Store cupboard challenge

MaggieBaking

You haven't said what's in your fridge? You need to start with what will go off first... Do you have things like milk, cheese etc? Any fresh fruit or veg?

You seem to be missing things like herbs, and stock cubes - do you have that kind of thing in too?

You've got some nice food in their like squid, prawns and lobster! Do you have any guests coming round next month for dinner so you could serve it? Tell them you're cooking seafood so they can bring the wine... It'll also save you the cost of a night out!

So a quick few dinners for you off the top of my head...

Calamari (squid and tin of frozen peas)
Fish Pie - (tins of salmon, frozen smoked haddock, potatoes)
Fruit cake, or tea bread (raisins, mixed fruit)
Fish and chips (cod, potatoes)
Burgers (burgers, tinned potatoes, sweetcorn)
Gammon joint - split into two, make a ham and pea soup (frozen peas) and Gammon steaks (with tinned pineapple)
Beef bits - into a bit of a sauce with the jar of red peppers and serve with some rice.

threemuttleys

Cupboards

jam x2 - Use to make Jam tarts, jam roly poly, or use on porridge
kidney beans
carrots x5 - Carrot cake, use with potato as topping for shepherds pie,
peaches x2 - with a bit of yoghurt for a pudding
sweetcorn x2 - sweetcorn fritters, add to mac cheese
pineapple -
potatos x2
peas
mushy peas
meatballs x2 - add to pasta
2 tins salmon - Fish cakes,
jar of chilli
jar red beetroot
mandarin segments
jar grilled red peppers
can beef raveoli - send it to me!
chicken soup - use with pasta
dried chickpeas half bag - Hummus
bulgar wheat half bag
bag raisons
bag mixed fruit
1 pack breadcrumbs
half jar spagetti
full jar rice

also have loads of flour (all types the usual oils/sauces/packet mixes etc Bake your own cakes, bread, biscuits, experiment with making own pasta

1 bag white potatos - Jackets, fritters, cheese and potato pie, rosti (with the sweet pots, onion and carrot)
1 bag sweet potatos
4 onions - have you any eggs? spanish omelette

Freezer

Stuffed chicken x3 - use for a sunday roast?
loads of blackberries x4 tubs - use as topping for porridge, make crumble/cobbler with
bag of white beetroot
prawns 144g - use in sarnies, paella, prawn and egg fried rice, do a seafood pasta dish
cod fillets 354g - fish n chips, cod korma, hm fish fingers
chicken breasts x2
1 pack bacon - carbonara, sarnies!
pork mince 513g - meatballs,
gammon joint - cook and use as ham, coca cola ham, festive ham, carbonara
1 fish cake
2 puff pastry blocks - use with chicken breasts to make pie?
1 chargrilled chicken thing from birds eye
half bag home roasts
half bag peas
turkey breast steaks 573g
2 rainbow trout fillets - with a rosti and a simple watercress sauce
half bag brocoli
half bag carrots
quick fry steaks 473g packs x 7
125g blueberries x5
Marinated chicken portions for sweet & sour (meals worth)
chips
1 pack diced venison 350g
whole rabbit
stir fry beef 750g
6 burgers
chinese style pork chops 645g
4 squid tubes - paella
red beetroot
smoked haddock 400g x2
1 lobster bought for last xmas!!!

patchwork_cat

How many are you feeding? What is your available budget for getting extra things? Your mince could go with pasta as bolognaise, meatballs or lasagne. From your freezer I reckon you have easily 30/ 35 meals for 4, that is with no stretching which I know about, but don't particularly practice. The 3 chickens are they whole chickens? If so I would do 3 x roast chicken then I would make chicken and bacon rice, pie, lasagne, pasta etc.

lindseykim13

Will try and answer q's thanks for replies so far.

Fridge is pretty bare thats why i didn't bother lol
Small bit of cheddar
2 pints of milk
2 slabs of butter one salted one not
marge
stork for cakes yum yum
not much in the way of fresh veg just a few cherry toms

Have a good spice rack with everything you could think of i guess (was an xmas pressie!) tons of chicken stock cubes bought on offer.

2 adult and 3 children although baby dd only needs a half portion and other 2 eat as much as me.

Budget- as little as possible although if it's needed i'm able to get it not as if i can't spend, just can't do a big shop like i usually do when running low. Want to make the food we've got last as long as possible and just top up as needed.

yes 3 whole chickens

so glad i stock up on meat when it's reduced as that is what we are living off now, hence why i'm not sure what to do with some of it as it's not what i would pick up otherwise just it was bargain cheap.

jackyann

I would use the bulgar wheat to make a sort of tabouleh, to which you can add the raisins, cooked chick peas and some little bits of meat (cooked left-overs). I can't see your OP as I type this, so it's off the top of my head. I usually like to add peppers or tomatoes if I can; and I would use stock for the wheat to add flavour.
I would definitely make a kedgeree with your smoked haddock & rice - one of my very favourite comfort foods!
I'd consider fish-cakes with some of your fish - I usually par-boil then grate the potatoes (rather than mash) as it makes them nice & crispy, serve with mushy peas.
Gammon is one of my favourite joints as I stretch the left-overs into jambalaya (with rice, prawns, peppers etc.)
Cook the chickens fairly early into this and stretch the budget for the makings of stock as that will flavour so much.
With all these goodies, I would save every bit of left-over, then after 3-4 days, make patatas bravas, a veggie sort of rice, heat it all up & call it tapas.

Olive_Oyl

Have a looksy here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/

You can enter the ingredients you want to use and find all the recipes for them .

MaggieBaking

Funny Olive, I was just going to recommend the same! With BBC Good Food, which is a slightly different website and has all the dishes ordered by how high the ratings are... For Example Bulgar Wheat search - http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/search.do?keywords=bulgar+wheat&filterItem=&filterItem=&filterItem=&filterItem=&filterItem=&filterItem=&filterItem=&filterItem=&filterItem=&filterItem=

The one thing I would say is if you find a recipe you like but can't make it because you're missing an ingredient... Don't buy it! Come on here and ask if it could be replaced with an alternative... that's what I've started doing and it's saving me money! I'm also learning to substitute to use up a pepper I might have from the dinner before.

lindseykim13

thanks very much everyone i have managed a good list of meals so far thanks to your help. I am crossing off the list as i allocate items to a recipe so i know what i have left to play with. I'm upto 16 meals from my list so far.

lucylema

I have bought the following and would like suggestions on what you would do with it and how many days would this do you for?

Whole Chicken
2 small ish size packs of chicken breast
12 Meatballs

I have in the fridge/freezer/cupboards:
2 x jars of tomato sauces for pasta
Noodles
Pasta
Frozen Mixed Veg
Can't remember what else

With one of the packs of chickn breast I am making spanish chicken with rice.

Any ideas for the rest anyone?

quintwins

i would do roast chicken dinner, followed buy a chicken curry, and use any chicken left in pasta, so thats 3 days from your chicken.
Then i would do chicken casarole with your chicken peices and bulk it out with lots of carrots,onion,peas and sweetcorn and serve with mash and whatever veg you have, i would keep a wee bit of this back, and use it with taties to make chicken stew (add more onions and carrots)
i'd be tempted to make a stirfry with your other packet and your noddles, or even a chicken pie (or both depending on how many your feeding) and finally meatballs are pretty simple, i'd do a tomatoe based sauce with meatballs and veg, so thats 7 possibly 8 days