Cooking with What You've Got

Photo Credit: myfridgefood.com

This weekend I came across a new food website called My Fridge Food. I'm not sure whether it was in this class that someone spoke about this concept, but I remember hearing it from someone else: the idea is that you check off the things you have in your kitchen and the site will provide you with recipes that use only those ingredients, so you can prepare a meal without having to go out and buy more. The home page proudly proclaims that MFF is for those "who look into a freshly stocked fridge and end up eating string cheese because we don't know what to do with the rest." My, they know me so well!

Although I haven't tried using any of the recipes so far (there wasn't really any need over Thanksgiving), I tested out the search engine by checking off a few of the things that are always stocked in my kitchen at home: beans, butter, eggs, flour, honey, ketchup, mayonnaise, pasta noodles, salt and pepper, milk, peppers, rice, shortening/oil, sugar, tomatoes, tuna, vegetables, and vinegar. The resulting list of recipes was endless. I could filter the results by maximum calories, category (breakfast, entrée, soup, etc.), and group (CollegeCorner, Diabetic, Vegetarian, etc.). Each recipe (all of which are provided by site users) listed the time needed to make the dish as well as basic nutritional information. Although some recipes called for more ingredients than what I checked off at the beginning, they bolded the missing ingredients so it's easier to see if you can still make it.

When I shortened my fridge list to seven dorm room staples, the recipe list was still endless, and most recipes sounded delicious. The next time I find myself staring helplessly into a fully stocked fridge and reaching for the potato chips, I'll be sure to find a new recipe on this site!