Store cupboard challenge

catralense

DdraigGogh - the cardonara recipe sounds fabulous! I'll be trying this one very soon!

I've been a bit nerdy and made an inventory of all the food in our cupboards and freezer - I'm trying to train my DH to cross things off the list as they're used and I'll retype the list when we so a shop. We have unwittingly stockpiled so much food that it's going to take ages to wade through it! We've started actually looking at the list the night before and planning what we'll be eating the following night and, funnily enough, we haven't eaten so well for AGES!

I love this thread!

catralense

Pink_Fairy wrote: »

(Anyone else found Cooking By Numbers?)

I've looked at this site a couple of times before but have never actually cooked from the recipes...I've bookmarked the site now so will try and remember it the next time I'm stuck for ideas!

mrsiwannabefree

Hi everyone

I must be the worlds worst culprit for buying food! I have cupboards full to the brim, and 3 (yes 3 freezers) which are full to bursting. Also have a large American style fridge that is packed to the hilt!!

The trouble is the family! I'm dieting with WeightWatchers, hubby does not eat any vegetables, fruit, pasta, couscous. Son will eat pasta, rice, couscous, but will only eat salad and broccoli, and daughter eats as much as a sparrow!!

I'm constantly told by all 3 of them that there's nothing to eat, hence the mountain of food that we have in our house and the low bank balance :mad:

So where to start?!

I thought I could do some sort of inventory whereby I list all the food we have, and then get them to tick which items they would eat and then could invent some dinners that everyone would eat, we have a lot of different dinners each night in our house, although I don't cook them all!

I have so much fresh veg in my fridge, can I blanch things like cauliflower & savoy cabbage and freeze it??

What else can I do??

mrsiwannabefree

mama67

My DS1 can say this even though I've just been shopping, I now just tell him that that's what there is and if he doesn't like it find something himself.

metherer

Have often seen this challenge, but think today is a good day to start it.

DH and I are skint until the 20th (and probably even after that) so we really need to make the most of what we have.

Am thinking of having chickpea curry tonight as we have a bag of them in the freezer. Might start an inventory tomorrow of what we have in, and aim to use some of the more unusual ingredients up. (Quinoa, buckwheat and random pulses anyone?)

Metherer

tazladytaz

I have been doing this challenge for the last week, before I saw it here. I still have a week menu made up of freezer foods and even then still some wierd things in the bottom of the frezer. I will be back in the next few days begging for help with the rest of my leftovers. There have been some excellent ideas on here.

Will_Tingle

I made us lovely spaghetti and meatballs the other night from stuff we had in...

Sauce:
1 tin Chopped toms
1 carrot
1/2 onion
3 beef oxo
dash Wooster sauce

Meatballs:
1/2 Lb beef
1/2 large Onion
2 tsp Basil
2 tsp parsley
2 tsp parmesan (the dried stuff in jars)
plain flour

How:

Sauce:

Put a small amount of the tinned toms in your blender with all the other sauce ingredients and blend until smooth.

Pour the blender contents and the rest of the tin of tomms into your slow cooker.

Meatballs:

Finley dice the 1/2 onion and fry it off, let it cool

Put the beef, fried onion, herbs and parmesan (well "Italian style cheese") in a bowl, and squidge it around with your hands until its thoroughly mixed.

Divide into 8 balls, roll each one in flour.

Shallow fry the meatballs until browned all over, then add to the sauce in the slow cooker - cook for a couple of hours and serve with pasta.

absolutely devine - it's now the OH's fave. dinner!

minibudgetgal

Have just done inventory of kitchen cupboards and freezer....Gosh, I got a bit carried away with the half price frozen salmon there a few weeks ago at Mr T and have bags of it! I am taking this challenge one step further and am not buying anymore cleaning stuff (a serious addiction) or bathroom stuff. In my "declutter/recycle" frenzy that is always half term, I found ten bottles of source bubble bath............................... I need therapy! When do I have time to soak in the bath??
Anyway, am keeping away from Tesco for time being til we have used up our vast stocks of food in freezer and cupboards.
Today I cooked up a storm for the freezer as follows:
- Lentil and nut loaf for veggie 10 year old X 2
- Huge veggie and soya mince lasagne
- Fish crumble
- Carrot and coriander soup
- Macaroni cheese

Does anyone find that if they do a load of cooking they just are not hungry when it comes to eat??? :rolleyes:

My target is to go for one calendar month without setting foot into Tesco..........

ps. Anyone know if you can freeze macaroni cheese?

razra

DdraigGoch wrote: »

Carbonara a la DG

.

wow I have just had this for tea and I can honestly say it will now get made at least once a month if not more:D

I used chirozo sliced instead of bacon and I chucked in some chopped mushrroms that needed using up, wow very easy thanks for sharing:D

Liney_2

I have 1 month left to use up everything - have been doing really well freezer is looking emptier and so is pantry have been meal planning to keep costs and wastage down.

I now have the following to use up

Some spaghetti (enough for one) some wholewheat penne (enough for one) will use these up tonight with a courgette, chilli and parmesan sauce - all stock items.

2 tins mackerel, 1 tin of tuna, 1 tin baked beans (lunch tomorrow), 1 tin evaporated milk, some pudding rice, some risotto rice, bag of broth mix, some corn for popping (little one will enjoy that), some wholemeal flour (have been using the bread m'c a lot of late)
can you make rice pudding with evaporated milk at all????

Cous Cous (tons of the stuff) - I usually do with roasted veg and harissa or with cue/toms and coriander and lemon - anyone got any other ideas to use this up??

Red lentils - will make some more veg soup I think.

1 tin aduki beans ???? God knows what I got them for - think they can go in soup too?

Shortcrust pastry mix - will make a couple of quiches next week once I have bought some more eggs.

My freezer has the following: Some frozen marinated tofu, some meat-free beef strips - feel some stir fries coming on,

Some vege mince and lasagne sheets - vegetarian lasagne?!

2 salmon steaks - sweet chilli dressing and grilled.

some bacon bits (can go in the quiche for hubby, I'll have a vege quiche)

Pack of frozen puff pastry and some Quorn chicken style pieces - maybe a
fake chicken pie - will just need a tin of mushroom soup.

So I think I basically have the rest of this week more or less covered and some of next - will have to give hubby a couple of meat options to keep him smiling. It looks like I just need to stock up on some appropriate veg...