Inexpensive Cooking Made Easy with Recipe.com

A new recipe website has emerged that combines making food with saving money.

The new site, called Recipe.com, is a first-of-its-kind, multi-channel food brand that helps families save money while enabling them to serve quick, easy and delicious meals. Users can log on to the website and browse through 20,000 recipes, which are easily sorted in categories such as Appetizers, Chicken, Low Fat, No Bake and Grilling.

After selecting a recipe from a category, the user is then presented with a list of ingredients and the instructions on how to make the food. But Recipe.com’s greatest feature is that if the user enters his or her zip code, the site will highlight which of the ingredients are on sale at a local grocery store. The recipe can then be added to the user’s online shopping list, which will also list on-sale items and provide coupons for local stores. The shopping list can also be printed, allowing an easy way to find savings before even leaving the house.

The website also allows users to search for specials among their local grocery stores with a search engine that scans weekly ads.

“I just found your web site. What a great idea. The recipes are wonderful, the directions are easy!!! I think it’s great that you give the store ingredients and you let people know if they are on sale or not at the local grocery store!!!! Fantastic! “Beth DiFebo Durham wrote on the company’s Facebook page.

But Recipe.com is more than just a website. Meredith Corporation — the publisher of magazines Better Homes and Garden, Ladies’ Home Journal and Family Circle — has also created a Recipe.com magazine, along with a mobile site and TV show. Here’s what the company has to say about each of the mediums:

The magazine: Features beautiful food photography and  recipes from Food & Wine, Better Homes and Gardens, Family Circle, Ladies’ Home Journal, Eating Well and Parents as well as best selling cookbooks and nationally respected brands such as Betty Crocker, Campbell’s, Fleischmann’s, French’s, Keebler and Kellogg’s.

The website: Log on and punch in your zip code to find coupons and specials at your local grocery stores. Each on-sale ingredient is flagged and you can even see the recipes that have the most ingredients on special this week. Pick a recipe and add the ingredients to your shopping list, while Recipe.com tabulates your savings!

The mobile site: Start planning your meal while you’re on the go! A smartphone app is in the works which will allow you to create a shopping list on your home computer then open it on your phone while you shop.

On TV: Food segments featuring Recipe.com will be airing weekly on the daily nationally syndicated television program, “Better.”