Hi folks, how are you doing this week? We’re very, very close to using up all the ingredients on our storecupboard challenge list here, so there’s been lots of progress in the last few days.

We’ve recently had baked aubergine with spiced lentils, veggie chorizo quinoa ‘paella’, and wholewheat spaghetti with courgettes, garlic and chilli for our storecupboard meals.

The veggie chorizo ‘paella’ (top of page) used up another sachet of paella spices, and a scoop of quinoa, a medium onion, three spicy veg sausages, a red pepper, home grown green beans and some frozen peas. This was the tastiest meal of the week, and naturally bright and colourful. I’ve recently developed my own method for cooking quinoa in the microwave, which means we’ll be eating it more often.

The baked aubergine with spiced lentils (below left) used up the last packet of lentil sauce mix. Hurrah! I added aubergine, olive oil, onion and garlic to make a one pot meal, and although it looked about as unpretty as it gets, it was aromatic and delicious on an unseasonably cold and rainy evening.

Speaking of which, I might have to do a cheat sheet for super-easy, fast storecupboard meals after this! Want one? Let me know.

Finally, the courgette, garlic and chilli pasta (above right) was going to be with roasted veggies from the freezer, but I had a batch of yellow courgettes ripe and ready to pick in the kitchen garden so I used those instead. You have to be adaptable if you want to be truly thrifty! This was similar to a simple-but-moreish recipe we had last month and finished off the last of the spaghetti.

This week’s three meals

1. Saffron cous cous with prawns, to use up the last bit of paella spice.

2. Vegetable tagine with quinoa, to use up 20g of tagine spice.

3. Spicy bean cottage pie, which will mean the end of the tagine spice packet, AND the last meal of my Empty The Storecupboard Challenge here.

Over to you

Have you been emptying your storecupboard, fridge, or freezer?

What have you been cooking? Got any tips, tricks or recipe ideas for the rest of us? Please share them.