What food do you always have in

[Lifejigsaw]

I regularly find my self staring at the fridge with no idea what I want to eat. I meal plan but don’t have a stable work/home routine that means I know what I’m doing every day in advance.

So what do you reach for on those occasions?

What food do you have in the fridge / cupboard / freezer that you rely on for a good meal as needed ie not just crisps 😂

last night I had cereal for dinner which was lush, but not nutritious!

I stock parts of meals in freezer. So i have frozen rice, frozen veg, frozen meat including cooked ones and then just mix and match when I need something quick, throw it on a pan or in microwave and fanfare. Solid healthy meal in 10 min.

Tinned tomatoes. I always have tinned tomatoes and eggs in. I never go under 4 cans of tomatoes. One of the best ingredient imho because it's so versatile!

Soup and baked beans!

I generally have the makings of a pasta supper in. Olives, anchovies, capers, tomatoes = puttanesca. Eggs, cubetti di pancetta and mushrooms = carbonara. Whilst cheese, milk and flour = macaroni cheese. All quick and easy.

My store cupboard staples are good quality chopped tomatoes, butter beans, baked beans, tuna, pasta and rice. My fridge staples are feta cheese (it always has a long sell by date), chorizo, Olives, capers, veggies like broccoli, green beans and peppers and condiments like harissa, gochujang and tahini. I always have eggs, and a packet of those part baked baguettes in the cupboard and wraps and pittas in the freezer too.

I also like to have a wedge of Parmesan and Grana padano - as something to nibble or an ingredient - essential for the carbonara above.

Always have onions, tinned tomatoes, frozen peas, tinned sweetcorn, tuna, cheddar, potatoes and pasta!

Fruit

I always plan meals and shopping accordingly and feel a bit odd if I don’t. I have a large freezer that has left overs in for a quick meal or a pizza. I do a bottom of the fridge omelette, so cheese, mushrooms, onions, chorizo and of course eggs. So anything that is left, spinach, peppers, tomatoes. If I don’t feel like doing a meal in the evening that is snacky, I get bread from the freezer butter the outside, put a filling inside like cheese, then I use a grill to make a toastie, then open a tin of soup!

And what are your go to meals from that? I feel like I’m surrounded by too many ingredients and actually should just focus on a few core ones that I actually use regularly!

I have quite a small freezer than normally has batches good spag bol / curry / sweet and sour etc in but have run it down recently so need to focus there.

I always have beans and eggs in but not bread (freezer size makes it tricky). Not a big soup fan but over winter that’ll be easier

The usual store cupboard stuff - tins of beans and chick peas, tomatoes, tuna, coconut milk, soup, herbs and spices, sauces and chutneys, stock cubes, gravy mix, pasta, rice, lentils, eggs, flour, bread

In the fridge - cheese, milk, butter vegetables, salad

In the freezer - soup, chicken pieces, fresh pasta, breads (naan, wraps, pita), meals I have cooked and frozen, peas, chopped ginger, garlic and ginger pastes.

Other - potatoes, onions

Eggs, tinned tomatoes and baked beans. If all else fails I can have eggs and beans on toast.
Yummy

If I buy baking potatoes I bake a lot of them then freeze some. Always handy for a quick lunch, or cut into wedges and roasted to go with whatever (meat, fish) and they seem to be even tastier. I batch steam veg too, freeze in pots. I always have tuna cheese and eggs in, and a sliced loaf in the freezer.

See I have most of this but still feel so confused when I need to quickly make dinner!

i should have added to my OP - what do you then make from the things you purposefully keep in?

Corned beef.

I always have potatoes, carrots, onions, etc. in the house. Corned beef hash is my go-to meal for when I have overspent, or can't face heading into the nearest town after work...

Other than that, even Jamie Oliver would be scratching his head at what to make out of the contents of my cupboards (usually flour, mustard, Tabasco and vanilla bean paste...).

Always beans in the cupboard and always bread in the freezer..

Can never finish a loaf on my own so always freezer bread going..

I keep a large amount of food as we don't live near a shop and I like to buy in bulk, but easy meals I repeat a lot are:

Stirfry using cold leftover white rice, brown rice or bulghur, add any veg. plus fresh ginger, sesame oil, soy sauce and chilli oil.

Noodles, again with any veg. plus a quick sauce made from gochujang, soy sauce, sesame oil, peanut butter, ginger...

Various pastas but an easy one is fried shallot, garlic, chilli flakes, tomato paste, chopped olives. Or frozen cubes of homemade pesto.

Dhal is a good one as it's mostly dried ingredients.

Pasta with pesto
Spanish omelette
Tandoori chickpeas (Yottam Otolenghi's delicious recipe
Baked potato with cheese and beans
Lentil dahl
Soup
Depending on what veg I have in - a traybake of roasted vegetables
Tortilla wraps with Mexican spiced beans and grated cheese
Paneer and pea curry (I usually keep paneer in the fridge)
Puy lentil and feta cheese wraps (always have feta in the fridge and always keep pouches of pre-cooked puy lentil in)

We aren't that near a shop either.

Marmite!

My go-to meals when I have "nothing" in the fridge are pasta, fried rice or risotto. The kids' favourite is cheesy-peasy pasta as I will always have peas in the freezer and some sort of hard cheese in the fridge. With bacon if we have any but it isn't necessary.

Google or ChatGPT can be very useful - look at what you have and ask e.g. "what meal can I make with spinach, eggs, broccoli and pasta (google says "creamy greens carbonara")

We often have good quality breaded chicken bits and fish fingers in the freezer. And will have chicken or fish finger tacos. Shredded cabbage and red peppers (both keep well in the fridge) nice salsa (M&S), jalapeno , avocado if I have some, black beans from a tin. Sour cream keeps for a long time.

eggs keep for ever.

I will often make a bean stew, that lasts a while in the fridge.

pouches of lentils and rice are handy.

Things I make when I'm in a rush and don't want to think are:

• pasta with tomato sauce
• veg chilli
• minestrone
• omelette

DH is vegetarian so we always have fresh salad ingredients in and I usually have eggs. So I might make what I call Mexican scrambled eggs which has onions, chopped peppers, chopped tomato’s and chilli in it or I make a frittata. I often make a big frittata with sweet potatoes, spinach and keeks and have that in the fridge for snacks or a quick dinner with salad.

I also always gave red lentils and a red lentil dhal is a staple for us with rice which is also always in. We are having that tonight, along with jarred chutneys and papoadums.

I always have enough for daal (lentils, stock cubes, then pepped up with vegetables, spices, coconut), some sort of special fried rice (even if it’s just rice, sweetcorn and peas), and many hundreds of canned tomatoes (so just an onion and garlic away from a pasta sauce).

some frozen gyozas make that special fried rice more “mealy”.

I always have tinned beans and tomatoes ,pasta and rice and always have eggs.
I batch cook a lot so have meals I can just get out in the morning to defrost.
I also always have garlic and in my fridge I always have parmesan cheese and other cheeses you can never have too much cheese imo !
I also love fresh herbs and dill is my favourite ,love the smell and the taste ,I think fresh herbs make such a difference even to a simple dish