View Full Version : "pantry" suppers
Blackdog Lin
9-17-12, 9:04pm
So it's Monday, and DH should have taken care of supper planning, but he didn't. I get home from work tired and all of a sudden it's my job to put a meal on for tonight. sigh.
But we have a pantry, and I have a choice of canned meat items: tuna, chicken, salmon, spam. We have a pantry and it includes all basic pastas, rices, and frozen veggies. We have a pantry and it has home-canned green beans and tomatoes (damn! I should have gotten out a jar of our green beans for the pot pie - it didn't occur to me).
My basic method is to go online to AllRecipes and get ideas. Not recipes, per se, but ideas that I can change-up based on what is in the house at the time. Tonight's idea was "I have a can of chicken, and frozen veggies, and lots of cream o' soups, and by golly there's a can of biscuits that probably needs used.....and on AllRecipes there's a "cheater chicken pot pie" recipe on there".....and I'm off and running (but thinking easy and semi-homemade, 'cause I'm tired, you know?.....)
Anyway, it turned out great. A pantry-item chicken pot pie using some fresh (the last potato and 1/2 an onion, milk and a little sour cream), some frozen (veggies), and some canned (chicken and soups). Along with a can of biscuits I found in the fridge. (the addition of thyme, celery seeds, and fresh-cracked pepper was what put the dish into the "this is really good!" category, instead of the "we'll eat it 'cause we're hungry" category.
So I'm wondering: y'all must have a vast "go to" list of recipes/ideas that you can whip up for supper from pantry items when you haven't pre-planned. My only other ideas tonight was tuna casserole, or salmon patty sandwiches.
What do you throw together from your pantry when you haven't planned supper? And what are your best successes?
awakenedsoul
9-17-12, 9:07pm
Definitely tuna and noodles. I also like to make stuffed peppers, spaghetti, or salad with bacon bits, cheese, and homemade croutons. Yum! Glad your pot pie turned out so well.
I never pre-plan dinners and would die of boredom before any menu planning activity was complete.
If I had only tuna in the pantry, I'd have tuna and noodles. We always have a meat, starch and veg in the pantry. You use those combos to make dinner.
In the tuna 'n noodles you throw in whatever veg you've got. This time of year we've got summer squash from the garden and so we use that. In the depth of winter we would have frozen veg such as peas, and we'd use that.
Now this OP's post got me to thinking what I can do with refrigerated crescent rolls, make a pastry topping for pot pie? hmmm, I wonder.
I don't' normally buy crescent rolls but have had them recently due to trying out their versatility on appetizers.
I do pre-plan dinners, but it's never of the "if it's Tuesday, it's meat loaf" kind. I plan to make sure I have the necessary ingredients and don't overbuy/forget items.
Of course, sometimes that plan goes south. There's usually enough in the house to make quite a variety of things. Our microwave oven does a good job of defrosting frozen meat quickly, so roasted or broiled meat is not hard to do. But when time is really tight, the favorites here are a frozen pizza with added vegetables (and meat or cheese, if my wife is making it; we always have one in the house) or a frittata/omelette with whatever I find in the 'fridge.
decemberlov
9-17-12, 10:32pm
Some of my "i forgot to plan meals":
Soup and a hearty piece of bread
homemade hamburger helper: groundbeef, noodles, cheese and spices, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder etc.
Pasta salad with Italian dressing and whatever cheeses and veggies i have tomatoes, broccoli etc.
We always have coucous so ill cook that up with veggies and maybe a store bought rotisserie chicken.
Macaroni and tuna salad with mayo and if i have it celery and carrots
We also love pasta with a little olive oil, parm. Cheese and broccoli or asparagus or any kind of veggies.
Scrambled eggs with cut-up salami mixed in, and whatever salads or leftover vegetables are in the fridge or the freezer. Ready in ten minutes!
My wife, daughter, and I each take 1-2 mins to look over the pantry and what's in the refrigerator.
Then we each "bid" what we are prepared to make from what we've seen. You can accept the bid of the first person, or "raise" by offering something you'd prefer (but, you get to make it...) Someone will open with "pasta with frozen sauce". Next person might go "Ugh, not that, how about....eggs and pancakes!". "Bah, how about agadashi tofu and quick pickles, and some rice?" "Don't feel like tofu, I'll go quick pickles and zaru soba, and a poached egg". Fold. Fold.
Problem solved.
Blackdog Lin
9-18-12, 6:50am
bae - what fun!
My usual spur of the moment (sounds nicer than "I forgot to plan" ;)) meals:
black beans mixed with salsa, cumin, cilantro if I have it fresh, a little bit of cocoa powder for a fake mole sauce served over rice
3 bean salad as a side dish: 2 kinds of canned beans, with fresh green beans, onion and dressing
crabcakes- canned crabmeat with breadcrumbs,egg and seasonings sauteed on a griddle
doctored up Zatarain's red beans and rice mix with added chorizo sausage (usually in my freezer) and or chicken
carrot soup, done with either fresh dill or frozen grated ginger.. I almost always have carrots in the frig.
baked potatoes with canned chili served over with shredded cheese, other veggies if I have them (tomato, onion, jalapeno)
I look in the fridge and pantry and freezer in the morning while I have my coffee and decide then what I'll fix for dinner so i have time to defrost if needed. Except Friday. Friday's here are pizza night and the fun is deciding what to put on the pizza. (the pizza is always home made cause my daughter has Celiac) Our recent favorite is spinach alfredo pizza with bacon, or sausage if I have some left over. I am also partial to ham and pineapple with just a touch of tomato. *
Our general default dinner when I just don't feel like cooking or can't decide is stir fry cause we almost always have some leftover meat of some kind and any vegs we want to toss in. Must have onions, though, but everything else is negotiable.
*if anyone has any good ideas for pizza toppings I'd love to hear. We are always in search of new ways to top them. Calzones too. Maybe I'll start a new thread on pizza.
My wife, daughter, and I each take 1-2 mins to look over the pantry and what's in the refrigerator.
Then we each "bid" what we are prepared to make from what we've seen. You can accept the bid of the first person, or "raise" by offering something you'd prefer (but, you get to make it...) Someone will open with "pasta with frozen sauce". Next person might go "Ugh, not that, how about....eggs and pancakes!". "Bah, how about agadashi tofu and quick pickles, and some rice?" "Don't feel like tofu, I'll go quick pickles and zaru soba, and a poached egg". Fold. Fold.
Problem solved.
Sounds fun if you're all cooks! In my house, my family would probably try to get out of cooking so might offer up something like "toast and popcorn" or "cold cereal."
Tonight I made bread pudding with a plum sauce. We have all of these fall plums from our tree that are now fully ripe. Thanks to global warming, we've got scads of plums, the first time in about ten years that this tree has produced. I know that bread pudding should be easy, so we shall see how it turns out. DH likes all desserts and I believe he will snarf this down.
Sounds fun if you're all cooks! In my house, my family would probably try to get out of cooking so might offer up something like "toast and popcorn" or "cold cereal."
dammit I keep hearing, now that it is too late, good reasons to have children. One that cooks would be great to have around.
Tonight I made bread pudding with a plum sauce. We have all of these fall plums from our tree that are now fully ripe. Thanks to global warming, we've got scads of plums, the first time in about ten years that this tree has produced. I know that bread pudding should be easy, so we shall see how it turns out. DH likes all desserts and I believe he will snarf this down.
Not to change the subject of the thread, but do you know which variety of plum that is? i would love to plant a fall plum.
rodeosweetheart
9-18-12, 8:14pm
Iris, could you post a plum sauce recipe? Fascinating!
My pantry go-to meal if I have parmesan is linguine with clam sauce.
Not to change the subject of the thread, but do you know which variety of plum that is? i would love to plant a fall plum.
I'll ask DH and get back to you.
Not to change the subject of the thread, but do you know which variety of plum that is? i would love to plant a fall plum.
Our fall plum tree is:
Stanley Prune-Plum
It is listed in the latest Stark Bros catalog. It has yellow flesh. It's not nearly as sweet at the summer plum that grow in our community garden, but it is ok. However, I do not exaggerate when I say that the thing doesn't bloom reliably. In ten years of having it here it might produce 1 -2 plums per season. The warm winter caused excess fruit on all of our trees and this year it produced dozens of plums.
Oh, ok thanks. I have 4 plums but am always looking for something different. I have 2 prune plums, French prune plums. They are young and haven't' had any fruit yet so I'll see.
Iris, could you post a plum sauce recipe? Fascinating!
I'm not a good cook but I used a technique for making fruit fillings:
melt some butter in a saucepan
add some sugar (last night I used 1/3 cup)
put the pitted fruit in the saucepan and cook it down a bit
add some cornstach-I used a couple of pinches
cook until thick
Peggy would you please post your recipe for gluten free pizza?
Quick pantry soup
1 sauteed onion
1 jar pasta sauce
2 jars filtered water
1 pound mixed frozen vegetables
Bring to a boil and simmer for 10-20 minutes depending on how cooked you like your vegetables
Mine is couscous with frozen spinach, slivered almonds, garlic powder, hot sauce, and black pepper. YUM!
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