Pantry Challenge 2024

[2024Hackathon]

A relative has downsized. I 'inherited' a mass of pantry items she couldn't take with her. They range from the exotic to the everyday. A lot of them are well beyond their Best Before date (some going back to 2012 like stock cubes).

However, I can't bear food waste. So, I'm making a conscious effort to use up the pantry items along with the contents of our freezer and minimise the need to purchase much beyond fresh fruit and vegetables (we do have a lot of dehydrated vegetables).

I know I'm going to run out of inspiration and find it easier to default to not rotating in the pantry items which is why I'm hoping to keep this here.

Note from 31 Dec. I used some dried whole egg when baking (I used half the amount of fresh eggs and the remainder was from dried) and it was (unexpectedly) fine.

01.01.24 pantry challenge

Breakfast: porridge, HM bread toasted, HM yoghurt (all pantry; I may need to try and shift yoghurt making to dried milk)

Lunch: yesterday's vegetable soup (pantry) with tomato salad (current stores)

Dinner: duck (freezer) with roast potatoes, vegetables all from pantry (red cabbage, rehydrated carrots and celeriac).

@2024Hackathon you mean those puddings that have really firm jelly cubes in? My girls love them, we get them from the Chinese supermarket. Got Durian flavour in this new kind they got, which will be interesting!

Still haven't made my green banana curry, but the bananas are still resolutely green, so possibly Thursday!

Made my green banana curry! Pleased to have not wasted them, even if they were free to begin with! (school gave them out Friday afternoon at end of term). Also used the tahini that's gone super solid at the bottom of the jar. So also a win.

Now I'm back to pondering the hominy and idli mixes!

Yes, I mean those puddings! I've had lychee, mango and coconut but never durian. Should I look out for it?

Well done on the green banana curry. How was it?

When I'm back home, I need to make a plan for the idli.

pistachios - your food prep sounds healthy and delectable. And you're right about controlling the controllables and accepting what falls into that.

Inspired by the MN thread on old school veggie recipes this week, I made red lentil & cheese wedges from the Cranks recipe book yesterday. So simple - just red lentils, cheese, onion, herbs, seasoning and an egg... and it was delicious. So I've found a new favourite to use up some of my red lentil stash!

I remember that recipe! It was fine comfort food

I've returned from my business trip. We're invited out to dinner tonight and tomorrow so I don't have dinner plans to make which is quite welcome as I'm tired and have a mass of laundry to do.

02.03.24 All from stores or freezer

Breakfast of yoghurt and granola. Lunch: roast tinned tomato on HM toast.

We haven't tried the durian flavoured puddings yet, got them in a 6 pack of different flavours. Bit scared! Durian chips are delicious, durian cookies where good, the durian wafers we tried were awful!

I have missed your updates @2024Hackathon !

I made a ton of daal with red lentils from the store cupboard- must live up to my name- and tucked it away in the freezer.. Also been eating oats with dried fruit almost daily to get rid of some of the boxes of Quaker oats I have.

It's been very strange not to have to plan around my stores!

lentilweaver - eating oats with dried fruit almost daily to get rid of some of the boxes of Quaker oats I have.

If I could cope with the calories and had the teeth to manage that amount of chewing, I would eat an absurd amount of granola and flapjack every day. Do you soak your oats to have with with the fruit?

04.03.24 All from stores and freezer

Breakfast of yoghurt and granola.
Lunch: mushroom soup with HM toast.

Dinner: meatballs or fauxballs with spiced tomato sauce and pasta. Rehydrated red peppers and I'll braise some dried aubergine I found (I'm less confident about this).

Hmmm I don't think I've ever seen dried aubergine!

Had a ‘pantry challenge moment’ today. Went to make some avocado on crackerbreads and found half the pack are stale. About to throw them away when I remembered I need breadcrumbs for a recipe later this week and I reckon they’ll blitz up nicely for that purpose 😁
Also made a ratatouille yesterday which was delicious but now have lots of leftover veg. I’m thinking tempura but that’s a lot of frying… other suggestions of what to do with discs of veg are welcome. I’ve frozen the sauce that was leftover for a quick pasta lunch next week.

There's quite a range. There's the Turkish ones that are small and you can stuff and bake. There's the long Asian/Italian ones that are sliced longitudinally and that you can soak as slices and ones dried in chunks.

We had the long Italian ones that we braised in the tomato sauce and popped a dash of bechamel on top with some cheese. I found the skin a little tough but I don't know if that's an operator error (me) rather than the product, IYSWIM.

other suggestions of what to do with discs of veg are welcome.

You wanted something different than stewing them in the tomato sauce? Stir-frying with ginger, garlic, maybe some five spice is less fat and splatter than deep frying, would that suit you?

Similarly, would they work as the basis for a lightly spiced dish or curry to serve with a dhal or similar?

05.03.24 All from stores and freezer

Breakfast of yoghurt and granola.
Lunch: mushroom soup with added rehydrated wild mushrooms.

Dinner: Stewed lamb shanks or vegan stuffed peppers with polenta and steamed broccoli.

Love a bit of polenta. None in my stores at the moment!
I could make a lovely curry or stir fry with lots of veg. They’re just sliced so precisely and thinly it feels a shame to chop them up more 😅anyways they’re in the fridge ready to go whenever I need some pre chopped veg.
Pasta bake tonight with some odds and ends I threw in the freezer before our holiday, think there is chicken, peppers and pork in the mix. Smothered in creamy tomato sauce and cheddar it can’t go too wrong.

06.03.24 All from stores and freezer

Breakfast: yoghurt and granola.
Lunch: mixed vegetable soup with rehydrated carrots.

Dinner: Stuffed mushrooms (using up inherited walnuts and hazelnuts) with caramelised onions and some odd (vegan) cheese powder. Green beans and a tomato sauce. Hungry people can have pasta as well.

07.03.24 All from stores and freezer

Breakfast: yoghurt and granola.
Lunch: mixed vegetable soup with rehydrated mushrooms.

Dinner: Cheese, vegetable pate and freezer coleslaw and pickles with range of crackers. (We're all out and returning at different time.)

08.03.24 All from stores and freezer

Breakfast: yoghurt and granola.
Lunch: Carrot soup with ginger.

Dinner: Chicken or chickpea tofu curry with mixed vegetable curries and rice.

09.03.24 All from stores and freezer

Breakfast: HM bread as toast.
Lunch: Carrot soup with coconut foam

Dinner: Octopus or aubergine stew. Pasta for large appetites.

10.03.24 Mostly from stores and freezer but with potatoes for roast potatoes

Breakfast: toast and jam.
Lunch: Flatbread and spiced aubergine soup (working our way through one of the vast catering cans of aubergine purée)

Dinner: Roast dinner with roast potatoes! Salmon or mushroom loaf with rehydrated carrots, rehydrated cauli, and roast potatoes. (Did I mention the roast potatoes?)

11.03.24 All from stores and freezer

Breakfast: yoghurt and granola.
Lunch: Aubergine soup
Dinner: Tuna with tomato, olive and pepper sauce, rehydrated red peppers, stuffed mushrooms and pasta for the hungry.

12.03.24 All from stores and freezer

Breakfast: yoghurt and granola.
Lunch: Vegetable stock soup
Dinner: Sunday lunch leftovers with added bread sauce and stuffing to supplement it (and use up items)

13.03.24 All from stores and freezer

Breakfast: yoghurt and granola.
Lunch: Miso soup with leftover vegetables
Dinner: Stuffed mushrooms with tomato and olive sauce plus pasta.

Need to make more granola. Still got some stuffed mushrooms in the freezer. In very happy news, uncovered another stash of Danish Aebleskiver! Also, a 7.5kg sack of pancake mix: I should be able to experiment with this to create crepes for the freezer (as wrappers as well as 'pancakes') and be able to experiment with this as the base for making our own Aebleskivers.

@2024Hackathon I’m curious about what this pantry inheritance looks like. It is all in boxes and that’s why you keep finding things?

how are you storing this? I’m just very nosey about how what it’s like to actually take on something like this. Do you have tins under the bed etc.

DH had mislabelled the pancake mix as a sack of flour (easily done).

And, yes, it's all boxed up in 9L or 12L boxes or blue food barrels. The boxes are stacked under beds if they're tins or packets. The other items are in barrels in the colder rooms.

14.03.24 All from stores and freezer

Breakfast: yoghurt and granola.
Lunch: Tomato soup with added dried tomatoes
Dinner: Crackers, flatbreads, vegan and other spreads, freezer coleslaw, jarred mushrooms.

15.03.24 All from stores and freezer

Breakfast: yoghurt and granola.
Lunch: Crackers and coleslaw
Dinner: Salmon pieces, stuffed aubergines (rehydrated), noodles in tomato and chilli sauce with roast broccoli.

Need to make granola, yoghurt, bread and fruitcake.

Thanks @2024Hackathon its certainly an eye opener. There’s a part of me that would relish the treasure hunt of such an inheritance but I can see that a lot of work must go into the logistics of storing, organising and categorising it.

You might be able to tell from the fact that I've not mentioned it that I'm still thinking about how to use the dried jellyfish without creating active rebellion…

I think I need to give it another couple of weeks or so before I introduce the seaweeds and other items. I'm hoping that the fact I'm slipping miso soup in means that I'll be able to use that as cover for the seaweed and various other Japanese ingredients (bonito flakes, furikake etc.).

On the upside, our food spend is mostly eggs and milk. I can't begin to work out how much lower it is than normal.

After the end of this month, I'm considering introducing an allowance for fruit because we're all missing the crunch of an apple and the smell of citrus. We also need to consider a budget for frozen vegetables. Whenever I consider fresh vegetables, I'm saved from myself by the poor quality that's available near me.