Vegan Store Cupboard Challenge

icontinuetodream

Well, its 'freezer roulette' until solstice :whistle: Have took stuff out of the freezer this morning...I think it may be lasagne, but not sure!!!

icontinuetodream

It starts 'proper' now!!! Solstice is over and so the time for the challenge to start is truly upon me now...

I am making all meals from what I have in at the moment and then whatever is available veg wise at the local farm shops will form the basis for my menu plans once my current veg stocks have been exhausted....

Fresh veg.... I currently have a large butternut squash, a cauliflower, a leek,3/4 of a white cabbage, a couple of carrots, potatoes, onions, garlic and ginger.

Fresh fruit wise, I have bananas, satsumas, limes, lemons, a few oranges and a couple of apples.

In the freezer I have some cannellini beans slow cooked with sage and garlic, some cabbage parcels, a couple of unidentified boxes of stuff, a variety of frozen fruit and veg and plently of sliced and chopped onions

In the store cupboard, I have a variety of dried lentils and beans, soya mince, tins of chickpeas, black eye peas, cannellini beans, tomatoes, coconut milk, sweetcorn, a mulitude of grains including rice, millet quinoa and polenta, kilos of porridge oats, pasta, lots of nuts and dried fruit, pasta flour, spelt flour and more herbs and spices than you can shake a stick at!!!

I have absolutely no intention at all of buying ANYTHING at all until the end of January.....I think that I have enough frozen veg at the moment to be able to maintain this with a bit of careful planning, and I will spend only £10-£15 per month on veg following that.

I made a massive bubble and squeak from the solistice meal leftovers and have had it last night for dinner, this morning for breakfast and will probably have some more for lunch in a minute....love it big time!!! :rotfl: It is just me and dh tonight for dinner, so will probably have something really simple if we haven't already exploded from the amount of peanuts and bombay mix we are eating.....beans on toast sounds good to me!!!:D

icontinuetodream

veg korma and rice last night....all from freezer and store cupboard :j

tonight we are having cabbabge parcels....saute onion, garlic and herbs of choice, add a couple of chopped tomatoes (found some cherry ones hiding on the worktop this morning!!) a handful of chopped olives then mix in leftover rice from yesterdays dinner. Blanch some cabbage leaves for 5 mins until soft, then spoon mixture into leaves and place folded side down into casserole dish.

I top with a tomato mixture - finely chopped onions and garlic, tin of tomatoes, handful of herbs cooked down until very thick - and pop in the oven for about 10-15 mins. Serve with salad or jacket potatoes or spanish potatoes or whatever you fancy really!!!

icontinuetodream

I have spent most of the day making stuff for the freezer for when I go back to work and don't want to cook.....

I made pasta dough with garlic, herbs and tomato puree; a large pot of bolognese sauce (tvp mince); a job lot of jacket potatoes.

From this have made:

ravioli stuffed with vegan cream cheese, pine nuts and spicy peppers (i will serve this with a chilli oil and green herb salad)

ravioli stuffed with garlic, olives, capers and sundried tomatoes (serve with torn basil, extra virgin olive oil and roasted baby tomatoes)

ravioli stuffed with vegan bolognese and cheese (serve with green salad and balsamic dressing)

I still have lots of pasta dough left and have cut it into random shapes and am dehydrating it for future use

I scooped the potato out of the jackets, filled the jacket potato 'boats' with bolognese and topped with some of the scooped potato mixed with vegan cheese.

and....

I have used the remainder of the potato to make some herb gnocchi which I will serve with a tomato and rosemary sauce

Everything from storecupboard/fridge (and garden!!!:D)

icontinuetodream

Well, the kids seem to have stopped eating at home at the moment...very cheap, but somewhat annoying when they don't tell me until late afternoon...:mad: I have a couple of apples that look like they are getting past their best, so will make spaghetti bake tonight for my and dh....

2 tsp olive oil
1 finely chopped onion
1 clove garlic crushed
2 apples, cored and grated
1 tin tomatoes chopped
1 tsp fresh sage or 1/4 tsp dried
2 tbs tomato puree
8 oz wholemeal spaghetti
2 oz vegan cheese, grated

Heat oil, gently fry onion & garlic gently for 5 mins. Stir in apple, add tomatoes, puree and sage. Cover and simmer for 10mins, meanwhile, cook spaghetti in boiling water for approx 7 mins. Drain and mix with the tomato and apple sauce. Place in large casserole dish, sprinkle with the cheese and bake in oven 180/gas 4 for 20-25 mins....nomnom

as usual, these are approximate measurements.....I tend to do things by eye....:o

Oh, almost forgot....all from storecupboard/fridge :A

twinkle_star_2

Wow. Your selection of ravioli sound amazing! I haven't tried making fresh pasta since I went vegan (only made it once pre-gan but still). I cook from scratch most of the time but I really want to start using all my cookbooks and making a greater variety of meals. Your ideas are really inspiring!

icontinuetodream

twinkle_star wrote: »

Wow. Your selection of ravioli sound amazing! I haven't tried making fresh pasta since I went vegan (only made it once pre-gan but still). I cook from scratch most of the time but I really want to start using all my cookbooks and making a greater variety of meals. Your ideas are really inspiring!

Make the pasta!!! Honestly, its so easy to do and it really does save you a fortune as a vegan....premade stuff is sooooo expensive :eek:

Glad you are enjoying the thread

icontinuetodream

Wow, almost a year since I started this thread (and ten months since I last posted!! )

Time to bring it back into use I think - not that I have a clue what I have in the 'storecupboard' as it is packed in boxes in the spare room while my kitchen is being knocked out!! _pale_ So, this is going to be interesting if nothing else!!

However, i have got to start cooking again as it has cost me a small fortune over the past couple of months due to take outs, rubbish food and having nowhere to really cook....but, I am going to bite the bullet, use the top of my tumbledryer as a worktop and start using up whatever I can lay my hands on in the boxes....:D

I will start by getting some pulses cooked over the next couple days and freezing them so that I have a base for a number of meals....it should be easier now as the kids are so rarely here that it is pretty much going to be just me and dh eating most of the time!

Tonight, I am going to make a very simple pasta dinner with wholewheat pasta, a tin of tomatoes, some garlic, onion and herbs and serve it with some hot bread, fig balsamic vinegar and a green salad....nomnom!!

icontinuetodream

Had tortilla stack the other night....layered salsa, tortillas, a butterbean, potato, tomato and green&red pepper mix and vegan cheese and served with salad....

fridge freezer died on me the other night so now have only a tiny fridge (on loan!!) and one freezer to play with, plus, had to throw lots of stuff out as i had no fridge for two days and the fresh food I had was definately not edible!!! :eek::eek::eek:

Anyhoo, I managed to salvage a couple of red peppers, garlic ,onions and tomatoes and have found my polenta in a box in the spare room so am going to make polenta topped stuffed peppers tonight - no kids in so will just be for the two of us...I still have some cooked chickpeas and frozen spinach in the none-dead freezer so will serve heat those, add some frozen herbs (not sure what is in the freezer as the label is mushy!) and serve that as a side

MuffinTops

Hello there!

I'm currently vegetarian but have wanted to move over to vegan for a while. So I thought I'd pop along for the ride if that's ok? I'll definitely subscribe and pop in regularly to see how you're getting on and steal some ideas as when I stopped eating meat it wasn't something I'd planned on so have been flailing haplessly around since then. Have put on a lot of weight because of it too!

This is a fantastic idea. I've never joined any food challenges as I'm not great at adapting recipes etc.