Store cupboard challenge

happymoneysaver79

Ive decided to set myself the challenge of making this last until xmas week, beyond if I can but best not to be too optimistic. Now Ive made this list I can remove the things that have been used and will probably have to be more inventive with my meal planning. Today I have used the quorn mince to make a shepherds pie for me which should be about four portions and a bag and a half of lamb mince to make shepherds pie for him and babba and the left over mince made 5 minted lamb burgers which we can have for tea with jacket spuds, peas and carrots.

Thanks for everyones replies x x

Olliebeak

I'm in a similar position to you, happymoneysaver - let's both have a darn good try to (a) empty the freezers and (b) not succumb to any bargains/whoopsies! I'm banning myself from entering my local ASDA!!! OH will get sent with a list and the exact money :rolleyes:.

I've crammed my freezers to their limits (please God, no power cuts!), and have decided that November's shopping will only be bread, milk, cat food, veg and fruit. So for the next 6 weeks we will be living out of the freezers and I WILL make some space for when we need to do the main Christmas shop.

One of my problems is my addiction to soup-making. My recent ham shank produced a fabulous pot of stew (which was all eaten in 1 evening :eek:) but then I made 3 x 1kg, plus 1 x 500g, margarine tubs of really thick pea and ham soup. Those are now in the freezer and of course take up far more space than the ham shank did !

SpoonyOh

OP - you and I are in a similar boat (only I'm not preggers and my baby is only just on puree). I spend around £25 per week on food, but I make sure I get what I can out of it. My OH did a roast chicken on Sunday, we had the roast food on Sunday, leftover chicken for three days (good old freezer), plus I made a pint of concentrated chicken stock and a pint of mixed vegetable stock. Even the dog ate well from it! I notice on your list there's a fair amount of convenience food, that's usually where the budget goes, so I've found. For the price of one ready made pie, you can buy enough fat and flour to keep you in shortcrust pastry for about eight meals. If you aren't so confident in the kitchen, I recommend Jamie Oliver's new book (Jamie's Ministry of Food), it got my OH cooking - nowt short of a miracle!
Also, I recommend quinoa - it's so healthy, you can tart it up with virtually anything, plus it's cheap and goes quite far (it fluffs up when you cook it to about triple it's original volume).

thriftlady_2

Right ho!

So this is what happens; I spend the evenings curled up in front of the telly with my (large) collection of cookbooks. By the end of the evening I've got yet another list of food 'wants' and recipes I might try.

So off I trundle to Waitrose and fill my trolley with stuff I don't need. Now none of the stuff I buy is particularly extravagant (apart from it coming from Waitrose) but it is mostly stuff we don't need -a different kind of dried bean, shape of pasta or type of cheese when there are chickpeas, spaghetti and cheddar at home. It's madness and I blame Nigella, Nigel, Hugh and many others

Enough is enough! I will not be dictated to by cookery writers anymore. I can come up with my own meal ideas or I can take a recipe and adapt it to what I have in my cupboards. I have enough food stores to last until at least Christmas I reckon.

I'm off for a shower now:D but later I'll post my storecupboard list and my essential fresh supplies list. I know, I can hardly wait myself:rotfl:

frugalswan

Here, here, Thriftlady, I completely agree! I have a plethora of cookbooks on the shelves in my kitchen, but I only use three - a Nigella baking book, a low-fat book and a student cookbook - and those are for guidelines only. If I can't find a recipe for such and such an ingredient that I've got left over from the night before, I'll just add it anyway and spice it to taste. As a rule, the tastiest meals I've made (according to the OH ) have been those meals.

I was given a recipe today for meatballs with a chipotle sauce. Now, I've since found chipotles are smoked chillies, and yes, I did find some in Mr M's when I went to do my main shop at lunchtime. But all the time I was thinking "Can I do this with the things I've already got in?". I reckon I can. A bit of smoked paprika, some garlic and some chilli powder in with a tin of tomatoes ought to do the trick! I can't do without my smoked paprika!

thriftlady_2

Sauces, seasonings and what have you
Extra virgin olive oil
Extra virgin olive oil spray
Sunflower oil
Sesame oil
Chilli oil
White wine vinegar
Red wine vinegar
Cider vinegar
Balsamic vinegar
Vermouth
Sherry
A little rum

Soy sauce
[strike]Teriyaki sauce[/strike]
Sweet chilli sauce
Chilli sauce
Worcester sauce
Ketchup
[strike]Korma paste[/strike]
Mayonnaise
Mango chutney
[strike]Redcurrant jelly[/strike]
Horseradish
Dijon mustard
Wholegrain mustard
Capers
Olives
Honey
Marmite
Marigold stock powder
Kallo beef stock cubes
Sun-dried tomatoes
Creamed coconut

2 and a bit jars of damson chutney
2 jars blackberry jelly
1 jar quince jelly
2 jars crab apple jelly
[strike]1 jar peach and apricot preserve[/strike]
10 jars jumbleberry jam

A wide variety of spices which I don’t anticipate using up
Sea salt
Table salt

Tins
[strike]3 sardines[/strike]
1 anchovies
3 coconut milk 2
2 pineapple cubes 1
5 tuna 4

Cereals
White basmati rice
Brown basmati rice
Arborio rice
Pudding rice

Couscous
Bulghar
Popcorn
Oats
Barley

A few sheets lasagne
Half a packet wholemeal spaghetti
1.5kg spaghetti 1kg
500g tripolline (ribbons with rippled edges)

Pulses
Soup mix –not much
[strike]Red lentils[/strike]
[strike]Green lentils[/strike]
[strike]Puy lentils –not many[/strike]
Kidney beans these are now cooked and frozen
Mung beans (I use these for sprouting)

Miscellaneous
Walnuts
Hazelnuts
Flaked almonds
[strike]Pecans[/strike]
Sunflower seeds
[strike]Pumpkin seeds[/strike]
sesame seeds
Dried apricots
Sultanas
Raisins
Currants

Tea, coffee
Dried milk & UHT milk –I use these to make yogurt
Oatcakes & ryvitas

Baking supplies
Plain flour-white and wholemeal
Self-raising flour
Strong white flour
Strong wholemeal flour
Cornflour
[strike]Rye flour –half a bag[/strike]

Caster sugar
Demerara sugar
Muscavado sugar
Light brown soft sugar
A bit of icing sugar

Golden syrup
Black treacle
Preserved ginger
[strike]100g chocolate[/strike] I bought more:o 400g to be precise
handful of white choc chips
2 and a bit bags of ground almonds
desiccated coconut
cocoa
1 and a half packets of suet
1 sachet of gelatine
candied peel
1 and a half blocks of marzipan

sack of potatoes
cooking apples
onions
garlic

Freezer
[strike]2x lb braising steak[/strike]will be cooked tomorrow and half frozen
[strike]1 lb diced lamb[/strike]
4x lb mince 3
8 chicken breasts
1 whole chicken
[strike]1 lb sausages[/strike]
[strike]pack of bacon bits[/strike]

1 bag of small prawns
[strike]5 small fillets Pollack[/strike]
[strike]5 fillets salmon[/strike]

[strike]leftover Chinese plum pork[/strike]

sweetcorn
peas
[strike]broad beans[/strike]
7 xportion of braised red cabbage
6 bags diced pumpkin5
5 bags pureed pumpkin
tubs of vegetable hash –lots
haricot beans (the dried sort cooked)
chick peas
parsley

stewed quince -1 portion
[strike]gooseberries[/strike]
[strike]raspberries[/strike]
[strike]red and white currants[/strike]
[strike]blackberries[/strike]
[strike]several over-ripe bananas[/strike]

[strike]chicken stock –lots[/strike]
ham stock x3
3 x cheese sauce 1
[strike]3 pumpkin pasties[/strike]
1lb pastry

3 packets of wholemeal pittas 1
[strike]1 pack of mini pittas[/strike]
lots of breadcrumbs
[strike]
raspberry and redcurrant crumble cake
[/strike]
banana and choc chip muffins
pineapple and coconut muffins

catznine

I am in too this month! My cupboards are full and there is no room for the Christmas shop I have yet to do.

It could take me a while to do a list, my freezer will be the worst, the bulk of stuff in the chest freezer seems to be runner beans from the garden and last years blackberries! Not a lot of meat but enough with the addition of other things.

I still have a couple of organic box deliveries coming (1 a fortnight) but they are just a small mixed box of fruit and veg and half a doz eggs. Dh is missing his milk so might have to get some of that in, I have convinced him to help me clear the soya milk mountain first though and then the powdered milk.

Tonight we had wholewheat spaghetti, from the mega pasta stores, with a tomato and basil sauce and some tinned mushrooms. I managed to save a few of the mushrooms to add to something else. Fish pie tomorrow so maybe sliced up in that!

Catz x

thriftlady_2

Well that took me blooming ages.

The chutney and other preserves are all homemade btw (except mango chutney). I don't really anticipate using these up as their whole raison d'etre is to be stored. In fact I'm going to use up all the berries and currant to make jumbleberry jam.

Right now for my essential fresh supplies. Some things we just can't do without;)

Things to buy every week
milk
butter
eggs
bacon
ham for sandwiches
cheese
fresh veg and fresh fruit
apple juice for the kids
flour for bread making and other baking -I don't buy bread other than pittas
oats
wine of course;)

Things to replenish when necessary
yeast, baking powder, sugar
olive oil
sunflower oil
dried and UHT milk -I like a continuous supply of yogurt
tea and coffee
frozen peas -can't do without them
baked beans -useful hot breakfast for the kids

I reckon there's enough in the cupboards and freezer in the way of protein to keep us going for a while. There is about 17 meals worth of meat or fish not including the tuna. There are plenty of pulses and carbs.

Today
I've used up the tins of sardines to make sandwich fillings for OH's lunches

I've used some of the breadcrumbs to make a pudding (Duke Pudding).

I've used up half a bag of prawns (not shown on the list) and half a block of feta plus some of the bulghar in a sort of pilaff for me and OH

The kids have had pitta pizzas for tea and I made some mini ones for their lunch boxes tomorrow.


Dd's swimming lesson has changed its time meaning that I shall need a ready-meal on Mondays -home cooked of course. There's Chinese Plum pork ready for next Monday. I shall need to make some more though.

Pink.

Hi all,

I'm going to join in the store cupboard challenge too this month. My cupboards are bulging and my freezers are overflowing, yet I still find it hard to come up with ideas of what to make for tea.

It would be great to get them run down a bit before Christmas so tomorrow I'll make a list of what I have in the cupboards. The freezers are more of a problem as they are so choc-o-block that I think we'll have to take pot luck from the top for a few days until I can begin to see what's lurking underneath.

Pink

HariboJunkie

God help us all Pink. If you find [STRIKE]anyone[/STRIKE] anything exciting at the bottom of your freezer do let us know.

Ok, I'm in too. I do fairly frequent Storecupboard challenges but want to do a big one to run everything down for Christmas.
I have 2 larder freezers, so only 7 drawers in total. I have a decent sized larder and a huge, groaning shelf in the laundry room. I'll do my list tommorrow (the freezer book should be up to date, but I haven't a clue what's in the larder.)
It wll be good to get some ideas and support to keep going and not run to Tesco out of lazyness.

I will still need to buy fruit, veg, milk, bread flour, oil, cheese and eggs.;)