But don’t drop the good habits all at once. Fast food is passé and slow food is on the rise!

If you haven’t done so already, learn how to cook properly. That is goodbye to microwave and freezer (at least for the most part)! If you already know how to cook, but are running out of delicious recipes, you’ll not be disappointed either.

Here is a list of sites to give you some inspiration and fresh ideas, including practical advice and simple recipes for beginners. Maybe this is the time to start something new!

Cookstr

Want to rely on recipes from professionals? Then Cookstr is definitely for you as it contains recipes from hundreds of chefs and cookbook authors. A contributing celebrity chef you certainly know is Jamie Oliver. And I’m sure the other contributors are celebrities, too…somewhere.

You can search the site by recipe, ingredients or chef. If you’re totally uninspired you can hit the Surprise Me! button and see what it comes up with. Totally awesome is the refine search feature which lets you filter recipes for cost, skill level, total time, holiday, course, season, mood and a lot more.

Ingenious! Coming soon is a section with Tips & Techniques.

In case you’re not a good cook, I would recommend to browse recipes and find something that sounds simple enough. For example start with Italian cuisine and then use the refine search feature on the left to filter the Italian recipes for skill level, kid friendly and/or ingredients.

Cookthink

A recipe site designed to please your cravings.

What’s nice about this site is that you can create an account, post comments, save your favorite recipes or share your own. This feature is yet lacking from Cookstr, although I hear that it’s in the planning.

You can search by ingredient, dish, cuisine or mood. From the different category tag clouds you can build your custom search string. Simply go through them and click the most popular tags. Or manually add your own.

The site also contains a reference section for beginners. Here you can review common kitchen jargon and receive explanations about techniques, tools, ingredients and different cuisines. Even the experienced amateur chef will learn something new here.

In Your Kitchen

If reading recipes isn’t enough, In Your Kitchen is for you!

The site features recipes paired with videos. Visual demonstrations are just so much easier to grasp then written instructions.

In addition to recipes, the site invites you to view tours of wineries and restaurants, and being a signed up user you can even post your own material.

What more could you ask for? Oh, that one chef, Diane Stopford, looks a little like the young Kim Basinger. Now aren’t you tempted to have a look already? Guys?

Alright, for those that are not tempted, these are the two sites you should absolutely avoid if you want to eat healthy!

This Is Why You’re Fat

Actually it’s just a blog with a collection of photos featuring bad food. But it could trigger some serious cravings. So don’t go there. I won’t even share a picture.

Breakfast Blogger

A blog dedicated to breakfasts. Those that you can make yourself and those that are served at public places. Some posts contain recipes.

The site has not been updated for a while, but the archives are worth it if you want to feel sick just from seeing fat. It’s incredible what some people will have for breakfast – voluntarily!

For more food resources, check out these posts:

FOOD Love: Top 5 Recipe Websites by Aibek

Great Cooking Websites from a Different Perspective by Simon

What is your favorite dish and who is your favorite celebrity chef?

Image credits: woodsy

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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But that certainly doesn’t mean that other search engines can’t do a decent, if not better, job and this list has been compiled for just this reason.

So check out this catalog of awesome alternative search engines that are certain to help you search faster and more efficiently on that World Wide Web.

Music & Video

MP3Realm

If you’re one of the countless people today who gets their music digitally, then MP3Realm is for you. The site features a basic search for MP3’s as well as song lyrics.

MP3s can be streamed, added to playlists and of course downloaded. The advanced search option also lets users browse MP3’s by genre (a ton to choose from) or by artist.

TuneFind

I’m sure that some part of all of our lives has been spent in front of the television and I always manage to find a song that catches my fancy no matter what I’m watching. That’s where TuneFind comes in; the site is dedicated to providing users with the names of artists/song titles that have appeared on their favorite television shows, and even movies.

You can even reverse look up artists, to see which films and shows their music has been featured on.

MuviBee

A site dedicated to the best of both worlds, MuviBee lets users search for music and music videos (via YouTube) that might be associated with the song. The site proves to be versatile and certainly unique, providing users with Top 10 Charts from iTunes, the US, UK and Germany as well as direct links to Amazon and iTunes if you should decide to purchase music you like.

ClipBlast

ClipBlast features short videos from a variety of mainstream sources, including Hulu, TBS, BBC etc. The site is easy to use and loaded with enough content to keep you busy for hours.

Blinkx

Blinkx is another quality video search engine that collects results from hundreds of video/television providers and incorporates them into your search. The site also lets you browse videos from a myriad of topics.

If, by the way, you’re having trouble with videos that are limited to region, like Hulu, then try out some of the neat solutions we’ve covered here at MUO.

Files & Others

Rapidshare1

Rapidshare has become a premium site for uploading and serving content for hungry web users. It’s natural then to expect a site devoted to searching for files on Rapidshare, and Rapidshare1 is it. The site is dead simple and all you need to get going is something to look for.

Filestube

Filestube takes Rapidshare1 to another level by aggregating its searches to include several other networks including MegaUpload, YouSendIt, Filefront etc. Searches can also be filtered by file type which adds more convenience to the engine.

FileSnatcher

Another good site, FileSnatcher lets you look for files on a few different file sharing networks, including Badongo, Mediafire and 4shared.

Recipes & Cooking

Cookstr

As the name implies, Cookstr is for the wannabe-chef in all of us. The site is clean and intuitive and searching is simple. What I like best about Cookstr is the wide range of search filters that they offer, some of which include searching for recipes based on chef, author, skill level, holiday, course, cost and much more.

Keep in mind that the site is still in beta and Cookstr will be adding a “menu-search” feature as well as helpful tips/techniques as the site develops.

RecipeZaar

RecipeZaar is another excellent website for searching up quality recipes for your next meal. Users can also search for ‘cookbooks’ which are a collection of another user’s recipes. Also, recipe results feature ratings and nutritional information.

Fun

Tickex

Trying to buy tickets online? Well then check out Tickex, the site that collects search results from multiple ticket providers for concerts, sporting events and theatre. Searches can be made by venue, country, event, city etc. The site also provides direct links to retailers to simplify your experience even further.

Quotiki

Looking for something clever to say in your next argument? Try out Quotiki, a quotation search engine that has collected some of the wisest and shrewd idioms the world over.

WhatsOpen

WhatsOpen is a young site, but its concept is awesome. They let users see what stores, malls and shops are currently open in their neighborhood and how long they’ll be open. As I’ve mentioned, the site is rather new and the working locations are still limited to a few key cities in the US of A, but rest assured new locations are being added as the site grows.

So there you have it readers, 13 awesome search engines for you to play with. Questions, comments, suggestions? Then drop us a line in the comments and share your thoughts with fellow MUO followers.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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One of the things I always say is: ‘If you really love food, you learn how to make it’.

What’s better than being able to fill those vices than yourself? No chef in the world can know your tastes better than yourself.

Those things apart, cooking can keep the taste over money equation in balance. Especially when you’re still a student, cooking can make a great alternative to eating deep fried pizzas five times a week.

Included in this article are some of the more special cooking sites; not just one of the many bulk recipe warehouses on the world wide web, but sites that stand out from the rest.

Recipe Matcher – Cooking With What You’ve Got

Except from being a great site with a bulk of tasty recipes, Recipe Matcher allows you to match dishes to what you’ve got standing on the shelves. Look like a cooking genius, when you use your half-empty fridge to mash up some wonderful dishes.

Just go to the site and sign up for an account. Then, just enter the ingredients you’ve got left and perform a quick search. You’ll receive a list of recipes, as well as a percentage bar with each, which shows you how many of the ingredients you’ve got in your possession.

From there on, you can either view the specific recipes, or print out a grocery list for the ingredients you’re short of.

Recipe Matcher also gives you the option to search for cocktails, based on what alcohol and/or other drinks you’ve got in your fridge.

WHFoods – Yummy Doesn’t Have to be Unhealthy

Our creator/mother nature can seem pretty sadistic from time to time. Nearly everything that’s fun is either unhealthy or not allowed. The thing is however, that you just have to look in the right places. Places like WHFoods, for example.

WHFoods shows you that yummy isn’t always unhealthy. Instead, healthy can even be pretty yummy.

You can base an inquiry by selecting several ingredients that you want to be included, as well as several you want to be excluded, and even the nutrients you want represented (if you have some knowledge about this).

Tip: use the Ctrl key to select multiple ingredients.

WHFoods then shows you some very simple dishes which answer to your requirements. The site doesn’t host as many recipes as Recipe Matcher though, so if your search returned blank you’ll have to be a little less picky with the ingredients.

Chadzilla – A Scientific Look at Cooking

Being a scientist in the making myself, I loved the ideas expressed on Chadzilla. This blog isn’t as big as the above mentioned sites, but because of the creative approach it cannot be ignored.

Chadzilla takes a more scientific look at cooking, using “The future of gastronomy belongs to chemistry” as a tagline. On this blog, you’ll be able to find recipes for candy tasting like BBQ sauce, Truffle Fries, Wodka Pills, and more.

If you are a geek who prefers H₂O over water, and also thinks great gastronomy can be achieved through chemistry, you’d do good checking out this site.

Sam The Cooking Guy – Let’s Keep it Simple

Sam is an everyday kind of guy. Well, kinda’.

He hosts a TV show where he tries to show people that cooking can actually be pretty simple. No need for chef-blabber that no one understands.

On his site are a lot of recipes that are enormously simple to make, but taste great. A site for the everyday guy or gal who wants to make something nice, but isn’t prepared for a fight with the recipe.

Some of these dishes contain a video from his show. These are very casual and pretty fun to watch. (click here for a list with all the video-illustrated recipes)

Et vous?

Are there any other great cooking sites we forgot to mention? Do you have anything to say about any of the above sites? If so, feel free to drop a comment below.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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The thing that stands out about these recipe websites is the fact that all featured recipes are tried and tested and allow for user commenting/reviewing, so you can be assured of the quality of the recipe. Enjoy!

Top 5: Recipe Websites (again in no particular order)

(1) GroupRecipes
Almost 100% user-contributed recipe website that does an excellent job at making huge recipe database easy to digest and browse through. Browse by flavors (spicy, sour, chilly…), images, ingredients (whats in your fridge), popularity, menus, users, and tagcloud.

(2) SimplyRecipes
A wonderful recipe-based food blog where all recipes have been personally tested by either the blogger, her family/friends. Browse recipes by primary ingredients (chicken, seafood, meat…), meal course (breakfast, desert…), diet type (veg., low carb…). The quality of the recipes is reflected in the number of subscribers (over 230k!)

(3) 101CookBooks
This one is for the foodies…the people who love to eat food with their eyes and would like a short intro for each of the recipes. Basically, another excellent recipe-based food blog (2006 food blog winner) where readers can feel a nice personal bond with the blogger through her writing style (a short personal and technical history for each recipe) along with beautiful imagery. Lets you browse recipes by type (appetizers, baked good, mains, etc.)

(4) AllRecipes
Over 40,000 recipes along with complementary extras i.e. nutritional content, user rating and an interesting meal accompaniment tool that lets you search for accompaniments such as side dish/desert/… to this recipe. Other features include recipe videos and related food guides such as healthy eating etc. (Note: website navigation is slightly confusing).

(5) Chow
Apart from recipes gives other foodie related information such as food events, user stories etc. Simply yet efficient recipe browsing method where users can browse through recipes by sides, mains, sweet and drink. Plus insightful video section which gives a good selection of videos on cooking and food etiquette howto’s.

And some more recipe stuff …

• Epicurious – very similar to the above mentioned Allrecipes
• SmoothiesRecipies – over 100 smoothies recipies
• BakeSpace – social networking website for foodies

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