TheMealDB is an open online database of recipes for meals. It was written by somebody who felt that there was no suitable API for his needs, so he wrote one himself. It is very rudimentary, but it provides the names of meals that someone might want to cook, high quality PNG images of ingredients, and also high quality PNG images of fully-cooked meals. Some things you can do with it are:
TheMealDB website: https://www.themealdb.com/api.php
GitHub Public APIs: https://github.com/public-apis/public-apis#food--drink
Data can be retrieved from the API using many options: meal name (s=), first letter (f=), id (i=), categories (c=), area / cuisine (a=), or ingredients (i=). For my GET request, I used the filter by main ingredient feature, which uses the filter.php page with the ?i=word query string. The input field allows the user to specify which ingredient to use as the API query string for the request. As a default, I set this variable equal to "chicken". You see these results when the page is loaded initially. When a user enters an ingredient and then clicks the button or hits [Enter], the API call is made and the database retrieves meal names and thumbnail photos in a stylized table, or it displays a message to the user saying no meals could be found with the ingredient they entered.
1. Inspiring creativity in the kitchen (especially during quarantine)
Sometimes fridge items go untouched for just a bit too long. Maybe certain ingredients looked more appetizing in the grocery store or maybe people get too attached to their favorite meals. Whatever the case may be, sometimes there is just a shortage of creativity. If there are avocados sitting in the fridge and the main chef in the kitchen does not know what to do with them, they can simply enter the word "avocado" into the query field of this site and they will be presented with a whole table of meal ideas with photos to get their mouth watering!
2. Simulating a cooking show
This site could be made into a fun cooking show activity (like Iron Chef) where you have a mystery ingredient and you have to be able to prepare that ingredient in many different ways over the course of several days. This would help people improve their cooking skills and would also open their horizons to new meal ideas from a diverse selection of cuisines.