We’ve all looked into the vast, frozen wastelands of our fridges and groaned, “I have no idea what I’m making for dinner.”
Then we spend money eating out or have cereal for dinner.
Sometimes we’re low on creativity or just plain low on ingredients. We like a new site that takes the ingredients you already have at home and spits out recipes you can use immediately — without a trip to the grocery store. It helps use up items you already have so they don’t go to waste, plus you’re not wasting your time rushing out to the store. Or the pizza parlor.
It’s called Supercook.com and it was recently featured in Time magazine’s 50 Best Websites 2009.
You can just type in potatoes and salt and still get some recipes, but the site will then ask if you have other specific ingredients. That’s cool, because it jogs your memory about what you actually could use and then gives you more ideas based on whether you can add butter or olive oil to those potatoes. It also breaks the recipes down by starters, entrees and desserts.
When you type in your ingredients, you’ll have a few recipes that say “You have everything needed for this recipe!” while others say “You will also need” and lists additional ingredients.
We decided to type in a few ingredients that we had on hand to see what kinds of recipes the Super Cook came up with. When we entered chicken, salsa, black beans and Velveeta, we got two recipes: “Idiot Chicken” and “Chicken and Black Bean Nachos”. Yum!
Idiot Chicken
3-4 fresh or thawed boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 (18 oz) jar mild salsa
Directions: Place chicken in the bottom of the crock pot. Pour salsa over chicken to cover. Cover and cook on low for eight hours or high for four hours.
Well, that’s simple!
Chicken and Black Bean Nachos
1 cup canned black beans
1 cup Velveeta cheese
8 ounces boneless chicken breast (chopped)
1 cup salsa
Directions: Place cheese and salsa in a bowl, microwave until melted. Fry chicken in a skillet over medium heat, turning until both sides are golden brown. Chop chicken; add to cheese and salsa mixture. Cook black beans in a small pot over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 5-10 minutes. Pour chicken, cheese and salsa into the pot with the black beans. Stir. Serve over tortilla chips or serve as a dip.
If you’ve got absolutely NO ingredients or no time to cook, remember you can pick up a take-home dinner from Cuisines Gourmet to Go, which offers gourmet catering and meal solutions. They’ve got different meals each day, and they are wonderful! Click here to visit the Cuisines website and get more info!
