Upgrade parts/ingredients not recognized to upgrade/create something

I'm experiencing the same issue. I only started playing The Sims 4 about a ~week ago, with no mods and no DLCs (except for one free item that was available at the time).

I wanted to make Ambrosia for one of my Sims, who unfortunately died from hysteria. -.-

I've completed all the requirements: level 10 Cooking, level 10 Gourmet Cooking, and everything else needed for the recipe. I also have all the ingredients, but the game simply doesn't recognize them. I've tried keeping them in my Sim's inventory, moving them to the fridge, and even clicking the recipe directly from the fridge, but nothing changes. :/

After a lot of testing, I managed to get the Angelfish and the Potion of Youth recognized. Strangely, the Potion of Youth is only detected if I buy it immediately before attempting to cook Ambrosia.

The biggest problem is the Death Flower. I've grown around 12 Death Flower plants, but not a single flower is recognized as a valid ingredient. The only time the Death Flower seemed to be detected was at the very beginning, but I didn't have the Angelfish at this moment.

To make things even stranger, after saving and reloading the game, all the Ambrosia ingredients become greyed out again. The Angelfish and Potion of Youth are no longer recognized either, despite still being in my inventory.

I'm honestly pretty confused. The game has been out for years, so I wasn't expecting to run into a bug like this from the base game. Right now it's really hurting the experience and making me think twice about buying the DLCs or even continuing playing :/

(Played on PC / W11 - No mods - No DLCs )