dinner_recipe = '''<html><body><table> <tr><th>amt</th><th>unit</th><th>item</th></tr> <tr><td>24</td><td>slices</td><td>baguette</td></tr> <tr><td>2+</td><td>tbsp</td><td>olive oil</td></tr> <tr><td>1</td><td>cup</td><td>tomatoes</td></tr> <tr><td>1</td><td>jar</td><td>pesto</td></tr> </table></body></html>'''
import xml.etree.ElementTree as etree tree = etree.fromstring(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)