I mentioned in an earlier post that I am participating in the Eat from the Pantry Challenge and will be feeding my family from the pantry and freezer for the month of January. My original enthusiasm has turned to a mild panic as I have realized that my pantry and freezer were not as full as I thought. I have had extra people in my kitchen and discovered that items had been haphazardly thrown in the cupboards. What I mistook for a full pantry has turned out to be disorganization. However, I am not about to throw in the towel on this challenge!
The web is a useful tool when you are trying to make do with what you have on hand. AllRecipes.com has a feature that allows you to enter ingredients that you want to use, as well as, ingredients that you don’t want to use, and will then list recipes that meet your requirements.
When I have a recipe that I want to make, but am missing a key ingredient I visit Baking 911, to see if I can come up with a substitution. Sometimes I just do a search on the recipe to see how others make it, which often provides me with ideas for substitutions. I wanted to make my mother-in-law’s lemon poppy cake, but found I was missing a key ingredient. After searching on lemon poppy cakes, I discovered a recipe that not only used ingredients that I had on hand, but that my family now prefers.
Quite often, I just wing it. Last week I had combined most of the ingredients to make Nutty Broccoli Salad when I discovered that I was out of cranberries. I could easily have used raisons, but my daughter does not like them. So I looked around the kitchen for a sweet fruit that would blend with the other ingredients and found a nice, crisp apple. We all liked the substitution so much that I think it will become a regular ingredient in the salad.
How do you stretch your pantry and freezer to feed your family?
juliecache says
linking to this post for an Examiner.com article. My niece has the same name as you, how rare! http://www.examiner.com/x-13329-Des-Moines-Frugal-Family-Examiner
Lisa says
I make bread (white, wheat, dinner rolls, anything really) to help "fill" my crew up (especially when times are really hard).
Lisa
heartnsoulcooking says
I have given you an AWARD!!! come by and visit so you can receive it.
Geri
Melissa says
We have a ham bone in the freezer, too, thanks to my mother-in-law! That'll be cooked with some kidney beans soon, I'm sure.
We use pasta, rice, and dried beans to stretch the food budget, too.
Alea says
C-re, LOL! I was taking inventory of my rice and beans last night! I have a couple of pounds of both. I also found split peas and I have a ham bone in the freezer, so there is a yummy dinner. I have no idea why, but I don't make split pea soup until I have run out of other options.
It will be fun to have you along for the challenge; I can't to read what you have to share!
C-re says
Dried beans! And rice when the potatoes run out. I also tend to go back to my fall-back recipes since I tend to have those ingredients on hand.
I think I'm going to participate in the challenge as well. I'm working on a post.
Alea says
LOL! Been there, lived that! That is when potatoes grace our table. I should do 101 ways to cook a potato post!
Shana says
Sometimes the pantry gets so empty it wouldn't stretch if it was made of rubber…lol.