Everyone should have at least a handful of simple but nutritious recipes on hand. Let’s face it, whether we work full-time, have kids, or don’t enjoy standing before a hot stove when we’re already roasting from the summer heat, effortless recipes that don’t skimp on nutrition are a great dinner safety net for anyone.

Nancy’s Thai Papaya Salad recipe incorporates nearly all of the food groups in one bowl; from protein-rich ingredients like peanuts, to fresh julienned green papaya…green papaya?! Yep! In her blog Gaga in the Kitchen, Nancy reveals that she’s just as excited as we are to come across such an interesting but tasty find. She uses it to create a crisp salad that includes more familiar ingredients like tomato slices and shrimp.

If you’re out of salad dressing but this recipe still sounds good to you…fear not! Nancy laid out the ingredients that go into the Thai Papaya Salad’s very own sauce!

Heather’s Crab Soba with Maitake Mushrooms and Pea Shoots is a meal that incorporates nearly every food group without leaving out flavor. I have to agree with Heather when she says, in her blog Gild the Voodoolily, that this is definitely a meal you should enjoy on a warm day.

Her Japanese meal comes together easily, and each one of the ingredients plays a vital role in the dish. The Persian cucumber adds crunch, as do the sesame seeds; the ginger adds a mildly spicy and fragrant aroma to the dish…but who can forget about the sauce? It’s the key ingredient in the dish! When soy sauce and sake come together, you know it’s a match made in heaven, especially when paired with the soba noodles. Heather uses buckwheat soba noodles, making this a dish that’s good for your body and taste buds.

Homemade biscuits lathered with creamy mascarpone and fresh berries are what make up Rachel’s Raspberry Honey Shortcakes. In her blog, Fairy Cake Heaven, Rachel explains how to assemble the shortcakes so that they come out just as delicious and presentable as hers did. Honey and orange juice are two ingredients that add natural sweetness to the mascarpone-filled desserts.

One of the great things about Rachel’s recipe is that it’s flexible. Though she uses raspberries, Rachel also suggests using strawberries. Finished off with caramel sauce, these light biscuits get that extra touch of sweetness which makes them irresistible!

By the time 4 PM rolls around, my rumbly stomach is ready for dinner! Speaking of rolling, Patricia from Technicolor Kitchen recently posted a recipe for Rolled Flank Steak! I have to admit, staring at the photograph of this deliciously presented piece of protein is torture when done on an empty stomach! Who knew that such a hearty slab of meat could be transformed into pure eye candy?!

Simple ingredients like roasted red pepper and cheese are what Patricia used to add vibrant color and flavor to her steak. Combining garlic, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil, she created a light marinade that the steak soaked in for a brief 20 minutes (though Patricia says it can also be left to marinate over night).

Using far from fancy ingredients, Patricia was able to elegantly dress up an ordinary piece of steak and make it mouthwatering!

The Scan My Recipes award is passed along to distinguished bloggers who display an appreciation and creative use of recipes. ScanMyRecipes.com is a service offered by KeyIngredient.com. Recognized in the May 2008 issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray, Scan My Recipes will scan, retype, and store your recipe collections online in a private KeyIngredient.com account.

I have nominated Donald from Mr. Orph’s Kitchen to receive the Scan My Recipes Award. As an award winner, Donald can take advantage of this service and have 50 of his recipes scanned, retyped, and stored on his private KeyIngredient.com account for free. From there, Donald can create cookbooks and share his recipes with family and friends, with the assurance that his recipes are now safe from kitchen spills!

Congratulations, Donald! We hope you enjoy the Scan My Recipes service and find that it really is a great way to preserve your family traditions…one recipe at a time.

To find out more about ScanMyRecipes, please click on the following link: http://www.scanmyrecipes.com/

You may have heard of Rhubarb pie…maybe even rhubarb bread, but how about Rhubarb Ice Cream with Honeybee Pollen? Those two ingredients alone are quite unique; put them together in a homemade ice cream and you have Chriesi’s one of a kind frozen dessert. Instead of serving her ice cream in a cone, she went the extra step and made a light orange pastry containing orange juice and grated almonds. Not only does the ice cream offer layer upon layer of flavor, but it also provides a few health benefits. Chriesi explains what those are in her blog, Almond Corner.

Pairing rosewater and rhubarb to create a dessert that’s deceivingly healthy and unarguably tasty is very clever, Chriesi! We applaud you for inventing such a creative recipe :).

Marija’s Pineapple Sesame Chicken is just one of the many mouthwatering recipes she features on her blog Palachinka. Fresh pineapple and soy sauce bring flavor to boneless, skinless chicken breast. Savory but also mildly sweet, Marija’s Pineapple Sesame Chicken gets sprinkled with brown sugar when it gets stir fried to perfection in a wok. But before Marija adds the spices and sauces, she coats the chicken with polenta and egg - this helps bind the rest of the ingredients while it also gives the chicken a delicious outer texture. Even served on its own, Marija’s dish makes an amazing entree for a summer evening.

Chirsty’s Strawberry Powder Puffs are desserts that each one of your senses can savor. You’ll get to inhale the sweet aroma of powder puffs baking in the oven, and, afterward, you’ll want to enjoy every last bite of these cute and dainty desserts. Beautifully presented, Chirsty provides a few different pictures of the powder puffs on her blog, 5 Types of Sugar. She dusts them with powdered sugar and tops them off with a strawberry slice that serves as the perfect seasonal garnish. Choosing to flavor some powder puffs with maple syrup and others with balsamic vinegar and black pepper, Christy reveals the endless possibilities for this recipe.

There’s batch of strawberries waiting for me at home…and I know just the thing to do with them now!

With the name ‘Easy’ in the title, I bet you’re expecting that Laura’s recipe for Crab Dip comes together in a flash - it does. Maybe even less; it practically puts itself together! Three simple ingredients and a dash of Tabasco are all that go into Laura’s Easy Crab Dip. She says it’s one of her favorite snacks, especially when paired with a glass of wine. I not only see this as a snack, but also as a satisfying appetizer that can be served at a dinner party that otherwise took hours to prepare!

The next time you find that you’ve forgotten to prepare the appetizer, pull out the Easy Crab Dip that Laura’s featured on her blog, Lazy Susin. Even if you didn’t have time to run to the grocery store before the guests arrived, I can guarantee that you’ll be able to whip this up using the ingredients you already have at home!

Laura from Hungry and Frozen finds inspiration for her recipes everywhere! She’s the kind of gal that will jot down a rough sketch of a recipe in an exercise book in the middle of a photography class! I couldn’t help but smile when I read her blog post - that kind of passion for food is what contributes to the creation of a delicious dessert, like a Pear and Nutmeg Custard Sponge cake.

With a taste that Laura refers to ‘grandmotherly’, her cake is bound to go under the yummy comfort food category. The warm ingredients she uses will melt in your mouth and give your taste buds a comfy-cozy feeling that only a crumbly, delicious cake like this can inspire. Laura invites us to try out her recipe, I think I might just do that!