Empty the Storecupboard Challenge: Week 8 and 9
It’s been a busy couple of weeks with not much time for cooking, but here’s the latest installment in the Empty the Storecupboard Challenge.
I’m still trying to prevent waste and use up the contents of the cupboard here before it goes off, and you can see how much I’ve already used up if you pay a quick visit to the original article about the challenge.
In the last couple of weeks I’ve cooked up a veggie macaroni cheese, a barbecue bean ‘shepherd’s pie’, a pumpkin and sage risotto, and a tomato and olive cous cous salad. We’ve also had some baba ganoush that was perked up with some of the hot tagine spice mix.
The veggie macaroni cheese (main pic) used up two more portions of macaroni cheese mix. I added leeks, peas, extra milk and more cheese to make it less stodgy, and served it with sprouting broccoli.
Next up, the BBQ bean pie (see above left) used up the last of the potato flakes, the last of the BBQ marinade, and the last of the veggie ‘chicken’ mix. It also needed a can of chopped tomatoes, an onion and a can of pinto beans adding to it, and some roasted courgettes on the side.
The pumpkin and sage risotto (above right) used up the last of the risotto rice. Needed some home grown pumpkin (from the freezer), sage and garlic, and a little cheddar to turn it into a healthy meal. Nice on a rainy evening.
When the weather got warmer, I made a salad that used up a load of cous cous. It also had basil and oregano from the garden added to it, plus cucumber, tomato and some finely sliced olives.
This week’s three meals
It’s July and all most of us want is salad, so I’ll be making three of those. They can all sit in the fridge for leftovers and lunches too, because it’s been far too hot to be slaving over a hot stove just lately.
1. Pasta salad with roasted vegetables. This should use up some more of the penne pasta.
2. Extra healthy quinoa salad. There’s a tiny amount of grains left, and I’ll add some beetroot, tofu, sugar snap peas etc to make a vegan dinner.
3. Giant cous cous salad. This will get rid of another batch of the giant cous cous, and I’ll throw in lots of lettuce and dill from the kitchen garden, and a few prawns that are lurking in the bottom of the freezer.
And now over to you…what are you cooking up from the cupboards this week?
Really interested to read your posts, as I’ve just finished my own version of a store cupboard challenge during June, keen to cut food costs and make some space in my cupboards, fridge and freezer.
Reckon the top 10 ingredients I tackled were also some giant cous cous (mine came from Approved Food by mistake, did yours?) plus soba noodles, red lentils, a tin of pilchards, pine nuts, laksa curry paste, a tin of artichoke hearts, Pizza Express light dressing, red lentils and chickpeas – although admittedly not all in the same meal…
Hi Faith – so great to hear that you’re finding it interesting! Thank you. Your ingredients do sound very diverse, and that’s where the challenge definitely comes in…
You are quite right, the giant cous cous here was from Approved Food. Well spotted. Mine was a deliberate bulk order though, and I’m only just getting through the last third of a bag.