It’s amazing how resistant I can become to an idea out of sheer laziness. Once I finally get around to checking it out, I wonder how I got on without it in the first place. My sister has been preaching the wonders of allrecipes.com for years now. Literally years. When did I finally got around to looking up a recipe and then actually making said recipe? Just a few months ago.
What is Allrecipes.com? I know a lot of you have been using it for awhile and are thinking, “Duh, Kristin.” For those of you who haven’t, it’s a website of user submitted and user rated recipes.
You can search by course, ingredient, or style of dish. Recipes are then rated by the people who try them. So you don’t get just a database of recipes. You also get alternatives, mess ups, clarifications, and general comments. Everything is rated, so you can know at least someone else has tried it. It takes a lot of the unknown out of trying a new recipe. Sure you could mess it up, but more often than not, it will turn out just fine.
On top of the comments and ratings, there is also the search function. I love this! This is how it relates to the Thrift Kitchen. At the end of each week, the day before grocery day, there are always that random veggie or piece of something that was never used. Say all you have is a green paper and some rice. What in the world to make?
Click the “Ingredients” search and plug in what you have and what you don’t want. You can enter in pepper, but exclude steak. (Pepper steak will come up and for this meal we don’t have any on hand). Maybe we have rice and onion.
You know what comes up? 140 potential recipes, but what caught my eye was these stuffed peppers. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that to begin with. That’s the beauty of it. You search and can create your meal in no time.
I do the same thing with the sale flier from the grocery store too. I just plug in what’s on sale and make up my meal plan around that. Ingenious!
My sister always brings these great dishes to potlucks, family gatherings, and get togethers. Every time I ask, “Where did you get this recipe? It’s delicious.” She nicely replies, “Allrecipes.com.” Maybe now I’ll be saying the same thing.
Oh and a fun side note, if you ever want to dabble in French cooking, there is an allrecipes.fr. It’s written all in french and contains all french dishes–delicious! A few friends and I are going to figure out a few of the recipes and give them a try. It should be a fun time.
Happy meal planning!
Kristin Roach
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Here is my comment, you poor deprived Allrecipes Newbie!
(btw, the comment I couldn't leave yesterday on the CL post was simply, 'Genius'…That's what you are…..
I'll need to try that feature on allrecipes.com. I like to use it to look up recipes but I have avoided contributing recipes ever since I submitted a recipe and it took a really, really long time for the editors to finally get it up…and when it was up, things had been changed and even one of the ingredients was not included in the directions. And I have no control over the recipe I submitted once I submit it…so the error stays. I've liked the recipe feature at livestrong.com better for actually being able to enter recipes, change them and then get the nutritional content on them.
I have to agree with you on that one. I like using Livestrong.com for tracking my own recipes. For me it makes more sense because that's where I track my meals and such anyway.
For new recipes though, I do really enjoy allrecipes and my sister swears by it and I always love eating at her place :)
The only problem with All Recipes ratings is that people will rate recipes having not made the actual recipe. Oh, they'll make something close, but far too often you get, “It was wonderful! I changed this for this, used 1/2 cup this instead of 1/4 cup that, cooked it for 10 minutes instead of 15 and served it over rice instead of pasta” or “This was awful; I didn't have any of that, so I used this instead I will never make this recipe again.” It's frustrating because you can't just trust the ratings, you have to read all the reviews before you know if the recipe as written is actually any good.
Here is my comment, you poor deprived Allrecipes Newbie!
(btw, the comment I couldn't leave yesterday on the CL post was simply, 'Genius'…That's what you are…..
I'll need to try that feature on allrecipes.com. I like to use it to look up recipes but I have avoided contributing recipes ever since I submitted a recipe and it took a really, really long time for the editors to finally get it up…and when it was up, things had been changed and even one of the ingredients was not included in the directions. And I have no control over the recipe I submitted once I submit it…so the error stays. I've liked the recipe feature at livestrong.com better for actually being able to enter recipes, change them and then get the nutritional content on them.
The only problem with All Recipes ratings is that people will rate recipes having not made the actual recipe. Oh, they'll make something close, but far too often you get, “It was wonderful! I changed this for this, used 1/2 cup this instead of 1/4 cup that, cooked it for 10 minutes instead of 15 and served it over rice instead of pasta” or “This was awful; I didn't have any of that, so I used this instead I will never make this recipe again.” It's frustrating because you can't just trust the ratings, you have to read all the reviews before you know if the recipe as written is actually any good.
I have to agree with you on that one. I like using Livestrong.com for tracking my own recipes. For me it makes more sense because that's where I track my meals and such anyway.
For new recipes though, I do really enjoy allrecipes and my sister swears by it and I always love eating at her place :)