Empty the Storecupboard Challenge: Week 17
Week 17 now – who knew we had so much food stored up on just two shelves of the storecupboard? Still going, and still determined to use all that stuff up instead of letting it go to waste.
This week we’ve had veggie toad in the hole, a quinoa ‘paella’, and a cheesy pasta bake. Since the weather’s taken a turn for the worse, that’s all been very welcome.
The quinoa ‘paella’ (see above) used up another sachet of the paella spices, and I did the bulk of it in the microwave. It also needed a fried onion, a clove of garlic, home grown veggies, and some frozen peas and prawns adding to turn it into a meal. It was good and tasty, but it would have been even better with a squeeze of fresh lemon.
Next, on an especially cold and rainy evening, we had a veggie toad in the hole (below right) that finished off the last of the just-add-water batter mix. We only had three veggie sausages left in the freezer, so I sliced them up and added the same weight of sliced carrots to the pan as well. The finished article didn’t look pretty, but it tasted great with a dollop of onion gravy and some veggies on the side.
Finally, we had a cheesy pasta bake using the last spinach and mushroom pasta box meal. I threw a couple of chopped up courgettes from the garden into the sauce, baked it with some grated cheddar on top and served it with greens. It was okay, but a little bland. Hey, at least there aren’t any more of them to get through.
We also got to the bottom of the bag of chocolate mousse mix, and had that with homegrown raspberries one evening, and tinned pineapple and vanilla ice cream another evening.
This week’s three meals
Spaghetti with cherry tomato and chilli sauce. A quick recipe that should get rid of another 100g of spaghetti, and some of the tomatoes from the kitchen garden.
Tagine with chick peas. Hoping to use up another 20g of tagine spice, and whatever’s lurking at the bottom of the vegetable drawer, as well as a couple of onions.
Vegetable gratin. This should see the back of those pesky breadcrumbs, making a crispy topping for some homegrown veggies and a little bechamel sauce.
That’s plenty for the week, I reckon.
Over to you
Are you going to be cooking any storecupboard meals this coming week? What’s your favourite recipe made from dry or canned ingredients?
We did really well last week, we used up the last of the rice, noodles and pasta (we had a three pasta pasta bake on Sunday!). The freezer contains nothing but ice, peas and a few soy beans now, not too shabby.
Hi thrift deluxe – what did the three pasta pasta bake look like? Well done with clearing out the freezer, that’s an impressive load of cooking 🙂