Pantry challenge

[Emmie412x]

After Christmas it looks like that our cupboards, fridge and freezer are totally overflowing so attempting to do a pantry challenge for a month and see how far we get.

Anyone else for the challenge?

My task for today is to go through everything, write down what we have and then try to come up with a set of meals. Obviously will still need to buy veg/milk etc but otherwise will try and stick to what we've got.

Anyone else doing this?

I should.

I should really. Have been ill most of Christmas so a lot of the Christmas food didn't get eaten, so freezer and cupboards are overflowing!

So I have taken initial stock and we should be able to make the following , at least with minimal extra purchases:

Chilli con carne + rice + guacamole (avocados have to be bought)
Burritos + guacamole
noodles + veg + cashew nuts+ cashew nut sauce
vegetarian pad thai
risotto with chorizo, mushrooms etc.
red lentil soup with sweet potato and butternut squash
steak wraps
fish soup
vegetarian 'meat'balls and mash
reindeer stew, mash, veg
pita breads with falafels + couscous salad + houmous
fish fingers and beans
warm green lentil salad with halloumi
sausage pasta
puff pastry pie (veggie+cheese)
pizza
pancakes (both as sweet and savoury options)

Also have three frozen pizzas lurking about for lazy/busy days

I also spotted the following that I will try to incorporate into meals:
frozen bean and green bean mix
more couscous+pearl barley+chickpea type of grain mix
croissants
garlic bread
frozen sweet buns
some pre-baked bread
ice cream
frozen edamame beans
a big selection of cold cuts and cheese... and a boxes of gingerbread, roasted almonds, Christmas sweets etc.
and the usual spices, flour, tomato sauce, a couple of tins of beans, some dried beans etc.

I am in. I started in December and have at least another month to go. Have been concentrating on using up flour, pulses and baking stuff. So pressure cooked a load of black eye beans and will make a smoky tomato bean soup for work lunches. I’ve also just made a polenta and ground almond cake with a layer of frozen raspberries in the middle.

I have some yellow split peas and loads of pasta flour to use up too. Will need to get creative with those.

Otherwise my big weakness is jars of Coll g pasted and condiments. So I have

Red miso
White miso
Sweet chilli sauce
Some very crusty marmalade
Chilli garlic paste
Lots of chutneys
Mango chutney
Spicy chilli sauce
Peri peri sauce
Then the usual mustards, capers, gherkins etc

I think this weeks dinners will aim to use up these.

I did this last year as my pantry was ridiculous.

I’ve kept it up all year, and apart from spices, baking bits and dried pulses etc I only buy what I’ll eat in a week or 2. I always have something in to make a meal with if I’m ill or too knackered to go shopping, but not so much I can’t move for food.

@FreeButtonBee - your meals are making me hungry - they sound lovely.

@TeddyIsaHe - do you find that you have ended up saving money? I am just thinking that if, as a rule, households throw out 1/3 of food they bought, and if they actually manage to not waste any, surely that is a big saving?

households throw out 1/3 of food they bought
There's lies, damn lies and statistics.
I read somewhere that the "food thrown out" statistics includes items like potato peelings, bones, etc. Of course households don't throw out one third of edible food, it's nonsense.

@senua Interesting... got me to have a look too. An article that is two years old, mentions the following, averaging the waste of edible food worth, on average £470 per household.

UK households binned £13bn worth of food in 2015 that could have been eaten, according to new figures which suggest that progress in reducing the national food waste mountain has stalled.

Despite concerted efforts to reduce food waste through the entire supply chain, a new national update from the waste and recycling advisory body Wrap revealed that an estimated 7.3m tonnes of household food waste was thrown away in 2015 – up from 7m tonnes in 2012.

Of the food thrown away, 4.4m tonnes was deemed to be “avoidable” waste that was edible at some point before it was put in the bin or food waste caddy – such as bread that goes mouldy – compared with 4.2m tonnes in 2012. The rest were scraps that could not be eaten such as meat bones, eggshells, tea bags, coffee grounds, apple cores and fruit and vegetable peelings.

That meant the average UK household wasted £470 worth of food, which went in the bin when it could have been eaten. The avoidable food waste generated 19m tonnes of greenhouse gases over its lifetime – and preventing that pollution would be equivalent to taking one in four cars off UK roads, Wrap said.

www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jan/10/uk-throwing-away-13bn-of-food-each-year-latest-figures-show

Goodness me, that was way too many averages in the first sentence... blame it on Monday brain.

I found another report from Wrap that suggested that overall, globally 1/3 of the food that could have been eaten ended up in landfill. Presumably as not having met the beauty standards etc. www.wrap.org.uk/sites/files/wrap/Food-Waste-Reduction_Roadmap_Progress-Report-2019.pdf

Bread at our house is definitely a constant issue so am now resolving to freezing it and only taking out the slices we require each day.

Planned to make a dish using some frozen tarragon. Turns out forozen tarragon turns into slime when defrosted! Oh well, just added extra mustard and plenty of pepper and it was lovely anyway. And one more little container out of the freezer! Let’s ignore the 8 portions of spag Bol and the 500g of roast ham that have gone back in!

Also making some bread. Although that required some new flour 🙈

I used up a Stilton from Christmas yesterday by plonking it into a soup with broccoli, potato and peas. Turned out lovely. :)