Pandemic Cooking: Cook With the Ingredients You Have on Hand

I just came across a site called Fridge to Table (fridgetotable.com) that lets you search recipes by ingredient and type of diet (vegan, vegetarian, none, etc). This seems like a pretty handy approach at this time in our history, when we are avoiding grocery shopping as much as possible and cooking with pantry ingredients that we have on hand.

Of course we have always been able to find recipes online by searching an ingredient or two, but I found myself with a cup of freshly squeezed lime juice and when I searched for recipes just by googling "cup of lime juice" I found a variety of limeade recipes, but not much else.

Using the Fridge to Table site, "lime juice" as an ingredient gave me lots of recipes for ceviche, guacamole, fajitas, chicken, salmon, quinoa, shrimp, etc. The recipe results could then be sorted by course (breakfast, lunch, etc.), source (where the recipes came from), number of ingredients, and cook time--plus giving me the option to exclude certain ingredients or tailor the dish to a particular diet.

Perhaps I'll be making some Honey Lime Turkey Fajitas, which will leave me with just another 3/4 cup of lime juice to use in newly found recipes.

Roasted Grapes

We are staying at home because of the coronavirus outbreak. Since we are depending on a younger family member for grocery shopping we don't want to waste any food.

Because tired old grapes can't be fed to dogs, cats, or chickens, I googled "what to do with shriveled grapes" and found recipes for roasted grapes. They are delicious, as you can see from the crowd that gathered while I tried them for the first time. (Of course, dogs and cats may NOT eat grapes, but they wanted to convince me otherwise).

No more wasted grapes! 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Wash and dry grapes; remove all stems. Toss them with some olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Place on a foil-lined cookie sheet.

Roast for 35 minutes or so, stirring two or three times.

Cool and serve. I had mine on toast that was spread with cream cheese. Next time I might try peanut butter, which is also recommended.