Talk to Tesco about your store cupboard hero and your top three ways to use it - you could win a £200 Tesco voucher NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

We've been asked by Tesco to find out about Mumsnetters' store cupboard heroes.

Here’s what Tesco say, “The Tesco Eat Happy Project is our long-term commitment to help children have a healthier and happier relationship with their food. We’ve got lots of recipes for healthy, tasty dishes that we think they’ll love – especially if they help you prepare them. But we’re keen to hear your recipe ideas too.”

So, what is your store cupboard hero and what are your top 3 ways to use it? Perhaps you always keep pesto in your cupboard, to stir into pasta, pep up a risotto or spread onto pastry to make a savoury puff? Or maybe you like to have lentils in stock, to add to soup, bulk out a stew or make a warm winter salad with?

Whatever your store cupboard hero is, Tesco would love to hear about it!

Everyone who adds their comments to the thread will be entered into a prize draw to win a £200 Tesco voucher.

Please note that any comments posted on this thread may be used by Tesco in further marketing material (anonymously, of course).

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

Tomato puree! It goes in everything! Pasta, cottage pie, home made pizzas, soups. I pretty much put a squeeze in everything! Lol

My pantry hero is tinned tomatoes. You can use them for a quick tomato sauce for a midweek dinner, tomato soup and tomatoes on toast for supper.

Baked beans! My kids will eat them, even when they are poorly all the usual ways (in a bowl on their own, on toast, on potato). I also add them to the mince in a shepherd's pie, and scoop them onto pizzas!

Tinned, chopped tomatoes: - in a pasta sauce, in chili con crane, and as a base to my famous Dopiaza curry :)

Onions - in aaaaaalll the above, plus chicken dishes, anything one pot , in gravy, in salads and in sandwiches :)

Tortilla wraps
For fajitas on Saturday night, for school lunch chicken wraps all week ( creatures of habit ) and as a snack for my carboholic son

It's teriyaki sauce in this house. Make a stiry fry with it (with or without peanut butter ot chilli), make noodles with it, even add it to risotto. Our kids lika asian food and you can use any odd leftovers to wip something up quickly that keeps them happy.

Ketchup ~ not only does it cause meltdowns if we run out.
The balance of sugar, spices really pep up a spag bol, chilli or cottage pie just a good squirt and makes huge difference

Flour !
Love baking with DD age 5 but you can make cheaper versions of shop bought foods. We make dumplings , Yorkshire puddings , crumbles , waffles.
My favourite is a nice soda bread loaf made with soda flour and milk - Tesco sell the nicest version of the flour straight from Ireland. Perfect with home made soup.

Absolutely PESTO for me... I absolutely love it. Top ways for me - with pasta and frozen veg - frozen peas, spinach, broad beans. I love it with some quickly pan fried cherry tomatoes, prawns and courgetti, (spaghetti made from courgettes) or for a decadent treat in a toastie of creamy goats cheese, proscuitto, tomato and pesto!! So many ways that pesto can really make a meal from very little.

Chopped tomatoes - I use them all the time! Spag bol, curry, pizza topping (plus chilli, other pasta sauces, stews, casseroles, on toast, soups! everything!)

The most used things in my cupboard are tinned tomatoes (everyone uses them), carbs (rice, pasta, couscous) and herbs. Love fennel seeds with sausages, rosemary with potatoes and cayenne pepper when the inlaws come to dinner...!

Ours is pesto, either in pasta (with chopped sausages and peas or whatever else mixed in); smothered on chicken, then grilled; or our lunchtime favourite, pizza toast - I mix pesto with tomato purée out of a tube, spread it on toast and then add cheese and grill it!

Eggs! I can do a thousand things

Tinned tomatoes, perfect as a pizza sauce, on pasta or for an easy sausage casserole. Very nutricious too!

For my youngest it's definitely pasta and a jar of pasta bake sauce.
He loves getting involved and putting the pasta in the saucepan for cooking and then pouring the sauce on top after it's been cooked and adding some grated cheese before placing it the oven.

For the slightly older one, its spaghetti and a jar of spaghetti bolognaise sauce. She love to watch the spaghetti change from sticks to floppy spaghetti.

A can of meatballs has saved me on a few occasions as well - especially when I've tried something new and they refuse to eat it - doesn't take long to warm up a can of meatballs and serve with some bread and butter.

Pasta - so handy for a quick meal with Quorn Chilli, in a cheesy sauce and baked in the oven with extra grated cheese on top, or with Pesto stirred through and tuna and black olives stirred in - always delicious!

I was going to say tinned tomatoes but that feels like copying everyone else. So I'll say lentils instead. A brilliant source of protein, which is very important for a vegetarian child. We use them in almost everything - so instead of beef for spag bol, instead of beef for cottage pie, to make a wonderful thick spicy lentil soup, chilli, curry... the list is endless and no it isn't boring. Different types of lentil have different textures. They all cook incredibly quickly so perfect when we haven't got much time.

My storecupboard hero are porridge oats, you can mix them with brown sugar and butter for easy flapjacks, use them in smoothies, and of course, for breakfast!

My store cupboard hero is definitely pepper - it just adds a bit of extra flavour & spice to any boring meal! My top 3 uses for it are on top of jacket potato with egg mayo, in a chicken, rocket & mayo wrap & to pep up a boring sandwich if all you have is cheap packaged meat!

Passata - pasta sauces, pizza, and sauce for chicken

We always have sweet potatos in the store cupboard. Not only do they make tasty healthy chips they are also delicious baked and can be used as an alternative to white potatos in many recipes including shepherds/cottage pie!

My favourite use of sweet potato though is a sneaky way to get my kiddies to eat greens by making sweet mashed potato with added brocolli :)

Worcester Sauce... Add to cheese on toast peps it up...add to spaghetti bolognese to make it richer tasting and add to a stir fry to give it a kick ..so many uses

Cumin is mine! It flavours loads of dishes including vegetarian pasta dishes but mainly suitable with any meat dish. My husband and children love cumin on their lamb, beef, chicken and pork and dishes are no longer bland!

Another vote for tinned tomatoes, I use them in all-sorts!

Pasta, lasagne, bolognaise, over sausages in the oven.... :)

Eggs.
My children love all things egg'ish. I always make sure I have eggs in.
scrabbled, fried, poached or boiled all make a filling meal, lunch or dinner. on top of toast, toast dipped in or on its own, so many choices.
Baking for lunch box treats always involves the odd egg or 2.
Everyone loves eggs.

Tinned tomatoes - honestly dont know what I would do without them! Chilli, lasagne, casseroles, pizza bases, soups, even just on toast!