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Quick easy meals from very little - What do you make?


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Old 09-07-2014, 00:46
Pixie Queen
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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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Old 09-07-2014, 09:14
BlueEyedMrsP
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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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Old 09-07-2014, 09:51
DaisyBill
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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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Old 09-07-2014, 12:39
Shrike
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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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Old 09-07-2014, 13:10
postit
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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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Old 09-07-2014, 18:29
degsyhufc
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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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Old 09-07-2014, 23:29
Toby LaRhone
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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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Old 10-07-2014, 01:00
Trophy Wife
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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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Old 10-07-2014, 13:10
Renepoos
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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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Old 10-07-2014, 13:17
Pumping Iron
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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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Old 10-07-2014, 13:35
jojo01
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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.
Do give us your stuffed marrow recipe
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Old 10-07-2014, 14:49
Kiko H Fan
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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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Old 10-07-2014, 18:17
degsyhufc
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"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.
Never knew you could get grated carrot in jars.

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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Old 10-07-2014, 18:24
WombatDeath
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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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Old 10-07-2014, 18:26
Patti-Ann
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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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Old 10-07-2014, 22:04
Toby LaRhone
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Do give us your stuffed marrow recipe
Do you really want bulging eyeballs, a gravel voice and neck tendons like piano wire??
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Old 10-07-2014, 22:57
Trophy Wife
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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.
I actually love kebab shop salad (every once in a while). When my friends get a kebab I get a salad of onion, lettuce and cabbage (no dressing) and it is surprisingly tasty. Sometimes I get it in a warm pitta bread to make the drunken kebab eating experience more authentic - i.e. I can stuff it all in my face with my hands.

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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Old 11-07-2014, 00:39
Toby LaRhone
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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.
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
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Old 11-07-2014, 02:20
Trophy Wife
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Next time you ponder pre-grated or fresh just compare the price per kilo or 100 grams.
It'll be huge.
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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Old 11-07-2014, 13:39
Teddybleads
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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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Old 11-07-2014, 13:59
JJ75
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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.
Never knew they did jars of grated carrot!! Must give it a try.
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Old 11-07-2014, 17:24
stud u like
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Boerenkool
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Parmigiana di melanzane
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Old 11-07-2014, 17:26
stud u like
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Never knew they did jars of grated carrot!! Must give it a try.
I saw it listed in Morrisons today. None in stock and not in a jar but I guess could easily be transfered and pickled.
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Old 11-07-2014, 18:29
degsyhufc
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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
There's the opposite though. You might buy a bunch of carrots and have them rotting in the bottom of the fridge.

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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Old 11-07-2014, 20:05
brb
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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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