Database or File?

Decision is to use a database or just plain files. The menu won't be very big. I'm thinking about a table with the meal time as key -breakfast, lunch, dinner, and the name of it as the data record. Examples:

• Dinner: Hamburgers & Fries
• Lunch: Egg salad sandwiches
• Breakfast: Grits & Eggs

The other table will be the ingredients for each. Example:

• Hamburgers & Fries: 2 ground sausage, 1 ground meat, 1 pack buns, 1 bag fries, catsup, mayo, mustard, 2 pickles, 1 head lettuce, 3 tomatoes, granola oil, creole seasoning.
• Egg Salad Sandwiches: 1 loaf bread, 8 hard boiled eggs, 1 jar mayo, 1 onion, 1 pickle, 1/2 head lettuce, 1 tomato. 1 can Pringles.

The ingredients will provide the shopping list items for the menu.

So database or file? Or start with file and then build database?
Database needs to be free or already installed as part of the computer's programs.

Currently I'm evaluating buzhug, SnakeSQL, and GadFly