Store cupboard challenge

XSpender

I completed the store cupboard last night and it is not pretty:eek: Excluding the fridge and all the spices and sauces and stuff it runs to 4 sides of A4. I don't think I will bore you all by listing it as a lot of it is the usual tins and baking stuff.

I have masses of white pasta penne to use up as OH bought a huge bag of it when we were marathon training and it has sat there ever since. I am not mad on pasta but do like the H)me Pr1de pasta bake sauces but at £1.45 they are off the menu for a while. Does anyone have a pasta bake recipe (no meat or fish) they could share? I have gallons of tinned toms and beans and all the usual garlic etc.

Used up frozen fish, the last 2 veggie sausages and some mushy peas last night. BIL coming for tea tonight so I will make a vat of chilli using up some frozen peppers and the mountain of quorn mince. Not gonna tell him its veggie until after he's eaten it:p

All this talk of twinks hobnobs has got me drooling and I will have to make some tomorrow:drool::drool:

jinky67

NualaBuala wrote: »

Thanks :T - that's pure genius cos the recipe makes loads and I couldn't fit them all in the oven at last time. Oh the smell is delicious but it means I'm usually ready to eat the whole lot as soon as they're done!:D

I have never managed to make the quantity or people claim to get from the mix

Do you think I am making them too big?:rotfl:

CCP

XSpender wrote: »

Does anyone have a pasta bake recipe (no meat or fish) they could share? I have gallons of tinned toms and beans and all the usual garlic etc.

My favourite one is my dad's cheese and tomato pasta bake - it's simple, cheap and really tasty! The recipe (with my usual lack of accurate quantities and timings, I'm afraid):

• pre-heat the oven to pasta bake temperature (about 200ish in my oven - I think that's gas mark 6? )
• slice an onion, and fry in a splash of olive oil until it starts to turn golden; add a chopped garlic clove and cook for another minute or so
• sprinkle over a teaspoon-full or so of sugar, and cook for a couple of minutes until it starts to caramelise (i.e. go golden, not burnt, which is what I usually mean by caramelised!)
• add a tin of chopped tomatoes, some salt and pepper, and a pinch of chilli flakes if you fancy a bit of spiciness
• leave to bubble until really thick and reduced
• while the sauce is bubbling, cook pasta until slightly underdone; drain it and mix with the sauce
• top with a mountain of grated cheese (well, that's what I do, but you could use a smaller amount if you're more sensible! ), and bake in the oven until bubbling and golden

Lovely stuff! :drool:

And a confession - I haven't yet tried the famous twinks - they seem to be additive and I'm a bit wary of trying them in case I get addicted too!

tori.k

XSpender wrote: »

I have masses of white pasta penne to use up as OH bought a huge bag of it when we were marathon training and it has sat there ever since. I am not mad on pasta but do like the H)me Pr1de pasta bake sauces but at £1.45 they are off the menu for a while. Does anyone have a pasta bake recipe (no meat or fish) they could share? I have gallons of tinned toms and beans and all the usual garlic etc.

Hello Xspender, i think it came to a shock to most of us how much we had stored...back to point, i often add pasta to colly/broccoli cheese to pad it out a bit, another good one is www.ivu.org/recipes/pasta/veggie.html

im now doing roast tonight at the eldest request he's off out sunday but didnt want to miss out on dinner so we having a shuffle, im also going to do a trifle thing to start using up some of tinned fruit that i have.

Anyone know the difference between condensed milk and evaporated milk? i have a tin of each, i could make millionaires shortbread with the condensed but could i use the evaporated for the same recipe at a later date?



Penny just seen your menu, i want to live at your house im house trained honest!

ellemm

Can I join in please ? Have been doing the GC for a few months now and really enjoying the challenge, however as mentioned previously on here the lure of the bogofs & whoopsies are sometimes too much to pass up on and as a result freezer is choc-a-block! and cupboards groaning.........:D

Have managed to use HM meals and meat/fish from the freezer this week so seeing small spaces develop.....which may disappear again after weekly shop tonight but will try to be good and stick to the list.

Will also try to make inroads into the stockpile of various types of flour and get the breadmaker going again and do more baking.

So the weekly shop tonight should be a few basic fresh items (need to keep total to about £20 to be within my GC challenge) and have a batch cooking day tomorrow to feed us for the rest of the week.

jazzyman01

Spent the day sorting out my cupboards after reading this thread. Now have a ridiculously long list of stuff. Usually buy things on bogof and it soon builds up. Anyway, challenge now is to spend only on milk, meat, veg and fruit for the next two weeks!

In order to maximise the use of my oven, I have made cakes, bread, biscuits and casseroles. Did the timing/temperature on each thing to ensure I was cooking on all shelves. The smell is amazing, the problem is keeping little fingers off the stuff long enough for it to cool and freeze.

XSpender

Thank you CCP and tori.k for the past bake recipes. Will be trying them out on the pasta mountain next week.

tori.k your idea about broccolli cheese reminded me of a pasta bake I used to make when I first went veggie 25 years ago:eek: that I had forgotten about. Broccoli on the bottom of a dish, pasta in a cheese sauce on top then topped with bread crumbs and cheese and done in the oven until crispy.

CCP wrote: »

top with a mountain of grated cheese (well, that's what I do, but you could use a smaller amount if you're more sensible! ), and bake in the oven until bubbling and golden

That's just the way I like it too CCP, the cheesy top is the best bit:D

mollythewestie

Well, I have fallen off of the wagon already! I had takeaway for tea last night, so the chilli will be for tea tonight instead.

But we still haven't bought any groceries since thursday last week - which is unheard of in this house. We are doing some shopping tomorrow, but just the basics of milk, eggs and baby things. I am going to try to not buy any bread for a few weeks because:
a) I probably have about 3 loaves in the freezer, and
b) I have 3 large bags of strong flour sat in my cupboard waiting to be used up. Although the last loaf I made was like a rock , I am going to give the "no-knead" recipe I have seen on here a go.

NualaBuala

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

Today I'm making a frozen spinach and HG squash lasagne
Penny. x

Mmm, that sounds lovely Penny, do you have a recipe? I've got frozen spinach and I'd like to use it as an ingredient rather than just having it on the side. No HG squash though but I might buy a pumpkin for Halloween and I could use that.

Today I'm going to use up one of my zillion jars of Ragu and a tin of tuna. I'll add some veg and have it with pasta. I might whack it in the oven for a bit with some of the stale crackers as a sort of breadcrumb topping mixed with a bit of grated cheese. That'll do at least 2 dinners - all those old Chinese takeaway containers are coming in handy!

NualaBuala

XSpender wrote: »

I have gallons of tinned toms and beans and all the usual garlic etc.

Another candidate for Tinned Tomatoes Anonymous

jinky67 wrote: »

I have never managed to make the quantity or people claim to get from the mix
Do you think I am making them too big?:rotfl:

lol:rotfl:

CCP wrote: »

And a confession - I haven't yet tried the famous twinks - they seem to be additive and I'm a bit wary of trying them in case I get addicted too!

Very sensible indeed - are you sure we can't tempt you over to the [STRIKE]dark[/STRIKE] melt-in-the-mouth, crumbly, delicious side?:D

tori.k wrote: »

Hello Xspender, i think it came to a shock to most of us how much we had stored...back to point, i often add pasta to colly/broccoli cheese to pad it out a bit, another good one is www.ivu.org/recipes/pasta/veggie.html

Thanks tori, sounds yum - will use these ideas too.:T

ellemm wrote: »

So the weekly shop tonight should be a few basic fresh items (need to keep total to about £20 to be within my GC challenge) and have a batch cooking day tomorrow to feed us for the rest of the week.

Hi ellemm, good luck using up your stores. £20 a week for the GC is great - I tried it but fell off the wagon as I wasn't organised enough.:o But so far so good with this one!:j

jazzyman01 wrote: »

In order to maximise the use of my oven, I have made cakes, bread, biscuits and casseroles. Did the timing/temperature on each thing to ensure I was cooking on all shelves. The smell is amazing, the problem is keeping little fingers off the stuff long enough for it to cool and freeze.

Best of luck jazzyman! I'm impressed with your willpower if it's just the little fingers you have to keep away from the baking! I don't think I could resist:D

mollythewestie wrote: »

Well, I have fallen off of the wagon already! I had takeaway for tea last night, so the chilli will be for tea tonight instead.

I am going to give the "no-knead" recipe I have seen on here a go.

Molly, I tell myself that the occasional takeaway is a good thing as it's a "free" source of containers for batch cooking!:D

Since I already spent €7.90 on my challenge, I've got €2.10 for next week - I might buy buttermilk to make soda bread. All this talk of baking is making fancy some! And I might slip a few Twinks in the oven at the same time:p