Saturday 28 September 2013

Storecupboard dinners

Have you ever carefully opened your cupboard or freezer door, with one hand ready to catch the stuff that is bound to all fall out because you have SO MUCH STUFF in there?

You manage to get the door open, and with a swift hand movement, you cleverly make sure everything is still balanced, you pull your hand away, stand back, stare at the bulging shelves and wonder what to make for dinner.

"There's nothing in for dinner" you shout, and send someone to the chippy.

There IS nothing in for dinner, if you don't count the 24 packs of cous cous (they were on offer on Approved Foods), the 4 jars of cheap tomato sauce, the 3 boxes of Ebly, the 7 tins of various soups that no one else in the house will eat but you, the small tin of mandarins  (WHY do we buy those?), the half eaten jars of jam, peanut butter, banoffee curd (yes, really - it's horrible), chocolate spread, marmite.  Then there is the obligatory bags of pasta, rice, macaroni, cous cous (again), lentils, dried chickpeas and dried soya chunks  (that last one might just be my cupboard!!)

Then there's the freezer.  Various half full bags of veggies - parsnips, mixed veg, peas (gotta have peas), chopped onions, sweetcorn, corn on the cobs on the top shelf, followed by Quorn products on the middle shelf, then sad single things on the bottom shelf - solitary burgers wrapped in cling film, sad little slice of quiche wrapped in cling film, lonely chicken kiev wrapped in cling film.  Oh, not forgetting the two packs of home-made soup, lovingly packaged in those re-usable soup bags with the little window on the front to write on what soup it is.   So, what soup is it?   Well, it's a reddish orange soup and an orangy red soup.  Take your pick.

We have set ourselves a challenge in our house, to eat from the cupboards.  Hubster has been having the oddest meals as he is a fussy sod - battered fish with yorkshire pudding and a corn on the cob a couple of days ago, where as I am more likely to experiment and make something from nothing.  Do you fancy joining in and sharing recipes?


I shall call them "Storecupboard Dinners", please feel free to email me recipes (ideally with photos) to soozintheshed@gmail.com and I will blog them, or you can just add a link to your own blog in the comments box so we can all go and visit  :)

Let's mix it up!

1 comment:

  1. Well it wasn't a full meal, but we had leftover bread pudding yesterday. See I defrosted the freezer and found four sad looking brioche rolls that were really not for eating as they were,
    So I cut them in slices, buttered them, spread some marmalade on them. Then I buttered a dish. Now for layers ... one layer of buttered rolls, one layer of sultanas another layer of rolls etc. Now for the filling ... oh dear ... not much milk left. OK 1/4 of a pint of semiscimmed and 1/4 of a pint of water, mixed with 2 eggs (normally I would only use one but with this lack of milk...)
    Mix the lot together real well and pour over the rolls etc. in the dish.
    Leave that to stand for a while so the liquid gets soaked up. Then bake it at 160 degrees for about 3/4 of an hour.
    The custard was made from 1/4 pint of milk and 1/4 of a pint of water and using two table spoons of custard powder and 2 table spoons of liquid sweetener it boiled up to a lovely custard.
    Well there you go ... had half of it yesterday and the other half is for afters at lunch today :)

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