Store cupboard challenge

IvanOpinion

Not exactly a recipe ... more of an 'serving suggestion'. Last night DW was not feeling the best so I had to fend for myself (it was lonely in the kitchen without DW chained to the sink!). I rummaged through the freezer and found some chicken goujons and a bag of rice (I had considered chips but went for the healthy option).

I also knew I had a bottle of M&S sweet chilli sauce ... the rest is obvious ... and bloody tastey it was too.

Ivan

filigree_2

Last night's dinner was a pork hock (reduced in Sainsbury's), 200ml tomato juice leftover from another recipe, a bit of onion leftover from coleslaw, a wrinkly red pepper, a bendy carrot and some positively geriatric Puy lentils (precooked). Shoved the lot in the slow cooker for about 4 hours on High then Low till we were ready to eat.

It was delicious, fed three generously with leftovers (not bad for £1.25 worth of meat) and I made stock with the bones afterwards.

Tonight's dinner is risotto to use up the flipping rice (decided we're not keen on risotto but I refuse to throw it out), leftover chicken pickings off the carcass, scraps of yesterday's pork, yesterday's stock, basil from the pot, dregs of whatever frozen veggies I can muster and mushrooms (I confess I did buy these specially).

Oh, and pudding will be LOTS of chocolate cake because the blooming PTA Fayre was rained off! Grr!

henhog

Hi, This is fun because it's what we have done all week! On Monday we had a frozen veg curry (reduced and frozen) with brown rice(been in cupboard for ages) with BOGOF naans from freezer. Well nice. On Tuesday we had left over sausages with a Tesco 19p batter mix (bought for pancake day) to make Toad in the Hole. On Wednesday we had pasta with a BOGOF sauce from the cupboard. Today we have had a frozen (reduced) pie and mash made from sprouting potatoes and scraps of veg from bottom of the fridge. Tomorrow is pizza (Frozen bogof). For lunch we have had jam sandwiches on homemade bread.
I have promised myself not to step foot in a shop all week and to get rid of stuff from store cupboard. The baby has even polished off all of the old bananas! The cats had some old frozen fish I found and a tin on cheapo cat food I bought for the RSPCA thing outside Tesco but forgot to put in.
Couldn't live like this for more than a week or two but in terms of a crash money diet it certainly works!

IvanOpinion

Had to cook again last night (getting to be a habit) ... this time it was for 2 though.

Found a bag of chicken pieces in the freezer (from the last time we had a roast chicken) went into a pot with onion, peas, mushrooms. pepper (basically anything I found at the bottom of the larder) and a can of campbells condensed chicken soup. A good grating of pepper and a few chilli flakes finsihed it off. Served on the remainder of the bag of rice from the night before.

Scrummy ... even though I say so myself

So I have half a pepper, half an onion, some mushrooms and a few frozen peas left. I also know I have some frying steak in the freezer and a sachet of pepper sauce. I guess that for tonight that lot gets mixed togather and will be served in a couple of large baked poatatoes (I noticed them last night while rummaging).

Ivan

LearningToSave.

after finally getting my backside in gear i am going to do this store cupboard challenge before i attempt the grocery challenge.....will also draw up menu plans in the time being too,so when my storecupboard challenge is done i am completely set up and ready to go with no waste :-)
..........right off to rummage through cupboards and freezer.....no mean feat as im terrible and have constantly heaving cupboards,fridge and freezer but always seem to eat the same few things and throw loads of fresh stuff out.

squeaky

With the builders in I've been living off my (deliberately high) stocks for the past month and have bought in only fresh veg and fruit and milk. I've got the chance to do my monthly shop today only to find that I'm only half way through my stock! I only really have a few odds and ends to replace and I'll be able to live off my stock for another month yet!

Good job I overdid the stocking up though - the builders are now into week five and they said it would only be 2-3. Hah!

chrislee765

Try this website.. http://www.cookingbynumbers.com/

Seems to have alot of recipes.

SomersetPrincess

Chrislee what a fab site - thank you!!!

Rebob

I cooked a rubber chicken out of freezer on sunday and we had some with potatoes reduced from local market and veg from freezer. dog is still having scraps mixed with her dinner. Had a couple of sandwiches off it. chopped half of the remains of chicken and mixed with tvp chunks to make a curry, ate one half of curry and froze the rest for another day and we are having the second half of the remains with soya mince curtesy of the storecupboard to make a bolonese. All I have bought for this is the mushrooms. Wonder if there will be any leftovers for freezing??????

henhog

I cleaned the fridge and it made me feel guilty about all the unused veg, so I made minestrone soup in the slow cooker.

I put in about four old carrots, an onion, about three cloves of garlic, some french beans, an old mushroom, a tin of baked beans, two and a half pints of veg stock (made with stock cubes) tomato puree and some dried herbs. I let it cook for about five hours (well, I actually forgot it and it cooked for more like seven!) on a low setting. I then broke up some spaghetti and put it in, and left it for an hour. It was yummy and very filling.

The next day I made corned beef hash for little ones and after boiling and mashing the spuds, putting in the corned beef I added a bit of the left over minestrone soup and mashed the whole lot with the potato masher! I then cooked it in the saucepan for about 10 mins.

The day after OH cooked the left over corned beef hash like fish cakes, and had them with salad.

The left over minestrone was frozen. Can't believe how many meals the old veg that I probably would have chucked before I found this site, has made!