Store cupboard challenge

Julimk

I told DD today about joining this challenge & she is all for it, as she thinks I have ridiculous amounts in, particularly the tinned toms & tinned tuna. And she asked what we could make with what was in?

In the event we used a can of hot dogs. Though TBH I was a bit troubled by this after watching Britain’s Most Disgusting Food on Sunday, where he found hot dogs with zero real meat in – just mechanically reclaimed chicken, pork fat etc. And I hardly ever get them anyway, mainly because I was aware they were basically carp! But we had them in & waste not want not!

The next two days DD will have dinner at the childminder’s & I will have a HM ‘ready meal’ (of which there are still 38). No point cooking up anything else until these are reduced as there is no place in the freezers to put anything else.

NualaBuala

Julimk wrote: »

I will have a HM ‘ready meal’ (of which there are still 38). No point cooking up anything else until these are reduced as there is no place in the freezers to put anything else.

Hi Julimk, :hello:
Wow, I'm impressed! :T I thought I was great having 4 HM meals in my freezer. I'm making spaghetti bolognaise later in the week so that will add a few more.

I have a confession OldStylers *hangs head in shame* ... please don't boot me off the board but I got a takeaway for dinner tonight. It came out of my Treats budget so I'm still on target with my spending. And I couldn't finish it so it will do lunch or dinner tomorrow - at this rate my stores could feed me till February!

candygirl

OMG I finally emptied my cupboards today cos the kitchen's being fitted on Wed, and the stuff filled 8 stacker boxes:eek::eek::eek::o:o:o
I also chucked about 8 bin bags of crap from my kitchen inc old tupperware, crockery etc.I can't wait to start afresh:j:j:j
No shopping till Sat at least :D

nopot2pin

Well... I did a bit of food shuffling today :rolleyes:
Took stuff out of the cupboard, added other stuff to it from the fridge, cooked it, froze it :rolleyes:
The final result of todays shuffling,

1. Pumpkin soup. I also froze some water reduced pumpkin, to make cake with
2. Lemon curd frozen yoghurt - like ice cream :drool:
3. Courgette and tomatoe quiche
4. Pineapple tartlets.

For tomorrow's food shuffle, I have already,

1. Took some chickpea's out of the cupboard to soak over night, to make soup
2. And, I have made up some sugar syrup, to use in some HM wine:D

lynzpower

Lynz do you buy lunches every day then normally? It really is amazing how easy it is to spend money in work. I tend to bring only what I need, so 62p for a coffee. if i have no money, sometimes I bring a lock-n-lock with milk and coffee in - just ready to be topped up with hot water.

is there an ashamed smiley Im in london too- I dont want to tell people what I spend one it :eek: Needless to say, im trying to stop it. I bought a stew pot from tossed the other day and it was so vile, I heaved. That was the line drawn. When I was dfw i managed it... although I did have a office based job witha kitchen/ micro etc . OH has all these facilities

Yes Im afraid I do buy lunch almost every day. I used to be a lunch taker then two things happened:

1) I tried to limit eating bread in the day as it makes me sleepy- with mixed results.
2) I got a job where I dont have access to the kitchen, and am outside so really can do with something hot!

I have tried taking sandwiches/ salads etc, but im not joking Ill start eating them at five past nine even if i have had a bowl of muesli. Im just a glutton to be fair.

Yesterday was a disaster, the rain in Sussex weas terrential :eek: and I got back really late . The flask didnt keep the water hot, n it was tepid. I still made the cupasoup, but it didnt dissolve very well. Sigh. The lid was on and everything and it did used to work this was around 1pm and I put the water in at 7.45?? So needless to say I was starving :eek: and snapped and bought some kettle chips

I tihnk i might try again today, but I have also going to be somewhere where I can boil the kettle at about 12.30 so should have hot water for soup at lunchtime- Ill have to buy bread or something but there is a sainsburys nearby and maybe I could buy saomething that will last the rest of the week.

Tonight its more sausages & mash, and veg, looking forward to that already. Weather is grim here again and I expect its going to be a really miserable day.

Wrap up warm folks x

nicki_2

Anyone any ideas of how I could use up some dried lasagne sheets? DD has suddenly decided she doesn't like lasagne anymore and these have been in my cupboard since last Christmas (I've used up 2 other YS ones since then ). Its the bolonaise part she doesn't like :rolleyes: I was wondering if I could make one using fish in some sort of sauce? Creativity in the kitchen is lacking ATM so any ideas would be welcomed.

Olliebeak

nicki wrote: »

Anyone any ideas of how I could use up some dried lasagne sheets? DD has suddenly decided she doesn't like lasagne anymore and these have been in my cupboard since last Christmas (I've used up 2 other YS ones since then ). Its the bolonaise part she doesn't like :rolleyes: I was wondering if I could make one using fish in some sort of sauce? Creativity in the kitchen is lacking ATM so any ideas would be welcomed.

What about something like this recipe: http://www.mydish.co.uk/recipe/5424/chicken_lasagna_by_susan_h

CCP

Morning all!

Well, I'm was rather pleased with last night's soup - it used up the last of the pork joint from Sunday, my last pack of ham stock, the last of a pack of rice noodles and the end of a jar of Thai curry paste. That made enough for a bowful for dinner last night, and the rest for lunch today - pretty good for a load of odds and ends, really.

Tonight's dinner uses up my last pack of savoury mince, and I've got a pack of cheese defrosting too so I can crumble some over the mince if I fancy it.

lynzpower wrote: »

Yesterday was a disaster, the rain in Sussex weas terrential :eek: and I got back really late . The flask didnt keep the water hot, n it was tepid. I still made the cupasoup, but it didnt dissolve very well. Sigh. The lid was on and everything and it did used to work this was around 1pm and I put the water in at 7.45??

That's odd, isn't it? I wonder if the flask has got damaged at some point so it's no longer a vacuum? That would explain why the heat doesn't stay inside where it belongs. If you fancy a new one you can get them very cheap in Wilkinsons at the moment, if there's a store near you - I got one a few weeks ago that's the perfect size for a cup of soup, and it was only about £2.50.

nicki wrote: »

Anyone any ideas of how I could use up some dried lasagne sheets? DD has suddenly decided she doesn't like lasagne anymore and these have been in my cupboard since last Christmas (I've used up 2 other YS ones since then ). Its the bolonaise part she doesn't like :rolleyes: I was wondering if I could make one using fish in some sort of sauce? Creativity in the kitchen is lacking ATM so any ideas would be welcomed.

I think you can use lasagne sheets with any filling you like, really - my dad does a rather tasty roast veg lasagne, and I tried a cheese and spinach one a couple of months ago that was rather good. If you fancy fish, how about making a tuna and tomato sauce and layering that up with sheets of lasagne? Or possibly a standard fish pie sauce, with lasagne rather than potato topping? (Hmm. That's an interesting idea actually - I'll have to try that. :think:)

nopot2pin wrote: »

Lemon curd frozen yoghurt - like ice cream :drool:

:drool::drool::drool: I'll say no more!

Olliebeak

Just made a pan of soup from 3 carrots, 2 sticks of clery, 1 parsnip, 1 leek, three-quarters of a bag of tasteless SmartPrice Mixed Veg, handful of red lentils, 1pt of water from cooking carrots on sunday, 1 Kallo veg stock cube, pinch of ground coriander and pinch of celery salt - will blend before serving. All simmering away nicely to be served at lunchtime instead of the planned chicken sarnies.

zippychick

lynzpower wrote: »

is there an ashamed smiley Im in london too- I dont want to tell people what I spend one it :eek: Needless to say, im trying to stop it. I bought a stew pot from tossed the other day and it was so vile, I heaved. That was the line drawn. When I was dfw i managed it... although I did have a office based job witha kitchen/ micro etc . OH has all these facilities

Yes Im afraid I do buy lunch almost every day. I used to be a lunch taker then two things happened:

1) I tried to limit eating bread in the day as it makes me sleepy- with mixed results.
2) I got a job where I dont have access to the kitchen, and am outside so really can do with something hot!

I have tried taking sandwiches/ salads etc, but im not joking Ill start eating them at five past nine even if i have had a bowl of muesli. Im just a glutton to be fair.

Yesterday was a disaster, the rain in Sussex weas terrential :eek: and I got back really late . The flask didnt keep the water hot, n it was tepid. I still made the cupasoup, but it didnt dissolve very well. Sigh. The lid was on and everything and it did used to work this was around 1pm and I put the water in at 7.45?? So needless to say I was starving :eek: and snapped and bought some kettle chips

I tihnk i might try again today, but I have also going to be somewhere where I can boil the kettle at about 12.30 so should have hot water for soup at lunchtime- Ill have to buy bread or something but there is a sainsburys nearby and maybe I could buy saomething that will last the rest of the week.

Tonight its more sausages & mash, and veg, looking forward to that already. Weather is grim here again and I expect its going to be a really miserable day.

Wrap up warm folks x

Awww you poor thing! This sounds familiar - what do you work as? Is it on a consrtuction site?

Hmmm. The lact of microwave and kettle certainly is a problem. I can imagine how much you spend in London! I was over a few months ago and we went shopping in tescos and i couldn't believe the prices compared to home! :eek:

Regards your gluttony, I'm sorry I'm so like you ! I literally have to stop myself eating lunch too. I'm being made redundant and we have very little to do, so I just sit and clock watch (and MSE watch) and think about food all day. It's the only thing that breaks the day up!

Here's my suggestions...... Take lunch 3 days a week, treat 2 days a week
* Pasta based, rice based and cous cous so all can be cold and no bread (if you get a micro all the better)
* Put your money into a pot that you would spend on lunch each day.
* To motivate yourself - do a quick calculation now to see how much you could save between now and christmas. ikf you take two lunches this week, and three each week up until christmas , that's 14 lunches , so multiply 14 by your average lunch cost. Eg £5 x 14 = £70.......
* Give yourself a sandwich day a week and exclude bread from dinner (or are you better with no bread at all?)
* Make a batch of flapjacks for a mid morning snack - full of oats nuts and seeds, very filling as well so should hopefully make you feel less underprivileged and starved and help you last until lunch time!

I'm sure it's all very well me saying all this, I can't imagine what it's like for you working outside. Big hug for that

Only stuff put into freezer here. 2 portions butterbean and parsnip soup, 4 portions of jalfrezi (got 6 portions out of 6 chicken thighs, woohheeeeee!) , 2 leek and potato, about 600g cooked chicken, 300g cooked ham. This is all the plan to last me over the month.

I have 15 ready meals, and am hoping to add to that tonight. Rearranged the "big" drawer of my freezer which contains all my ready meals and pizza corner etc. It's like a military operation to be honest. Oh, i also put two roasted carcasses in for stock. I'm definitely going against the thread here!:rotfl:

Ollie - I'm liking your work on the bottom of the fridge soup

CCP - your thought process does make me laugh! Good to read about your cider cake antics, the visions of you eating cidery crumbs

Nuala - everyone deserves a takeaway, don't worry about it!