Have you ever just run out of ideas for dinner? I know I have.

Or other times I can’t or have put off heading out to the grocery store and we begin to run low on a few things.

Or my budget is really slim. Like this week.  Let’s see what can I make with beans and rice and beans and rice and beans and rice? That gets boring!  So was I ever excited when I found this neat little tool at Allrecipes.com called ingredient search.

I am probably the last person on the  planet to find this little gem, but I thought it would be a good tip to share just in case I’m not!

You can just open up your cupboards, plug into the little search boxes what you have on hand and poof, a meal idea (or several come up). I decided to plan my whole menu this week using this, right from my pantry.

I plugged in beans, rice (I wasn’t kidding about that!), chicken and broccoli and came up with 3 things I could make. Then I started looking around for other things I have, canned tomatoes, a lonely pie crust, a can of soup. Before I knew I had a weeks worth of meals straight from the cupboard! I need to do this more often, because it is always a money saver to use up what  you have instead of buying more!

Next time you are in a pantry pinch, budget pinch, or just don’t want to hit the grocery store, maybe the ingredient finder will save your menu plan too!

(and no, I don’t get paid to say this, case you were wondering!)