This thread is to document cheapo meals I make as I clean out my pantry and freezer!!
Every year I look at the pantry and realize things are getting out of control. In January I started to draw down but it's almost Easter and the situation has only barely changed. So I'm taking the next month to Clear the Pantry (erm, 2 pantries actually) and Freezer!
My general rules are not to buy anything new, unless it's a great deal on sale or fresh produce (also good deals, generally). Extra points for using garden produce.
I'm going to
highlight the components I used that motivated that specific meal (something going bad, something that has been loitering in the pantry for years, etc).
Details: I cook for 3 people who bring lunches, and we try to only go out for one meal a week. Two people are lactose intolerant and one is an ovo-vegetarian (but she'll eat around meat if needed). We are all trying to eat less white flour and more fiber, but my family does appreciate a snack cake or something similar each week as motivation.
We started last week....
Friday, March 20: tomato-basil pasta with ground chicken (very loosely based on
https://www.savoringitaly.com/sicilian-pasta-with-ground-chicken/ - no peas, no ricotta, no canned tomato paste or tomatoes). No pic, unfortunately, used up a tube of
frozen ground chicken I got a great deal on, with 5
fresh tomatoes that were going bad and a packet of weird twisty pasta.
Sunday:
Peach cake (from
https://www.christinascucina.com/peach-cake-easy-recipe-no-peeling-necessary/ , a fabulous recipe I will definitely use again with other fruit... used up half a kg of
peaches sliced and frozen when they were in season in December
and
lentils with pasta (very loosely based on
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2026/mar/18/lentil-recipes-braised-with-pasta-and-spiced-with-cod-stuart-gillies, using onions,
squash from my garden, and a packet of
tiny shell pasta that had been cluttering up the pantry for years). The pasta is topped with a
panko bread crumb business inspired by that recipe (no brioche in my house, lol) that uses garlic and nutritional yeast and oregano, tastes like garlic bread and gives the whole thing a satisfying crunch. This will be lunches and occasionally breakfast for all of us this week, but it's going pretty fast...
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