Clearing out the freezer & cupboards challenge

[jenduck]

So, I am having a very expensive month (car failed MOT, cat got in another fight, birthdays etc) & it has struck me that I have 2 freezers & an understairs cupboard full to bursting with food that needs to be eaten! So, I am challenging myself to see how long I can go without buying anything (other than basics)

Who would like to join me? We could perhaps give each other inspiration for recipes for the random ingredients that we find?

Tonight's dinner is Fray Bentos pie ( but yummy!) with mash, veg from freezer & gravy - warming, delicious & easy on a day like today!

Cheat?s ham and carrot risotto (Serves 2 adults plus 2 DC, but then we don?t have big portions)

1 medium onion, diced
1-2 medium carrots, diced
250-300g cooked ham/gammon, diced
1 tbsp olive oil
Small knob butter
150g risotto rice (Arborio or Carnaroli are risotto rices)
500 ml hot stock (whatever suits)

Heat oil/butter in a pan, add carrot and onion and gently fry until golden but not too coloured. Add ham and fry a minute more. Add rice and fry until oil/butter absorbed, then add all the hot stock. Stir to ensure nothing is sticking to pan and bring to boil. When boiling, reduce to simmer and cover. Simmer for 10 mins, until liquid absorbed and rice is thick and creamy. Serve with some parmesan (or ordinary cheese is okay) for people to sprinkle over.

The ham and carrot can be changed to suit whatever you have. I?ve used bacon, fish, left over roast meats of any type, a variety of veg, etc. You don?t have to have meat.

This gets done at least once a fortnight to use up leftovers.

PS, the recipe I adapted this from was for double the amount to serve 4 adults, which for us would make massive portions. I know the Italian tradition is to add a little stock, stir until absorbed and then add more stock, etc, but this cheat is great for a busy night.

I've gained a perverse pleasure from not being able to use the car for a few days so have been on foot twice to stock up on essentials only. I have always thought we could survive quite comfortably for a few weeks without shopping, mainly because I always have a good stock of dried beans and pulses, ftinned tomatoes, flour and other breadmaking ingredients.
I would miss onions the most, and milk I guess, but porridge made with dried milk is fine.

I've also been using up stuff because I am too scared to drive out in the snow; and my DPs are moving and gave me a load of food from their freezer . Yesterday I made stilton (Christmas leftovers ) & onion soup and today I am slow-cooking a small piece of beef in a sort of barbeque sauce (from a jar - found in a back of cupboard) - will serve it with jacket spuds and make a coleslaw from a red cabbage - had forgotton I bought it at Christmas - OK with the outer leaves stripped off .

Just knocked up a packet brownie mix that I also found lurking.

Despite my earlier post saying I had 24 dinners in the freezer I just bought another 4 as they were reduced - ooops Epic Fail.
Up side is it's a lovely salmon dish for dinner tonight.

Marking my place to have a good read through this thread later, sounds like a brilliant idea. We moved house before Christmas, and I'm determined not to run up huge quantities of supplies again, but can see the cupboards filling up with the same old same old... need to learn how to use things effectively, and use up stuff from the fridge and freezer. I've ordered a slow cooker today in the hope of being able to free up some time and make more soups etc to use up veg. etc in addition to all the casseroles that people talk about

OK,

Tonight: Baked spuds with homemade hummus, grated carrot and sultana with some sort of dressing, and salad veg.

Tomorrow: Chicken cassoulet

Friday: Something with lentils & prunes? Tagine type affair?

I'm going to use Smash as a pizza base . Got a jar of tahini languishing at the back of the cupboard - will try to use it in dressings and sauces rather than the typical humus. I hate baked beans (got loads of tins) but in stews etc they're not bad.

DCs have just eaten the contents of a random mystery freezer tub for dinner. It's turned out to be chicken casserole which they had with a couple of part baked bread rolls.

Last night DH and I had egg on toast (we can cheat a bit since we have hens)

Tonight DH and I are having chicken curry from the freezer since I batch cooked eight lots of curry last weekend. We will have to spread those out so that we don't get sick of curry

No spend freezer meals - hurrah!

For the risotto, I forgot to write in the salt & pepper, just add to taste.

Did this tonight, DS ate it so fast I'm suprised he left the pattern behind in the bowl.

Tomorrow I'm doing sausage and bacon rolls for tea, which I sometimes do when 1 or more DCs is out somewhere.

Friday possibly fish pie (in freezer).

For those contemplating hummus, I have a very nice recipe, adapted slightly, but courtesy of James Duigan of the Clean & Lean diet (you know, the one Nigella did).

235g carton ready cooked chickpeas (organic if you have them)
3-5 tbs lemon juice
1 1/2 tbs tahini
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tbs olive oil
parsley to garnish

whizz it all together for longer than you think you need to. You could also add a tsp of harissa paste.

Perfect, and it makes loads.

This thread is great! We are really getting into it: my shelves have actual space and the freezer isn't groaning! I confess I did do a big fruit and veg shop earlier thIs week as we were getting low on frozen beans and peas and I need fruit for DH's sarnies. I must admit that I do a fair amount of from-scratch cooking, so to use up some things (like curry pastes) I do need to have the other components to go with them, so I'm trying to make sure that anything I buy from the shops has the potential to go with something from the cupboard/freezer to make a complete meal.

Tonight the DCs had pasta pesto with cheese and (fresh) mange tout. DH and I are going to have packet veg chilli with coconut milk rice and the leftover mange tout. Later I am planning to soak and boil a packet of coarse lentils that have been lurking for aaaaaages (I use small mung dahl in preference as it doesn't need soaking, so the coarser stuff just doesn't get enough use). Then will freeze them for use in curries over the next few weeks.

I have just looked at my meal plan and for tomorrow I have just put 'chicken and aubergine'. Ummm...not sure I thought this one through as I have no idea what I was actually going to cook.

Maybe I could do some sort of aubergine pie sort of thing using the aubergine sliced on the top and bottom and then chicken and veg in the middle...maybe some sort of sauce over the top kind of like a lasagna. Er...I'm sure it'll be fine

Roar, what about Nigella's involtini?

Ooo...looks interesting beryl will need some adapting as dd and dp are both dairy free so no cheese but I think I could use the general principle. Hmmm....it's a crazy idea, but it might just work :o

Totally freezer tea tonight - nuggets for DS's, Kievs for DH and I, chips and corn-on-cob. We have an allotment, and I froze quite a bit of veg at the end of summer, but because I've dumped loads of crap on top of it buried it in the freezer I've bought more frozen veg so we definitely have veg to go with our meals for a while!

Tomorrow will be Thai red curry and rice. Chicken from freezer, onions and pepper from languishing in fridge, spices, rice and coconut milk from cupboard.

I did this when we were skint just before Christmas - On 1st Dec I made a list of everything in my cupboards and freezer etc. and went online and in recipe books in search of recipes to use them all up. We did really well, discovered some quite nice recipes and the only things left by Dec 21st were a tin of goose fat and some capers! In those three weeks I spent £40 per week instead of £120 for a usual shop. Result all round I thought. Good luck with your mission.

I'd love to join this thread as I have a full freezer and cupboard, but I'm not much of a cook. I tend to lob things together and sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't.

Today I emptied the rest of a bag of pytt i panna (hash to you and me), a few meatballs, half an onion, three frankfurters, a solo garlic bulb and half a bag of frozen grated cheese into a frying pan and covered it with three eggs. Looked like shit, tasted ok, too much meat but my boyfriend wanted the extra meat.

Aware that it's really unhealthy too. I need to do this because I keep going to the cupboard at night to see what I can eat for my tea and I walk away again every time. I can't afford to buy fresh salads any more because my boyfriend is a chef and works late so is never home to eat any of it and it's hard to buy small amounts without wasting any.

I hate waste, btw. I'd rather freeze something than throw it away.

My baby has gone off sweet potato so I'll be digging all the frozen cooked sweet potato out tomorrow. Wondering what to eat it with.

Elderly choc-ice covered in white ice as it's been there so long. I can't think of a single thing to do with lost choc-ices other than give them to lost people.

We've also been having a lot of freezer/cupboard meals lately.

Today I made tomato soup with a tin of chopped tomatoes, a stock cube, and the last 2 onions. With a bit of bread on the side.

This thread is brilliant. My weird is it goulash or is it chilli went down so well, DH said it was the nicest thing he'd had in ages and what was the recipe and when could we have it again.

I have loads of Christmas stilton around. Could do the soup or a quiche.
Loads of lentils too for dahl with rice.

Some out of date porridge oats. But i've been making porridge with them and they're fine. Would love to make flapjacks but have v little golden syrup - just brown sugar or maple syrup. Would that work, does anyone know?