Empty the Storecupboard Challenge: Week 4

It’s Week 4 of my 2016 Empty the Storecupboard Challenge, and I’m continuing to try to use up my surplus food stocks to save money and prevent food waste. By the way, if you’d like to see all of the Empty the Storecupboard Challenge posts to date, there’s an archive you can look though.

This week has been a bit busy, so I’ve managed to make the meals I promised to make last week, but haven’t done much more than that. First up, I made a chia seed vanilla pudding with peaches (see main picture above). This used up the 25g packet of chia seeds, the sachet of coconut milk powder and a can of peaches in fruit juice from the storecupboard. I also added 2tsp of honey and 1tsp of vanilla extract, making up a no-cook recipe as I went along.

It looked very weird and unappetising in the bowl in the fridge, but the flavour was very good indeed. Surprisingly good, in fact. It definitely looks better if you serve it topped with fruit as well. I’d make this recipe again quite happily, and it’d probably be nice served warm for breakfast. The Empty the Storecupboard Challenge definitely gets you out of your comfort zone, but it’s good to try something new.

Next up, I took 50g of rice noodles from the storecupboard and made a rice noodle soup (pic above). That needed mixed vegetables, prawns, vegetable stock, soy sauce and a little rice wine vinegar adding to it to make it into a decent meal. Next time I’ll add more noodles per person, as it looked a bit too low in calories to be a main dish. Tasted lovely though.

The third and final dish was a rice-crust quiche to use up some more of the rice flakes (above). It’s as easy as anything and much quicker than making pastry, it’s less greasy than pastry too, plus you can safely feed it to friends who have gluten-free diets. The filling was made from four eggs, and the topping used up lots of leftover mushrooms, an onion and some fresh oregano from the kitchen garden.

Finally we have also managed to use up another can of soup, and added some more cinnamon flax powder to a couple of helpings of porridge. The storecupboard list is definitely being crossed off at a good rate.

Next week, I’ll try to use up some more brown rice as a side dish or in a pilaf, make a cous cous dish of some sort, and if there’s time I’ll also cook up the dried borlotti beans as well. Wish me luck!

Are you trying the Empty the Storecpboard Challenge yourself? What have you been cooking? Tweet me your pictures with the #EmptyTheSC hashtag.