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What's for Dinner?

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Tired of tossing food that goes bad in the fridge?  New Web sites will help you create tasty, healthy meals.

You wouldn't throw money in the trash. But did you know most Americans toss 15% of the groceries they buy?

We found a dinnertime solution that will have you saving money and cooking for your family.

Lily Wu has always enjoyed cooking, but admits she's not organized enough to plan and shop for a seven-day menu for her family.  "I am not organized enough to plan everything a week in advance," she said.

She's exactly the kind of person several new cooking Web sites are designed for. When she wants to make a meal, she just has to log on, input the ingredients she has to work with, and she'll be fed several options.

Tim Lang, who is with http://www.supercook.com, explained how it works.

"Pretty much any combination you can think of, at least some recipes will pop up, or if there's nothing you can make right this second, it'll at least tell you what recipes are close to those ingredients," he showed us.

Other sites include www.recipematcher.com, www.leftoverwizard.com, www.mealopedia.com and more.  They work basically the same way: they use search engines to find recipes from all over the Web.  But each site offers different options.

For example, on Supercook, if you open an account, Lang told us, "It can also do things like keep track of what's in your kitchen and it can make custom suggestions for you on what other ingredients to buy."

Allrecipes.com also allows you to exclude ingredients you don't like or don't care to purchase.

"That's very useful for me because sometimes you have someone with allergies or is picky," Lily Wu said.

Not a super chef? You don't have to be. The recipes you typically get are easy to follow.

But if you're a great cook--then the sites can help you expand your options, Lang said.

"If you're a more experienced chef, you can start to envision more possibilities and maybe get out of a recipe rut you have been in for a while," he suggested.

Most of the cooking sites are free to use, and some even allow you to register accounts so you can store favorites and make shopping lists.

 

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