Store cupboard challenge

hotcookie101

Sunshine6650 You could make a spicedlamb and chickpea/lentil dish with the lamb, some cumin, garam masala, chili flakes, cinnamon stick and chopped tomatoes. add chickpeas and lentils.(or use your curry pastes-but I wouldn't worry about the BB date on those!) serve with rice or naan

Or you could do italian style lamb with butter beans, chopped tomatoes and mixed herbs-also adding peppers etc from freezer?

The jamie oliver pesto-why not just have as pesto with pasta? or make a pasta salad for lunches with it, some veg/chickpeas.

Don't worry about using up the spices-just add them when you want, ignore the BB dates on them-they do lose their potency but I tend to just add more of the ones that aren't as strong as before, they don't go "off" as such

Pork loin joint-have as a roast (yum) with some of your frozen left over veg

Chinese turkey steak-slice up and stir fry with frozen mushrooms and brocolli, a little soy sauce, garlic and ginger works a treat here, as well as chilli flakes and serve with rice. How do they suggest cooking the steak on the packet? What did you have in mind when you bought it, or was it a special offer you couldn't resist

Indian style beans-are these like curried baked beans? If so, could be lovely on toasted naan breads as a light supper, or with rice and a hardboiled egg, odd sounding I know but I reckon it would work...

Tashja Yeah, I sort of agree with Wigglebeena, soup seems to be the answer, or lentil and barley stews-nice with some curry spices, have you tomatoes, any meat fresh veg at all?

Hope these ideas help....

sunshine6650

Hotcookie101,

Thank you. these are great starting point! The pesto could do for work lunches..

Chinese Stir fry sounds good too..was a whoopsy bargin, had no idea when bought it!!!

X

nopot2pin

Tashja wrote: »

Hi all

We need some help :rolleyes:

This month is being a bit of a tough month a and it looks like we need to rely on the store cupboard.

We have some bits in there though that are going to be helpful if we now what we can do with them :-

Lentils
Quinoa
Split yellow peas
Pearl barley

Have a few other bits in like tins, herbs, spices and have enough to get to wednesday when I should have a bit of money for fresh stuff.

Does anyone have any ideas please ?:A

T xx

If you add some onions, peppers, mushrooms or whatever takes your fancy to the cooked quinoa, it will help be a decent accompanyment to something.

You could use the lentils, or the split peas, to make a pate... I will find a linky for you in a second.
Or put them in a soup.


Pate Linky
This is for lentils... but I have made a very similar one using yellow split peas. You can also substiture the herbs with any spices or herbs you wish for a different flavour.

Trinny

Hello everyone

This is my new challenge for 2010. As i speak OH is "doing battle" with the larder - the air is full of rustling, things dropping and the odd £$%^ when he drops something - especially if its on his foot.

We have a terrifyingly over stocked store cupboard. Planning to read the thread first to get some ideas then make a start.

Back to post my first meal idea later

Trin

PossumMum

Well, we're snowed in at the moment and I'm mortified to say that we have very little in the way of a stockpile for such an event - very un-OS I know, but we've just moved back into the house and got a new chest freezer which hasn't been turned on yet. I was waiting to do a big shop to fill it. Typical. So I've had to do some scrounging in the cupboards and have managed to knock up a few nice meals from very little. There's 3 of us, me, OH and my 1 year old DS. So far we've had leftover spaghetti bolognaise that was in the fridge freezer, vegetarian risotto with last week's turkey stock, frozen peas and some grated white cheddar and tonight we had tagliatelle with sausage meatballs in tomato sauce (Dolmio). Oh - and not forgetting the old beans on toast.

But we're running low on supplies. We have enough milk to make DS's porridge tomorrow and that's it. We have one courgette, one orange pepper, 2 sweet potatoes, 3 baking potatoes, tonnes of pasta and tomato sauce (Dolmio), a block of cheddar, risotto rice, apples, pears, a watermelon, a jar of rollmops (which I happen to know are disgusting, far too sweet, I like my herring really pickled), some unsalted butter, dried bean mix, tins of kidney beans, some tinned grapefruit and 5 frozen sausages, porridge oats.. oh and a few bags of frozen veg (broccoli, green beans, peas and carrots). I have a few spices and herbs lying around (thyme, rosemary, sage, cumin, chilli powder, cinnamon).

If anyone has any bright ideas for meals with the above ingredients I'm all ears!

As soon as the snow thaws I'm doing a monster shop! I'm turning that big beautiful behemoth of a freezer on and filling it full of goodies.

nopot2pin

skaps wrote: »

I have some white stilton with apricots and some cheese with cranberries left over from christmas, apart from having them with crackers has anyone got any ideas what i can do with them?

What about this LINKY for a sweeter than normal bread stick
I would omit the paprika, and mabe add a wee bit of icing or caster sugar.

NiceGuyEddie_2

Tashja wrote: »

Hi all

We need some help :rolleyes:

This month is being a bit of a tough month a and it looks like we need to rely on the store cupboard.

We have some bits in there though that are going to be helpful if we now what we can do with them :-

Lentils
Quinoa
Split yellow peas
Pearl barley

Have a few other bits in like tins, herbs, spices and have enough to get to wednesday when I should have a bit of money for fresh stuff.

Does anyone have any ideas please ?:A

T xx

Pearl barley makes a delicious winter veg broth - something that I'd normally turn my nose up at, but I gave it a try once and was more than pleasantly suprised

Rinse it thoroughly as you would with rice, then bring to the boil in veg stock, turn down and simmer for a good hour. Then add small chunks of any onion and parsnip (and turnip, swede if you like) for another 20 mins and then carrots and leeks for another 15 mins.

You can add chicken chunks with the onion/parsnip too (and swap to chicken stock) and it's also delicious with pheasant if you can get any.

You can also use it instead of arborio rice for a risotto, or add to soup for a thicker texture. It really is such a good handy ingredient to have once you start trying it

The quinoa is mega healthy and I just use it as a substitute for rice/pasta sometimes or instead of cous cous if I'm doing a spicy chicken.

I'm not a lentil eater so not much help there I'm afraid, but dhal is v. easy to make with them.

NiceGuyEddie_2

PossumMum wrote: »

But we're running low on supplies. We have enough milk to make DS's porridge tomorrow and that's it. We have one courgette, one orange pepper, 2 sweet potatoes, 3 baking potatoes, tonnes of pasta and tomato sauce (Dolmio), a block of cheddar, risotto rice, apples, pears, a watermelon, a jar of rollmops (which I happen to know are disgusting, far too sweet, I like my herring really pickled), some unsalted butter, dried bean mix, tins of kidney beans, some tinned grapefruit and 5 frozen sausages, porridge oats.. oh and a few bags of frozen veg (broccoli, green beans, peas and carrots). I have a few spices and herbs lying around (thyme, rosemary, sage, cumin, chilli powder, cinnamon).

If anyone has any bright ideas for meals with the above ingredients I'm all ears!

Oooh, lots of ideas from these

I'd probably chop and fry the courgette and pepper, then add to the Dolmio sauce to get more portions to it. You've then get a pasta sauce by itself, or you can add sausages to the sauce and pour over pasta.

Sausages with sweet potato wedges
Apple and pear crumble (subsituting cinnamon for part of the sugar in the crumble mix is particularly tasty)
Veg curry from the potato, sweet potato, courgette, cumin and chilli.
Cheesy bean baked potatoes
Sausage and pasta bake, using the Dolmio sauce and then covered in grated chedder. You could also add the broccoli and green beans in too.
Broccoli and pea risotto
Fruit salad with the watermelon and grapefruit

Or you brown off the sausages and put in a baking dish with the defrosted veg, stock with a bit of cornflour in and then cover with mashed potato, bit of cheese and then bake.

skaps

nopot2pin wrote: »

What about this linky for a sweeter than normal bread stick
I would omit the paprika, and mabe add a wee bit of icing or caster sugar.

Thanks for that, luckily i have puff pastry in the freezer so will defrost it tonight and make it tomorrow:j

PossumMum

NiceGuyEddie wrote: »

Oooh, lots of ideas from these

I'd probably chop and fry the courgette and pepper, then add to the Dolmio sauce to get more portions to it. You've then get a pasta sauce by itself, or you can add sausages to the sauce and pour over pasta.

Sausages with sweet potato wedges
Apple and pear crumble (subsituting cinnamon for part of the sugar in the crumble mix is particularly tasty)
Veg curry from the potato, sweet potato, courgette, cumin and chilli.
Cheesy bean baked potatoes
Sausage and pasta bake, using the Dolmio sauce and then covered in grated chedder. You could also add the broccoli and green beans in too.
Broccoli and pea risotto
Fruit salad with the watermelon and grapefruit

Or you brown off the sausages and put in a baking dish with the defrosted veg, stock with a bit of cornflour in and then cover with mashed potato, bit of cheese and then bake.

Oh some great ideas there! Thank you! I'm definitely doing baked spuds but I'll do a curry with some of the leftovers and the sweet potatoes, that sounds delicious. I think I have some chickpeas and basmati floating around somewhere so it'll work a treat. And I have a tonne of tinned toms. Perfect for a nice curry - can't believe I didn't think of it! Will definitely do an apple crumble too, and am loving the pasta bake idea. Thanks so much!