Store cupboard essentials

[AbsofCroissant]

I will start this with - it's just DP and me, so no DCs are potentially going to end up starving to death/malnutritioned.

Basically, we're both super busy at the moment and don't always make it to the shops (e.g. last night we only headed home at 11:30pm, after Tesco closed). DP believes in just buying what he needs for a particular meal, which is fabulous, but a bit tough when there's no shops open and you're hungry. And all there is in the fridge is some eggs, nandos sauce and tonic water (true story).

So, I'm wanting to try and build up a store cupboard for times like last night so we don't starve (no meat please). Freezing stuff isn't really an option, as the freezer is tiny. It's currently completely full - it has three pieces of frozen fish and some pastry in there.

This is what I have so far:

• eggs
• rice
• risotto rice
• pasta
• tinned tomatoes
• tinned sweetcorn
• tinned tuna
• potatoes
• babybel (logic here being, they're individually wrapped, so won't go hard or mouldy, and you can just use one per person for e.g. in pasta or risotto)
• tomato paste
• onions

plus herbs, oils, spices and stock.

Are there any vegetables that keep for a while? I was thinking of getting porcini mushrooms as well, for emergency risotto making

TIA

Things I always keep handy include:

• Cheese. Hard cheeses tend to keep well, so lots of parmasan and cheddar.

• Veg. Always have a bag of frozen peas. In the fridge, carrots, parsnips, leeks and celery keep fairly well so always have them handy. Although salad leaves don't keep, I grow a window box full of rocket in the summer to keep us going.

• Pulses. Tins of chickpeas and various beans. Dried lentils of various types.

• Carbs. Pasta and rice as you have already said but cous cous is great too.

• Meat. Pancetta and chorizo. Know you said no meat but my DH likes a bit of meat in everything so this is to keep him happy.

• Fish. I keep frozen fish but if you don't have room, then you will have to limit yourself to tins. I make crab linguine with tinned crab meat as a quick supper.

• Spices etc. My must haves are garlic, chillies, ginger (which I freeze in small amounts), cumin, garam malasa, tumeric, soy sauce. Fresh herbs don't keep well but may be worth growing if you have particular favourites.

Butternut squash keeps for ages in a cupboard.

Filled pasta - have relatively long sell-by dates
pesto
tortilla wraps and part bake bread - again, long sell-by dates - could be used as kind of pizza base, top with tom puree and whatever toppings you fancy
grilled veg in jars eg peppers, artichokes - can go in pasta, risotto and cous cous

Brilliant suggestions from happysmiley. Could I also suggest the "straight to wok" type noodles? I was really snobby about these for ages, but they're brilliant for adding to a stir-fry or a soup when you're in a hurry as they just have to be heated through. Also Thai curry paste (you can make your own when you've got time and keep it in the fridge, or buy a decent one) and tinned coconut milk.

Ohh, yes, I forgot butternut squash. Sweet potatoes are good too.

And to add to knottyhair's Thai curry paste suggestion, there are lots of different curry pastes in the shops. (Obviously some are better than others! but I particularly like Patak's for the Indian ones.) One of my favourite quick suppers is curried chickpeas/kidney beans with pitta breads. Takes minutes.

gnocchi comes in sealed vacuum packs (rather like the filled pasta). You can whizz up a tomato sauce with a tin of toms, some herbs and a splash of balsamic in no time. They take about 4 mins to cook.

Second the straight to wok noodles. The Singapore style are lovely, infused with spices already.

Tabasco and chilli sauce another must in my house, as is lazy garlic, lazy chillis. Saves valuable chopping time.

There are some very nice packet risottos too which take very little time.

Thanks for all the brilliant suggestions! You're saving us two from starvation.

creme fraiche lasts well and perks up pasta and risotto. Smoked salmon also lasts well - I buy the value trimmings for chucking in with pasta.

Just wanted to second the big up (what am I, a teenager?) for Patak's pastes - really good. Also I know you said you've not much room in your freezer but smoked salmon freezes well and doesn't take up much room, and it means you can grab it when you see it reduced in the shops. As long as you remember to get it out in the morning of course...

I second the suggestion of jars of antipasti type veg, with a can of beans and some pasta and parmesan you have a great store cupboard meal.

Onions keep for ages and are delicious roasted as a veg. Filled pasta with spinach in keeps ages and has a veg in it. Jar of passata and hey presto. Keep pots of herbs for added vitamins and general "alive" flavour.

I haven't tried the straight to wok noodles cause we get the supermarket cheep super noodles. Don't use the sachet of crap they come with, just pour hot water from the kettle on them and they'll be ready to go before your wok's even hot. Cost pennies too.

One thing you can do to prolong the life of veg is to cook them up just before they turn. That should buy you an extra couple of days. And if you're coming home late at night, much better to have something already cooked in the fridge that you can just warm up.

I always try to keep a packet of noodles, rice, risotto rice, pasta and couscous in the cupboard.

For tins, I try to keep tuna, baked beans, sweetcorn, chickpeas, kidney beans, mackerel fillets or sardines in a sauce of some sort.

Potatoes, onions and sweet potatoes keep for ages in a cupboard. And carrots keep for weeks in the fridge.

Frozen peas in the freezer. I feel the pain of a tiny freezer, we had the icebox in an under the counter jobbie for ages. If you can fit a pack of pitta breads in, that combined with the chickpeas makes a quick falafel - it's my stand-by dinner!

Stock cubes in all different flavours is a good one too, and spices and herbs don't really go off so I try to keep a well stocked spice rack.

We just did our 'store cupboard' shop after eating everything in our house... is v exciting to look in the cupboard and see FOOD (we usually do the shop for particular meals thing too).

Would add flour (both kinds)
butter
eggs

then you can have loads of baking opportunities (pancakes, cakes, scones etc).