In yesteryear when the dinner funk descended, I would begin browsing cookbooks in the mid-afternoon. If I found something that sounded good and used what I had in the house, then I had to determine if the dish could be cooked in the amount of time left after my search. Yes, things were slow back then. No Food Network, no You Tube cooking videos, no Google recipe search. Only cookbooks and handwritten recipe cards.

But I’ve discovered the endless supply of recipes on Google. Yeah, I’m probably late to the party, but better late than never, right? The fabulous thing about Google recipes is that you can find really tasty healthy dishes on sites like www.eatingwell.com and delicious decadence at www.epicurious.com. Of course, Food Network has its own site where you can find recipes from all the shows.

But I like to play a kind of Google Recipe Roulette when I’m bored with my rotating menus. It’s a simple game. First you choose your main ingredient, which for me is the protein source–chicken, fish, beans, tofu, etc. Then I think about vegetables I have and whether I want to do a stove top or oven dish.

For example tonight, I wanted to something with shrimp and pasta, but it turned out I only had five frozen shrimp left from my bulk purchase. Not quite enough for the two of us. So I’d add some scallops, also from a bulk buy. And since it’s hot as blue blazes here in Florida this week, I wanted something rather light and quick to cook. Maybe pasta. So here’s the roulette part.

Enter shrimp, scallop and pasta in the Google search box and see what comes up. Tonight I scrolled through several options before settling on a nice dish with broccoli, red peppers, white wine and garlic I found at www.poorgirleatswell.com. The dish was delicious and exactly what I was in the mood for. Check out this site for great recipes on a budget. Poor Girl breaks each recipe down into cost per serving which is helpful, and she thinks out of the box. I liked her min-mart taco salad idea, too!

So when you get stuck in that what’s for dinner besides take out, try a little Google Recipe Roulette!

But today I didn’t make the old fav, I went with a new fav–Swedish Oatmeal Pancakes with pears and almonds. I had these at a San Francisco Bay eatery on the last day my recent visit. A quick internet search yielded a similar recipe that has become something new to look forward to on Sundays. This version doesn’t sabotage our healthy diet quite as much as the white flour version and is so incredibly tasty only a tiny bit of maple syrup is needed to top them off. Check the link for the Swedish Oatmeal Pancakes . The recipe from Homemade Breadfollows.

Favorite Buttermilk Pancakes
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs, slightly beaten
2 cups buttermilk
2 tablespoons melted butter

Sift flour, baking soda, salt and sugar into mixing bow.

Combine eggs, buttermilk and melted butter. Stir into flour mixture just to moisten flour. Do not overmix. The batter will have a few lumps

Bake on a hot, lightly greased griddle or in an electric skillet heated to 375 degrees.

Dip batter with a 1/4 cup measure to get pancakes of uniform size. Turn cakes when bubbles appear and break over top and around the edges; turn only once Serve hot with butter or margarine, and syrup.