Let’s talk about finding recipes, simple recipes. Have you ever tried searching for dinner recipes online? Well let me be the first to tell you, there are too many recipe websites online. There are recipe websites for products. There are sites for dinner menus. There are sites for food manufacturers. There are sites for individual ingredients. There are even websites for multiple ethnicities. In fact there are so many recipe sites out there that there are actually recipe websites for recipe websites. Huh? Yep, it’s true there are recipe websites that let you search for recipes, let’s say “Beef lo Mein” for easy reference. You go to one of these sites, type in “Beef lo Mein” and you will get recipes from all over the web from different websites for “Beef lo Mein”. It is has a serious neat factor to it. The only real benefit that I can see for using a site like Recipe-Finder.com (Note the hyphenated title if you want to navigate to it) is to get a quick pick for a recipe. These sites are great if you need a recipe fast, especially in a small scale kitchen environment.

Sometimes the reason you navigate to a cooking website is not always for the recipe. Sometimes you navigate there for food ideas, or needed information before you decide to roll up your sleeves, crank the heat up, and throw down your sauté pan.

Here’s an example of what I mean, maybe you are looking for vegan or vegetarian food ideas. Wouldn’t like to know more about dietary concerns before you decide to jump in with both feet and get cooking?

If you search the internet for recipe website lists, it is the same, there are lists of lists. There are actually hundreds of links for recipe websites on some of these lists. How do you find the recipe you are looking for and sites you want to use?

What I realized was this; the bottom line is there is no perfect golden list of recipe websites. I want a list of ingredient rich and information rich websites. Currently, there only recipe website lists of lists, a sea of searchable sites, and recipe websites that search for recipes on other websites. So, as you have probably inferred by now, I have been bookmarking every site that I find is useful. It is small list now, and may change a bit in the future. I have developed my list based on usefulness and content. My advice for you is to do the same.

Get creative with your bookmarking [Shortcut on pc is to hold down ctrl+d], name your bookmark folder your “recipe-box”. Divide your “recipe-box” folder into sub folders named “Asian”, or “nuts”, or “vegetables”. Use your computer to solve your problem. The next time one of your friends is having trouble looking for dinner menu ideas, save them some time and email them your book mark list. You will be their hero.