If you love cooking in the kitchen, but occasionally need an ingredient for your favorite recipe that you don't have on hand, the Cook's Thesaurus is a handy Web site that lists substitutions for those items.
Say that recipe calls for mushrooms, but you used the last of them yesterday. Key in the word "mushrooms" and the mushrooms page not only lists the many varieties, it also includes substitutes (tempeh, eggplant, bell peppers and zucchini).
Although the site is not completely exhaustive, it lists about 90 percent of the ingredients you'll likely encounter, including many exotic ones, usually with helpful photos and a short summary of its origin.
The Cook's Thesaurus is especially great for specialty recipes with wacky ingredients you can't find at your local grocer. This is a must-bookmark site for cooks out there. Besides, it's a handy site for anyone who wants to make the time to cook their own meals too.
Many people feel that they work non-stop, and when they get home there is no time or energy to do anything but nuke half-synthetic processed food in the microwave.
But there are ways to get out of that trap. If you plan in advance, on the weekend, what you will eat for every meal the coming week, you can save time throughout the week. You might also want to consider cooking all your meals for the week at the same time, and freezing or refrigerating portions of them.
A Vital Votes reader from Cabool, Missouri notes another advantage of the site:
"As someone with allergies to wheat, corn, milk, and soy this link is very interesting, I have already bookmarked it."
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