What food do you keep in that you can eat any time?

[HeadRush24]

I’m thinking what do you have to eat when you can’t get to the shops or can’t be bothered to plan in advance?

I was going to go shopping to make a roast dinner for me and teenage dc but they just said they don’t feel like that today. No point making it just for me so what do I have instead?! Also I don’t feel like shopping now if I can avoid it. I will rummage through the freezer and cupboards but wondering what you have that you can just rustle up?

A very simple pasta dish with maybe bits of fried bacon, onion, a bit of leftover cream and some chicken stock?

Potato wedges made from potatoes, some 'crumbed' chicken, fish fish fingers or other lurkers from the freezer.

Sausages and mash.

Sausage pasta.

A tomato sauce and pasta and some garlic bread.

Macaroni cheese.

Don't go making a big job of work for yourself doing a roast when they are happy eating pasta in front of the laptop.

Simple pasta dishes for us - always have supermarket tortellini/ravioli in the house that can be ready in minutes + the ingredients for quick + easy penne alla vodka. I often have bolognese leftovers frozen too. If that fails it’s a beige freezer dinner!

Always in my cupboards: white beans (butter or cannellini), canned tomatoes, harissa, vegetable stock.

Usually hanging about: red onion, garlic, spinach.

All that turns quickly into a delicious spicy bean stew, which is even better with some ricotta or even Philadelphia swirled on top 😍

I usually have a pack of ready rolled pastry in the freezer. Take it out to defrost and it's fine after about 3 hours.

Mix up some cream cheese and pesto ( always some of that around) spread over pastry, slice up some veggies thinly, and sprinkle olive oil over. Then pop in oven for around 25-30 minutes.

Or any other variation of tarte : tomato sauce as a base and caramelised onions with cheese over.

Jars of chickpeas, the base of so many of our meals

Dried pasta, tinned tuna, tinned tomatoes, olives, garlic.

There's always cheese in the fridge too.
Eggs, bacon, butter, olive oil.
So it's generally possible to knock up a couple of quick pasta with sauce dishes if necessary.

I love a cheesy jacket potato in this situation !!

Pasta. All the pasta 😅

I can pretty much always make pasta with some kind of sauce.
Or tuna pasta bake
Vegetable curry and rice
Mixed bean chilli and rice/wedges
Above could also go with cheese to make quaesidilla
Tuna fishcakes
Eggs/omelette
Jacket potatoes with tuna/beans
Hummus with breadsticks and carrots
Basic cakes
Some form of risotto

I’ve got baking potatoes and cheese so that’s good and lots of pasta. Dc just said they want super noodles! No point proper cooking is there?!

Yep I’ve got tuna and there is always beans on toast of course. I’m not keen on freezer type food like chicken nuggets but dc will eat that.

Risotto is a good idea.

My go to is chickpeas, although cupboard always filled with beans and lentils. Plus either lentil, pea pasta.

Always have a mixture of veg, both fresh and frozen, plus lemon and limes, onion, garlic and herbs.

I either throw a mix of chopped veg and chickpeas in a pan with olive oil, chilli flakes, tons of garlic, lemon peel and juice, plus some Basil and serve with some pasta and a grating of hard cheese.

Or a bean chilli- quick and easy again, lots of cumin and paprika.

We always have pasta sauces, pasta, rice, tinned tuna, frozen baked potatoes, salad stuff, kidney beans, and frozen mince. Bread, smoked salmon, eggs. Chili comes to mind but not sure I'd want that on a summers day. How about an omelette and salad?

If all else fails and I can't be arsed, I do egg chips and beans.

Fish finger or breaded fish in wraps with salsa and jalapeños is our go to CBA.

bean chilli.

if it’s just bottom of the fridge pasta with fuckton of cheese and chilli

Just freezer fodder.

There's bread in there and microwave meals and frozen veg and frozen chicken breasts etc.

Also, Beans, tins of them.
Beans on toast is always available and is always an option.

Rice noodles, frozen chicken, frozen stir fry veg and sweet and sour sauce.

Quick and cheap as well as tasty!

There are certain items I always make sure I have in and replace whenever we run out so that I can always make a meal. So at any point I can do:

Beans and/or egg on toast. I always keep a loaf of bread in the freezer and you can toast slices straight from frozen.

Jacket potatoes (I bake entire bags at a time and keep them in the freezer then heat up in the microwave). With cheese, beans or tuna mayo.

Vegetable risotto (arborio rice, frozen veg, stock, vermouth and some form of butter and cheese to stir through at the end.)

Vegetarian stir fry noodles (egg noodles and frozen veg plus a sauce made from soy sauce, crunchy peanut butter, chilli flakes and honey.)

Various pasta dishes as I keep packets of dried pasta in the cupboard and jars of pesto or I can make some form of sauce to go with it e.g garlic, chilli and olive oil or butter and marmite (Nigella recipe) or egg, grated cheese and pasta water for quick carbonara.

I can normally knock up a curry as always have tins of chickpeas and chunks of frozen butternut squash or cauliflower, plus a spice paste and stock cubes. And always have dried rice in the cupboard.

@HeapsOfStuff are you buying the tofu twists in Waitrose? If so you can get curls/sticks of it way cheaper at Chinese supermarkets, the same product just not knotted! We use them a lot :)

Noodles! Yum quick and easy

Cheese on toast, beans on toast, peanut butter on toast. Cheese or beans on jacket potato. Eggs and mushrooms on toast if I had porridge for breakfast. Porridge for dinner if I had eggs for breakfast. Greek yogurt with honey, banana, blueberries.

We've always got pasta and rice in and a freezer full of frozen chicken, beef, fish etc. so our lazy "can't be arsed" dishes tend to revolve around them. Pasta bakes, curry, stir fry etc.

I always have a big bag of spuds so jacket potatoes are an option.

We also tend to keep bags of frozen dim sum, because they're super quick to prepare and don't take up a huge amount of space (and DD loves making them so we've always got loads)

I could probably feed us for a month. We'd run out of fresh veg fairly soon but we wouldn't starve. Long habit from living in a rural area with no shop. If I have a chest freezer in the garage plus an American fridge freezer. Only DH and me now so I don't keep as much as when DC were here.
There's always some batch cooked meals in the freezer, plus meat and fish. So I could do pretty much anything from a roast dinner to risotto.