Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Clean Out the Cupboards Challenge: Recipe idea resources

For those of you who are participating in January's Clean Out the Cupboards Challenge (including my co-hosts -  Denise at Shopper Strategy, Robbie at Going Green Mama, Crystal at Mrs. Happy Homemaker, and Rebecca Jean at Midnight Maniac), it can be challenging to come up with recipe ideas to use up the items in the pantry.

Here are a few resources to help you use them up!
  • Bigoven.com has a searchable recipe list - just enter the names of ingredients you'd like to use, and up will pop lots of recipe ideas.  
  • Do an Internet search with your ingredient names - a bunch of recipes containing those ingredients should come right up.  For instance, I searched on the ingredients I have the most of - pasta, salad dressing, and mushrooms, and came up with this Summer Pasta Salad recipe.
  • The Canned Food Alliance has tips on using canned foods in cooking.  (Right now the front page of the site features the $5 Dinner Mom.)
  • Allrecipes.com has over 9,000 recipes calling for canned food. 
  • As you use up items and don't replace them, you might need to cook some items from scratch.  I'm almost out of salsa, so I'll be making fresh salsa myself sometime soon.  CD Kitchen has lots of back-to-basics recipes available for all kinds of sauces and seasonings.
  • You also might run out of a key ingredient and need to find an adequate substitution.  Try this list of ingredient substitutions from North Dakota State University.
Hope these tips help you to Clean Out the Cupboards!

Check out these sites for other frugal ideas:
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4 comments:

Coupon Teacher January 6, 2011 at 4:52 PM  

Thanks for the resources! You have just inspired me to cook tonight instead of going out to eat. (I was just thinking about how I could convince hubby to go out...)

Mom2fur January 7, 2011 at 10:28 AM  

Oooh, thanks for the links! I love sites that help me cook without having to go to the grocery. Another one you might enjoy is "Supercook.com," which is also a site where you plug in ingredients you have and it pops out recipes.

Kimberlee, The Spunky Diva January 9, 2011 at 3:23 PM  

Great resources! I wish I weren't so cooking challenged, lol! Good luck with this fabulous challenge.
~Kimberlee
www.TheSpunkyDiva.com

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