Fast Low Cost Recipe Resources for the Starving Student or Busy Entrepreneur

Whether you are a student or a busy executive, the fact is, you have to eat, and Doritos, Cheesy Poofs and Diet Pepsi just can’t cut it for too long. And just because you maybe a starving, poor student, does not mean you have to be on forced diet. The following free resources show you how to prepare meals when you are short on cash, time and ingredients.

RecipeMatcher.com

When you have run out of money and are faced with near bare shelves and refrigerator, this web site is a life saver. Type in the ingredients you have on hand into the RecipeMatcher box and this web site will find recipes for you to prepare. If there are no recipes that match the ingredients you have, RecipeMatcher will show you recipes that come close with a list of what ingredients you are missing. Optionally you can select a cuisine such as Italian, Romantic, Diabetic, etc … and also what the primary ingredient should be.

It is free to become a member, and upon doing so you are allowed to submit your own recipes and make friends. You also get a simple profile with basic information. This site’s charm is in it’s simplicity. But if you find the amount of recipes lacking there is …

AllRecipes.com

This highly trafficked site has a ton of recipes. To help navigate the huge collection of recipes, they are categorized and searchable. They have two sections that are setup specifically for those on a budget you will want to check out: Cooking on a Budget and Cooking on a Budget Fall Edition. If quick and easy is what you need, check out this category.

Similar to RecipeMatcher.com, AllRecipes.com has a recipe search function that is based on what ingredients you have on hand. But they take it a step further by also allowing you to specify what ingredients you don’t want.

StillTasty.com

So you scraped up some money and purchased a few ingredients beyond the traditional student food staple of Ramen Noodles. StillTasty.com will help you maximize that investment and hopefully keep you from inadvertently poisoning yourself. Just type in the name of the food and and you will find out how long the food will stay safe and tasty as well as the best way to store the food.

It’s also worthwhile to check out the Your Questions Answered section, where you will find age old wisdom such as the answer to: Is is OK to put hot food directly into the fridge? Keep in mind that these answers will not likely sway your parents from their old habits, but you can still take comfort in the knowledge of your own correctness.

If All Else Fails … Ask Reddit

10 months ago a Redditer asks: “I am a student, and I’m moving into an apartment. I have some cooking ability, but I am beginning to notice I don’t have that many recipes. So reddit, what are your favorite meals to cook?” and then a thread of 450 comments followed. Enjoy!

What are some of your favorite easy, low cost recipes? Do you have any great resources for low cost recipes?