thinking about our own food preparedness.

I will continue to report in on what meals I come up with and what I learn.  The only thing I can think of that I will buy before I begin is a container of 1/2 and 1/2 for my coffee.  I do have creamora, evaporated milk and powdered milk in the pantry BUT I prefer 1/2 and 1/2.

Anyone brave enough to take on the challenge? I have a $200 budget for food which I will use once I have finished the challenge to restock and fill in the items that stand out as missing from my current storage plan.  I am excited.

If you are going to participate please leave a comment below and let's share stories!