Creative Dinners When The Cupboard Is Bare

[SiouzQ.]

I have been putting off the grocery shopping until I have the day off tomorrow when I can really think about it and plan, but I was hungry tonight and came up with this: lightly scrambled eggs (from my ex-SIL laying hens) wrapped up in a warm pita bread with green chile sauce, a dash of hot red pepper sauce and a couple of pickled jalepeno peppers! It actually was really good and I didn't even miss the fact that I didn't have any cheese to melt with it! It was so good I am contemplating making some more, but then I'd feel piggish!

What other crazy end-of-the-month bare cupboard concoctions have you all come up with?

[peggy]

Actually, that doesn't sound like 'bare cupboard' to me. Sounds like a breakfast burrito! But you are right, it could use some cheese and/or bacon.
Unfortunately, eggs and i don't get along lately, so I can only have them once in a great while.

Recently, i stood against a 'bare' cupboard, as it were, and came up with a stir fry of potatoes, onions, canned black eyed peas, and frozen green beans. Yum!
And 'bare' cupboards seem to always have the makings of some pretty good soup.

[Kat]

Mmm--that sounds good! I usually make breakfast food when this happens, like eggs or pancakes. Sometimes I'll make fried eggs sandwiches on homemade bread, too. Can make french toast or grilled cheese out of the bread, too. :-)

[Maxamillion]

My usual go-to is a barbecue sauce sandwich--basically barbecue sauce between two slices of bread. That's when I don't feel like cooking. When I do, it's usually some sort of stir-fry, since I almost always have veges and rice on hand. Last month, I threw together a dish of English peas, with some Velveeta, cream cheese, and onion powder and heated it over the stove, it was really good.

[Rosemary]

I almost always have lentils in the house. Lentil soup is quick and easy and can be made with any random vegetables in the fridge or freezer.
Fried rice - heavy in the veggies - is another quick 'emergency' dinner.

[bunnys]

I was eating fried rice a lot up until about 2 months ago when I read several articles about all the arsenic in rice and how we have to lay off. Apparently, American rice is grown in fields that used to grow cotton and routinely arsenic was spread on cotton as either a herbicide or pesticide and it will take many, many decades for the arsenic to leech (is that the word I want?) out of the soil.

For me, emergency dinner is Boca or Chik'n burger and fries or a frozen burrito.

[pinkytoe]

We always have jars of frozen beans (made from scratch) in the freezer for just those times. Last night, I thawed a jar of red beans, made some rice and ate along with Louisiana hot sauce. Had a couple of oranges and grapefruit left along with one avocado so made a citrus salad to go with it.

[Amaranth]

Stirfry of vegetables from the garden over rice.

Seasonal vegetable soup from the garden. With lentils or split peas if it's for the next meal, or a bean that takes time to soak if it's for the next day.

Here's a photo from What I Eat of a man who always eats Bare Cupboard type meals. This is his only meal of the day(1000 calories). Other two were water that day. It's curried vegetables, rice, and an Indian style flatbread. When he is not on a pilgrimage he has halva and tea for breakfast which if they are done in typical Indian style might be an additional 500 calories.
http://www.sciencephoto.com/media/425763/view

[Tiam]

Mmm--that sounds good! I usually make breakfast food when this happens, like eggs or pancakes. Sometimes I'll make fried eggs sandwiches on homemade bread, too. Can make french toast or grilled cheese out of the bread, too. :-)


Very true. I'm not a fan of breakfast foods, but right now, my bare cupboard has two eggs, a handful of frozen cottage fries, a slice of onion and a piece of bacon and a jalapeno. A country scramble for probably less than a dollar. I'm ready to enjoy the first day of sun in over a week.

[Rosemary]

bunnys, just buy rice grown in CA instead of the deep south.

[Tiam]

bunnys, just buy rice grown in CA instead of the deep south.


If you buy rice in bulk it's hard to know. I guess I should not buy rice in bulk then.

[Amaranth]

In the summer when the tomatoes and peppers are ripe in the garden:

***tomato Bread Salad***
Cubes of two day old homemade multigrain bread
Diced tomato
Black pepper

Sprinkle tomato with fresh ground black pepper.
Toss with bread cubes

Variations for the less bare cupboards:
Add diced sweet green peppers
Add diced roasted sweet red, yellow or orange peppers
Add some freshly grated romano cheese
You can toss the tomatos with a bit of olive oil first and the tomato juice and olive oil turn into a vinagrette
Fresh Italian herbs may be added.
Sweet onions diced from the garden are good. Sharp or hot onions are not so good.
Some people like to salt the tomatoes, but to me the salt in the bread or the cheese is enough.

[bunnys]

Amaranth--that salad looks phenomenal. Drizzling olive oil on it would be really good, too.

That Hindu priest and his ascetic lifestyle on 1000 calories per day is very impressive, as well.

[Amaranth]

Bunnys, I updated it to add the olive oil and a few other variations. It can sort of be a Stone Soup version of a bread salad depending on what's around.

If your library has a copy of the What I Eat book, the page about their lifestyle is very interesting from a minimalist living perspective. I thought it might make an interesting challenge this winter to do a couple of days using the ingredients in his meal and a couple other days adding in the ingredients when the breakfast halva and tea are included. It would be interesting to do one day of each pretty much as he eats it and then a few other days making different things with the same ingredients. I've been working out a nutritional analysis based on what info is available in the book plus other info from cooking Indian dishes.

[Mrs-M]

I have, on a few occasions, made a quick and easy rice dish to tide us over.

Rice
Green peas (to taste)
Can or two of solid tuna Albacore
Salt/pepper (to taste)

Serve with soya sauce

If you have onion on hand, dice and add, likewise for garlic/celery.

[bunnys]

If your library has a copy of the What I Eat book, the page about their lifestyle is very interesting from a minimalist living perspective. \\. (file://\\.)
I was looking@ that picture and thinking "how does he live on that little?" And then I remembered he's used to it. You can get used to anything, after all. The thing that's really cool is that these calorie restrictive diets over the long term really extend a person's lifespan.

[Blackdog Lin]

It's always tuna casserole in our house. It might be with tuna (ideal) or other canned fish (less than ideal), it might be with cream of mushroom soup (ideal) or any other canned soup (less than ideal), it might be with pasta (ideal) or rice or 'tators (less than ideal), and it might have peas (ideal) or green beans or frozen mixture or whatever (less than ideal). Cheese or crunchies on top: an added bonus any old way.

But it always seems to still be tuna casserole.

[lhamo]

I was out all day at a work event on Saturday and there wasn't much left in the fridge other than what I had planned for dinner for me and the kids (chicken plus roasted broccoli). Food was already in the oven when DS showed up with his friend, who is a hearty eater. So I started up some pasta and then mixed that with the roasted broccoli, some butter and some parmesan I had in the freezer waiting to be used up. They really liked it, but there were still some leftovers. So I diced up some of the remaining chicken, threw that in, and that's what I'm having for lunch today.

I also love channa masala as a go to, quick, from a can meal. One can of chickpeas, one can of tomatoes, and some curry powder. You can throw in some onion or garlic if you have it, too. Great by itself, or over rice.

lhamo

[Rogar]

Usually the last few things in my cupboards before they truly go bare are a few jars of pasta sauce and some sort of pasta. I can usually hide all varieties of leftovers in pasta sauce. I'm a great fan of cooking in bulk and freezing portions, so it is rare that there isn't some sort of soup, legume, or burrito or something in the freezer.

[Tiam]

A half an onion, a bag or less of split peas and (if wanted) the last couple of slices of chopped bacon and there's a super budget meal out of bare cupboards for sure. If you have an extra container of homemade chicken broth around and 3 ribs of wilted celery, all the better.

[Wildflower]

I usually always have eggs, cheese, and some veggies on hand. So omelettes are my go to easy dinner. Throw in some pancakes as well sometimes. Other than that maybe a grilled cheese.

[Amaranth]

I've just started reading A Year in the Village of Eternity by Tracey Lawson. It's about Campodimele Italy where people live long and healthy lives. Life expectancy is 95 years. Most people grow a large percentage of their own food as well. They mention a favorite green frittata called Tagne.

Tagne-green frittata
4-5 handfuls of wild, foraged greens, washed and simmered 10 minutes until tender.
Drain, pat dry. (They don't say this, but drinking the greens cooking water is usally very nutritious--just not if you are in the US and preping pokeweed.)
Toss with olive oil, salt, and 3 teaspoons of plain flour.
Heat a bit of olive oil in a nonstick pan.
Add greens and flatten with spatula.
Cook on low heat for 5 minutes till golden and crispy. Flip and cook on other side.
Flip onto plate. Cool. Cut into wedges.

This is so bare cupboard that no eggs are included.

I think this would be good with lambs quarter, dandelion, or chickweed if you were foraging, and any green from the garden as well. I'll probably try it first with chickweed, chard, endive, lettuce, or spinach since that's what I've got a lot of at the moment.

Looks like the book will probably have a lot more seasonal, frugal, whole foods recipes like this--Chapters are by the month.

[Amaranth]

The Campodimiele book has more recipes suitable for the thread.

Simple pasta sauces of seasonal vegetables
Roasted potatoes with herbs
Lots of other potato recipes
Gnocchi with various sauces
The town is also famous for a bean that sounds like it is similar to a chickpea, so lots of frugal recipes using that.
Pizza with toppings from the garden

[Tiam]

The last two days I've been at a 'bare cupboard' state. Not much going on. And not feeling particularly creative. I did have a frozen pound of hamburger meat so I set that out for later. But today? Not much. I needed dinner last night and very little. And lunch for today. So, it was ramen egg drop stir up. stir up since I didn't stirfry anything. I just cooked the ramen, dumped the water out, added soy, oyster sauce, and a drop of sesame oil. No seasoning packet. the last two tablespoons of frozen peas and green beans. Shredded in a raw carrot. Two eggs, stirred in and cooked. Top with siriacha. Yum. It made a tasty and dinner and lunch and probably a 50 cent or so meal. Delicious. I don't eat ramen often, but it's a great go to when there isn't much.