The Great Storecupboard Challenge

[Nic]

I've decided to set myself a challenge this week. The rules are simple: I'm not to buy any food. Everything I eat must be stuff that I already own. This means going through the cupboards, fridge and freezer, and using up what I already have. The last proper food shop I did was at the start of last week, so this really is going to be a challenge.

This has a couple of benefits:
1) It'll save me a ton of money
2) It'll force my to use up all the stuff that's been sat in the kitchen for a while
3) It'll force me to eat proper meals rather than eating a load of junk food

This kinda stemmed from me realising that I have hardly any pasta left in the cupboard, but 3 bags of rice. I can see rice featuring rather heavily in this week's menu...

So, to kick things off, I made this:

Tuna Rice Salad

From the fridge: Half a cucumber, half a tin of sweetcorn, some cherry tomatoes, an onion, end of a jar of mayo, lemon juice
From the freezer: mixed peppers
From the cupboard: rice, tin of tuna, mixed herbs, olive oil

I got the idea from this recipe: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/6816 ... rice-salad

This will be my lunch for the next 2/3 days. NOM!

Stay tuned to find out how I get on for the rest of the week...

 

[Hixee]

Haha, great! It's going to get interesting towards the end of the week...

 

[Nic]

Yes, especially as this is the most bare my freezer has looked since the last time it defrosted and I had to throw everything away...

BTW, recipes to look forward to include: Beef pie, spag bol, chilli, curry and many more...

 

[Hixee]

BTW, recipes to look forward to include: Beef pie, spag bol, chilli, curry and many more...

Aww... I was expecting it to be a lot more random than that.

 

[Nic]

Oh, the ingredients will be. Don't you worry!

Mind you, I haven't got any burgers, so unfortunately you won't be seeing a repeat of my triumphant "Burger Shepherd's Pie"

 

[Nic]

Banana and Walnut Muffins

From the fridge: Margarine
From the cupboard: bananas, sugar, flour, bicarb, walnuts

Recipe from here: http://itchybaby.co.uk/itchyforum/index.php?topic=45.0

These will hopefully help keep me off chocolate at work this week. I had bananas, but they're starting to go a bit manky, so this seemed like the perfect solution! Trust me, they taste much better than they look!

 

[Hixee]

**** hell, this is gourmet at the moment! I was expecting like "Potato and Rice Jelly", not this... :shock:


:lol:

 

[tks]

Heyyyy don't knock potato and rice jelly.

As a student I lived off spaghetti with ketchup and chili flakes to spice it up, and a piece of asdas very basic breaded fish plonked on top. Somehow it worked and kept me alive and skinny for a few years!

 

[Nic]

Tonight's dinner...

Beef Pie & Mash

Again, tastes MUCH better than it looks. I promise.

From the freezer: casserole beef, puff pastry, parsnips
From the cupboard: tinned carrots, stock cube, instant mash, gravy granules

This was my own recipe. It was essentially my slow cooker beef stew with a pastry lid.

Om nom nom!

I think that's probably it now for the sensible sounding recipes. Expect it to get a lot more "experimental" from here on in...

 

[Ian]

**** hell, Vadge, that's pretty good going. I'm intrigued by burger shepherds pie.

And I'm sure your muffs taste delicious. The cookies you made for Alton Towers were da sex! Why haven't you made any since? Why aren't you trying to impress Bellend anymore?

 

[Mysterious Sue]

Burger sheppard's pie made me lol! That's genius!
I once had meat, but no veg or chips in, so concocted fried onion and jam as a side - it actually worked quite well.

 

[Nic]

OH NO! The challenge is at risk!

One of my friends has suddenly announced that he's coming to stay with me for the week (well, part of it at least). This is fine, but it means I'll have to stretch what little food I have even further. I'm also not sure if he'll appreciate all the weird crap that'll get dished up towards the end of the week. Also, whilst I'm happy to live a week without bread or mike, he probably won't be. Ah well, he was a student for 4 years, I'm sure he'll cope! lol

Now, obviously, tonight's dinner was supposed to be the other half of the epic pie. Whilst this is probably too much for just me, it won't be enough for the two of us. Therefore, I've found a portion of beef stew in the freezer. I'm going to defrost it, mix it in with last night's filling (they're basically the same recipe anyway, so shouldn't make a huge difference), re-heat the whole thing, then share the pie crust between us. I can also boil up some frozen mixed veg to serve with it if it doesn't look much. Cunning!

Ian, you only got those cookies because I'd felt like making some, then thought that bringing them with me and sharing them was preferable to scoffing the whole lot myself.

Oh, and burger shepherds pie is actually not too bad. It's nice and onion-y! Just chop up the burgers into small chunks, fry until browned, then cook like a normal shepherds pie. Like I said, I don't have any, so you won't be seeing that this week

 

[tks]

Also, whilst I'm happy to live a week without bread or mike

A week without Mike? Surely not.

 

[Nic]

Oh FFS! Milk. MILK!

Anyway, on that subject.... I CHEATED.

I bought a bottle of milk. That's it though. Technically, that's a drink rather than food anyway, so y'know, it's fine

 

[Hixee]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSTEqHxh3fI[/youtube]

 

[Nic]

I deserved that. Anyway, back on track...

Today, for breakfast, I had museli (with milk that I already had in the fridge at work). For lunch I had the rest of the rice salad, a banana, and one of my banana muffins. For dinner...

Bean Chilli with Rice

It was well tasty!

From the cupboard: Tin of kidney beans, tin of tomatoes, tin of baked beans, spices, rice
From the fridge: Tomato purée

There's tons left. Easily enough for tomorrow's lunch and probably a portion to stick in the freezer too. Awesome.

 

[peep]

Ha, this is awesome. Intrigued to see how the rest of this goes. Good luck!

 

[kimahri]

I eat when I'm bored so there's no way I'd survive with this challenge... Probs for ingenuityasfsdg or what ever the word is.

 

[peep]

So what happened for the rest of the challenge?

 

[Hixee]

I think she died. :?