Cooking from stash

kunekune22

Like many ravelry members, I have a scary stash of knitting yarn - including enough sock yarn to knit 40 or more pairs of socks, and enough lace for 10 shawls. I'm trying to make 2014 a year of knitting from stash - indeed, from deep stash if possible. But that started me thinking about my other stash.

The pantry.

It's had a year of surprises as OH has tried one dietary plan (aka fad) after another. I got in everything needed for him to go gluten free, and he went back on gluten. He decided he wouldn't eat meat, and I stocked up on vegetarian types of protein. He went back (partly) on meat. I have at least 8 types of rice, many other grains and flours, pulses, you name it, I have it. And yet I am still spending $3-400 a week on food.

This has to stop. It's not that we're broke (although cutting down on costs wouldn't do us any harm). But the pantry is full, the fridges are full (yes, I have a second small one) and the freezer is full. And my courgettes, beans and tomatoes will start producing more than tasters soon.

The challenge I'm setting myself isn't a no spend at all challenge, because the kind of food it is is ingredients not whole meals mostly. The challenge is to use up one 'forgotten' ingredient every day and not to replace it. So for instance, one day the challenge may be buckwheat flour, another it may be canned sardines, another it may be a particular kind of noodle. I'm focussing on the fridge and freezer first because we go away on holiday in 10 days, and I'd like not to waste food.

My first day's challenge is ...

ta da .........

Some goats cheese. I have found a recipe for tagliatelle (which will probably be spaghetti because that's what I've got) with courgettes, lemon, goats cheese and toasted crumbs. Which is perfect as I have everything, including some dried out breadcrumbs. I'm also making some pate in order to destash the chicken livers.

Tomorrow (New Year's Eve) I am going to do something with the little jar of 'caviar'. My current idea is buckwheat blini, smoked trout, soured cream and caviar (yes, I also have blini ingredients and all the other stuff in the fridge at the moment ... you see the problem?!).

That gives me three more 'days' in the cooking week. The rest of the items I am going to clear from stash before Saturday are:

fine oatmeal
mascarpone cheese
artichokes in olive oil
cooked baby beetroot
frozen blueberries
3 oranges

These may be a bit more of a challenge! If I can use other things along the way, all the better.

lucy_lemon

This is such a good idea, and something I really need to do! We don't tend to spend too much on food - neither of us eat much meat, which helps - but we do have a crazy amount of food in the cupboard which we have no idea what to do with. 500g of puffed basmati rice anyone? I think our problem is that we see something on the reduced section and think we can do something with it! Which is probably how we acquired the puffed rice in the first place.

So my plan is to use up the rice before the end of January. I'm thinking an Indian spiced snack mix, with some roasted chickpeas and peanuts. I had something similar in Calcutta a few years ago and it was AMAZING.

DawnW

Great idea - I need to do this, especially as there seems to be lots of Christmas food left! I couldn't fit another thing into my larder.

I did an inventory of my freezers before the holiday, and have bags and bags of loganberries and blackberries. The logans grow in the garden and the blackberries were foraged. To use them before they come again :eek: I will need to make at least one crumble or similar a week!

Emm-in-a-pickle

I need to `de-stash` too, especially freezers - but larder items really need some self-discipline here too.

Mands

kunekune22 wrote: »

Tomorrow (New Year's Eve) I am going to do something with the little jar of 'caviar'. My current idea is buckwheat blini, smoked trout, soured cream and caviar (yes, I also have blini ingredients and all the other stuff in the fridge at the moment ... you see the problem?!).

That gives me three more 'days' in the cooking week. The rest of the items I am going to clear from stash before Saturday are:

fine oatmeal
mascarpone cheese
artichokes in olive oil
cooked baby beetroot
frozen blueberries
3 oranges

These may be a bit more of a challenge! If I can use other things along the way, all the better.

That sounds like the makings for a gorgeous breakfast on NYD there. Segment the oranges, add the blueberries, top with a little toasted oatmeal and a spoon full of mascapone.

We're away for a few days later next month and with a ropey power supply I need to empty the freezers. I reckon we'll need fruit, veg and milk only until then. Although there may be some interesting food combinations

Good luck with the challenge.
Mands

lilbert

Ive done this. I actually am blogging about it, could link it but not sure about the rules linking blogs Were on a spending fast through January (actually started Dec 27th) And purely shopping out of the cupboards and using things up. Its going well! :j

LameWolf

If I might offer an idea here - I'd be inclined to do a total inventory of exactly what is in the stash, including amounts, either by weight for things like rice, or numbers of tins, have it on a spreadsheet, and as something was used, alter the spreadsheet to reflect this.

Having the information in front of you might help to think of ideas to combine a couple of stash items, and you could see at a glance exactly where you were.

I keep a spreadsheet of the cupboard and freezer contents, and find it so much easier to meal plan, and also to not end up with three dozen tins of tomatoes because I've forgotten I had plenty, iyswim.:o

kunekune22

That sounds a really good idea. I use the iPad for displaying recipes when I'm cooking, so I'll see if there's a really simple app I could use!

I looked in the freezer and found ...

450g raspberries, 300g blackberries, 600g blueberries
a tub of home made tomato passata (old), pumpkin, spinach, peas, green beans, sweetcorn
200g raw prawns, 800g whiting fillets, 1/2 large pack fishfingers, an unidentified single white fish fillet and 3 elderly home made fishcakes
300g lamb loin fillet, 6 pork sausages with ginger & shallots, 2 beefburgers, 500g chicken mince, 380g chicken thighs, a whole spatchcocked chicken marinated in chilli & lime
[there will also be a substantial amount of cooked turkey breast joining this today]
filo pastry, spring roll pastry, gluten free gnocchi, 3 raspberry & pineapple ice lollies, 4 pineapple & coconut ice cream bars

kunekune22

Rather shamefaced posting coming up. Yesterday I was going to use the goats cheese. But it got to 5pm, it was still nearly 30 degrees c, and OH did not want a hot tea. So we had some of the turkey, the leftover tabbouleh from the other night, and I made a salad with griddled courgettes from the garden. Daughter had spaghetti mixed with peas and a tin of salmon (her current fad). Son had a beef burger, peas and sauted potato. Yes, I cooked three different meals.

I have realised that randomly selecting ingredients is not going to work necessarily, because some of the stash (ie, the turkey) has to be used up first.

Tonight I will make a pie with turkey chunks, bacon, thyme from the garden, cream from the fridge and hm pastry. Asparagus and/or green beans for me, OH, and DD, sweetcorn for DS and anyone else who wants it. It's destash because it's using frozen sweetcorn and the turkey that has to be used, plus flour from the flour stash.

And I will continue the process of inventorying. In between working because despite being 'on holiday' I have marking to do.

kunekune22

The pasta, rice & grain stash has been explored. This may be one of the more embarrassing parts of my kitchen.

500g lasagne sheets
500g farfalle
150g papardelle
250g 'artisan-type' rags
220g gluten free spaghetti
250g spelt spirals
500g spaghettini no 3
500g spaghetti
500g egg fettucine
500g risoni
250g buckwheat spirals
250g small macaroni
750g polenta

270g ramen noodles (not instant)
360g somen noodles
180g soba noodles

400g thai rice noodles
200g rice vermicilli

2kg basmati rice
1.25kg jasmine rice
500g plus risotto rice
750g glutinous rice
500g brown basmati
500g mountain blend (including black rice)
750g rice/quinoa blend
250g microwavable basmati
450g rice, grain and seed blend

450g couscous
500g buckwheat kernels
500g plus fine burghal
500g white quinoa
500g red quinoa
475 cracked wheat
450g freekah

So that is roughly 4kg pasta, 1kg other noodles, 5.5kg rice, nearly 4kg other grains.

Like I said, it's a full pantry!