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Quick easy meals from very little - What do you make? |
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#1 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: My Own Little World
Posts: 1,102
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Quick easy meals from very little - What do you make?
I've not been food shopping for about a week and I was rewarded with "That was great" " How do you do it when there is nothing to eat in this house?" "Can you make that again?"
Like a lot of people pasta is my "go to" when everyone is hungry but the larder appears bare. I must say that I do have things in my cupboard that many people wont as they wont use them very often. This evening I made Pasta Putannesca a.k.a Tarts Spaghetti but I added a tin of tuna and left out the olives as only two of us like olives. I used fresh garlic, dried chilli flakes, capers from a jar, tinned anchovies, tinned chopped tomatoes, dried oregano and tinned tuna. 7 happy faces including mine. Another favourite is pasta carbonara - cream, eggs, Parmigiano-Reggiano - it's what I've always used but similar hard cheese works and bacon - depends what I've got as to what type goes in. Sometimes I toss in cooked ham. I'd love to say I serve the two dishes with a wonderful fresh salad but I don't. The salad might be there but then again it might not...LOL What do other people make for dinner when the cupboard is bare? |
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#2 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 6,527
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We almost always have beans and tomatoes in the cupboard, so sometimes I'll open up those tins and warm them through in a pot, and in the frying pan I cook cut up sausages, onions, garlic, pepper, and mushrooms (I don't always have peppers and mushrooms but I always have onion and garlic). After the sausages are cooked, I add that to the pot of beans and tomatoes and simmer it for 15 minutes, adding s&p and some mixed herbs or cumin. It tastes great on its own or with rice, mash, or pasta. Very filling and it feeds the 4 of us for less than Ģ2. Can't beat that, and it's reasonably healthy.
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#3 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 3,669
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They're not really made from nothing but they are quite cheap and basic.
Egg fried rice - cooked rice, eggs, frozen peas, splash of soy sauce Pasta, tinned tomatoes, cheese Pasta, broccoli, peas, cheese Pan haggerty - potatoes, cheese and onions Omelettes with bits of things thrown into them Dahl Kidney bean and carrot burgers Beans on toast/ jacket potato, with a bit of cheese or an egg |
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#4 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Nottingham
Posts: 11,481
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That Pasta Putannesca sounds good actually - though searching for recipes would suggest that "Tarts" spaghetti is rather a cleaned up translation - it would appear it must have originated in the bordellos of Naples
![]() Being single I don't really have an emergency recipe - though beans or cheese on toast would probably fit the bill if I have bread. Otherwise its usually an excuse for a kebab or the chippy
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#5 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 10,699
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Soup. Big chunky soup made with all the veg I've left in the fridge. I've always got boxes of passata and usually add one to any soup I've made.
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#6 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Up North
Posts: 58,791
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Usually have potatoes in the cupboard.
So anything with chips, jacket spud, 'roasties' etc. Always have sausages or frozen chicken in the freezer. Plus frozen peas. Also have beans and marrow fat peas in the cupboard. So could easily knock up a fryup or a chicken dinner. The toastie maker is there if I have cheese that needs to be used up. Again, usually have bread in the freezer. Always have dried noodles in the cupboard and have plenty of condiments to knock up a sauce or marinade. Using up anything in the fridge - peppers, onions, mushrooms, some leftover meat etc. |
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#7 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 9,227
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I mostly take my inspiration from watching the family meals in Coronation Street.
Egg and chips, cheese on toast, beans on toast and anything that Deirdre knocks up.
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#8 |
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DS Project contestant
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: all @ sea no one can bother me
Posts: 3,870
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For me a tin of tuna is always welcome. Otherwise eggs, by themselves or with whateverīs left like scraps of cheese or cured ham. I donīt like pasta but often make it for others with a "tricolore" sauce/ topping consisting of the store cupboard standbys of pesto, passata and any cheese we have.
"Salads" are often rustled up from jars of grated carrot, beetroot, red pepper and white asparagus plus some olives. Not as healthy as fresh but they taste nice and give plenty of variation in taste, plus they add colour to the table. Also if we have some fresh onion we can make a salad that consists of sliced onion (I like to use red onion), tinned tomatoes, black olives, tuna and boiled egg (itīs called Murcian salad, or ensalada Murcia). Itīs delicious. Last edited by Trophy Wife : 10-07-2014 at 01:00. Reason: mistyped sauce |
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#9 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Gogledd Cymru
Posts: 238
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Pasta with philladelphia, mushrooms and those smoked sausages that are in a half ring. Always goes down well with the OH! Or Corned beef hash & tomato sauce
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#10 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 22,992
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Packet of chicken rice noodles, a tin of sweetcorn and peppers, and either sliced beef, chicken or tuna. My most common meal and what I eat at work everyday.
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#11 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 9,215
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Quote:
I mostly take my inspiration from watching the family meals in Coronation Street.
Egg and chips, cheese on toast, beans on toast and anything that Deirdre knocks up. ![]()
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#12 |
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Inactive Member
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 6,338
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Pasta, pesto, bacon, onion.
Boil pasta. Fry bacon and onion. Put pasta into bacon and onion. Stir through pesto. |
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#13 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Up North
Posts: 58,791
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Quote:
"Salads" are often rustled up from jars of grated carrot, beetroot, red pepper and white asparagus plus some olives. Not as healthy as fresh but they taste nice and give plenty of variation in taste, plus they add colour to the table.
One of my 'salads' is a takeaway salad for chips and/or kebab. Sliced onion, jarred picked red cabbage, shredded iceberg lettuce, garlic mayo or another dressing. |
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#14 |
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Join Date: Oct 2008
Posts: 2,068
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Another vote for tinned chopped tomatoes + onion + garlic + whatever, with pasta, rice, noodles or potatoes. In fact variations on that are the cornerstone of the Wombat household.
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#15 |
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Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 16,408
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We bought a rice cooker and one cup of rice goes a long way - you just need to devise something to go with it
Also adding a chicken stock cube (dissolved) before you cook adds a bit of colour and flavour to it
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#16 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 9,227
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Quote:
Do give us your stuffed marrow recipe
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#17 |
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DS Project contestant
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: all @ sea no one can bother me
Posts: 3,870
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Quote:
One of my 'salads' is a takeaway salad for chips and/or kebab.
Sliced onion, jarred picked red cabbage, shredded iceberg lettuce, garlic mayo or another dressing. Grated carrot is PROBABLY near the jars of beetroot in your supermarket, or near jars of olives? It is useful for making soup when I canīt be bothered to wash, peel, cut carrots etc. and also it goes soft faster in the soup pan. Not as healthy as fresh, though. |
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#18 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2013
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Quote:
Grated carrot is PROBABLY near the jars of beetroot in your supermarket, or near jars of olives? It is useful for making soup when I canīt be bothered to wash, peel, cut carrots etc. and also it goes soft faster in the soup pan. Not as healthy as fresh, though.
It'll be huge. You don't need to peel carrots (or cut them) if you're going to grate them. It's just a minute or two on a box grater. If you already have a processor it's just a whizz ![]() I'm not pretending we've never done it though, I'm just more conscious about chucking money at so called "convenience" food. I certainly sigh at punnets of sliced mushrooms
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#19 |
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DS Project contestant
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: all @ sea no one can bother me
Posts: 3,870
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Quote:
Next time you ponder pre-grated or fresh just compare the price per kilo or 100 grams.
It'll be huge. |
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#20 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 6,118
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Red lentils are my standby ingredient. As a bake with onion and herbs, in a curry, soup. I've even fashioned them into a flapjack-style desert on occasion.
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#21 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 1,887
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Quote:
I agree, but grated carrot is still pretty cheap and the jars are useful to keep in the store cupboard for when we run out of fresh.
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#22 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: The Sunny Side Of The Street
Posts: 40,106
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Boerenkool
Snert Parmigiana di melanzane |
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#23 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: The Sunny Side Of The Street
Posts: 40,106
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Quote:
Never knew they did jars of grated carrot!! Must give it a try.
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#24 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Up North
Posts: 58,791
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Quote:
Next time you ponder pre-grated or fresh just compare the price per kilo or 100 grams.
It'll be huge. You don't need to peel carrots (or cut them) if you're going to grate them. It's just a minute or two on a box grater. If you already have a processor it's just a whizz ![]() I'm not pretending we've never done it though, I'm just more conscious about chucking money at so called "convenience" food. I certainly sigh at punnets of sliced mushrooms ![]() That's why I buy pickled red cabbage. I do sometimes buy fresh, but try to find a small one. Usually I use half and then forget about it and have to chuck it out a few weeks later. |
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#25 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: #teamHELEN
Posts: 21,549
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Bean burgers. Blend 2 different kind of beans (not the baked kind lol) with lime juice, some herbs, form into burgers and bake.
Raw pasta. Spiralize a courgette (the pasta), then blend any left over veg you have to make the sauce. |
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