dinner_recipe = '''
| amt | unit | item |
|---|
| 24 | slices | baguette |
| 2+ | tbsp | olive oil |
| 1 | cup | tomatoes |
| 1 | jar | pesto |
'''
# From http://effbot.org/zone/element-index.htm
import xml.etree.ElementTree as etree
tree = etree.fromstring(dinner_recipe)
# For invalid HTML use http://effbot.org/zone/element-soup.htm
# import ElementSoup, StringIO
# tree = ElementSoup.parse(StringIO.StringIO(dinner_recipe))
pantry = set(['olive oil', 'pesto'])
for ingredient in tree.getiterator('tr'):
amt, unit, item = ingredient
if item.tag == "td" and item.text not in pantry:
print ("%s: %s %s" % (item.text, amt.text, unit.text))