Shef's client mode should provide an easy way to load all recipes defined in the run list

% sudo shef -z                       
loading configuration: /etc/chef/client.rb
Session type: client
Loading......[Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:21:27 -0600] INFO: Run List is [role[ubuntu]]
[Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:21:27 -0600] INFO: Run List expands to [apt, housepub, ohai, chef_handler, profiled, chef-client::delete_validation, motd-tail, zsh, git, users, vim, emacs, sudo, ntp, resolver, lvm, build-essential, rsyslog::client, logwatch, logrotate, tmux, man, openssh, rsync, postfix, munin::client, gnu_parallel]
..........[Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:21:32 -0600] INFO: Loading cookbooks [apache2, apt, build-essential, chef-client, chef_handler, cron, emacs, git, gnu_parallel, housepub, logrotate, logwatch, lvm, man, motd-tail, munin, ntp, ohai, openssh, perl, postfix, profiled, resolver, rsync, rsyslog, runit, sudo, tmux, users, vim, zsh]
.done.

This is shef, the Chef shell.
 Chef Version: 0.10.4
 http://www.opscode.com/chef
 http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Home

run `help' for help, `exit' or ^D to quit.

Ohai2u jtimberman@virt1test!
chef > recipe
chef:recipe > resources
[]
 => nil 
chef:recipe > run_context.resource_collection
 => #<Chef::ResourceCollection:0x7f4309e17370 @insert_after_idx=nil, @resources_by_name={}, @resources=[]>

node.run_list.expand(node.chef_environment).recipes.each do |r|
  include_recipe r
end