Bites and Bytes

Prompt screen
Output of ingredients resulting in a recipe
Output of ingredients not resulting in a recipe
Output of invalid food input

Inspiration 

As college students, we often have very little in our fridge, and even less in our bank accounts. This leads to an tough question at meal time- what is there to eat? Our project aims to help students answer this question with ease and confidence. 

What it does 

Our program takes input of ingredients already found in a user's fridge and returns a recipe that can be made with those ingredients. Users can save money on groceries and cook delicious meals with confidence and ease. 

How we built it 

We created a program utilizing a file of over seven thousand food items found on the Department of Agriculture's website and an online database with several hundred easy-to-make recipes. These files were parsed, and their data added to our system to be used in recipe selection. We additionally created a user interface where foods can be input and recipes can be output in a readable format. 

Challenges we ran into

None of our team members had strong experience in webpage design or file parsing, so this project led us to areas where we were neither confident nor comfortable. We had very ambitious goals for what we wanted to accomplish and had to reassess those goals as our project progressed to account for our learning curve.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of figuring out how to sanitize csv files and convert them to a usable format. We are also incredibly proud of figuring out how to open a usable webpage from python and html files. Above all however, we are proud of the fact we spent the entire hackathon working towards a project we would be excited to share.

What we learned

The power of friendship can get you through the most difficult, sleep-deprived times. Also, Kung Fu Panda comes out March 8th. "My mind is so blank right now, its aggressively blank" -Dr. Eric P Mikida

What's next for Bites and Bytes

Our team hopes to expand and improve Bites and Bytes across the board. We plan to expand our food and recipe sets to encompass more foods students may own as well as a wider range of culinary options. We would also like to make user interface more intuitive and cleaner.