For roast potatoes, it’s amazing. Fondant potatoes, I’d imagine it is similarly better than butter or oil. However, it would be wasted on a regular stir fry, for instance.
The other reply pretty much sums it up. Use it in lieu of butter, not vegetable oil.
Any instance you’d use schmaltz or beef tallow, duck fat can be used without issue. Though I know they deep fry potato wedges in the stuff in Frendh Canada… I just don’t have that much fat at once to use it for deep frying haha
This is the recipe I use, I replaced all the fats with duck fat during my last prep of it, but I think it would have been improved slightly by using an herbed compound butter (or margarine, in my case, I chose duck fat and duck bacon for making this with the beef bourguingon for kosher reasons) for the butter they throw in before the potatoes go in the oven.
Well, I’m making a mushroom pasta right now… chopped some garlic, leek, shiitake, white button, portobello. Gonna sauté the mushrooms a bit with butter, sauté the garlic and leek with olive oil separately because the mushroom releases too much water, then make a béchamel (butter, flour, milk, and I also use heavy cream), mix them when they are ready, add salt, black pepper and perhaps paprika and voilà.
I felt like there was something missing so I picked some chives from my garden.
The pasta I’m making is an Italian Paganini “trafilata al bronzo”, might not be a big deal for Europeans, but is way better than anything local I have in my third world country.
No, I am not. I found it at a local meat store that sells all kinds of frozen foods and meats. They have bison, antelope, crocodile, etc, but yak was the only on there I had not tried.
I ate it last night. It was pretty good, but I think I messed up the recipe because the meatballs were a little dry.
I think I used a bit too much Italian seasoning, it reminded me more of a pork sausage than a beef sausage. It was a little gamey, but I prefer meat that way.
I guess just cook rice (using a rice cooker obviously, idk how they cook it before rice cookers, I never tried the old methods) and fry some eggs… 🤷♂️
You can use ketchup in stir fries the same way you’d use hoisin sauce or oyster sauce. Breaking it down, ketchup is tomato, vinegar, salt and sugar. I put it in after I’ve gotten the wok hei I want off the rice/veg/meat/egg, immediately after getting the food and fond off the sides of the wok with a lil shaoxing wine. Add in your sauces, toss to mix, sprinkle with scallion/chive/garlic scape greens, sesame seeds, serve.
I cooked rice in a pot for decades before my kids got me a rice cooker. It’s not much more complicated, and is quicker. Put rice in a pot, rinse it, cover with water by about 3/4 inch (from fingertip to first knuckle, yes? You have seen some old person sticking their finger in the rice? That is what we are measuring. )
Bring to a boil on high, cover and turn the heat way down to low (medium low if your stove sucks) Check it in 15 minutes if white rice, 45 if brown rice. If done, take it off the heat. If not, give it 5 more minutes on the burner then move it.
Chicken tikka masala, but I feel like I’m cheating, because we just went shopping earlier today and picked up everything we needed to make an alarmingly large batch.
Im also currently well stocked
Dairy free stroganoff
Chicken pot pie from home made bone broth
Chili casserole
Alfredo or other pasta combos
Birria or carne asada
Ham and brussel sprouts and potatoes from my garden
I don’t spend money on anything, I don’t have many vices. Food and drink are my only real ‘guilty’ indulgence. Plus I stocked up the pantry a bit the last several times there were supply chain concerns. There’s a couple dozen things I could make right now and could likely feed several people for a couple weeks if needed.
I can make a number of things, depending if I have time to thaw chicken or not. Otherwise it’ll be potato curry. With chicken it becomes…chicken curry (with potatoes and onions). Or I could bake some bread? Or we have cold cuts, so sandwiches. Or pasta, we have pasta sauce and noodles somewhere!
I have very small bottles of wine, decanted when we opened two different wines, if you have wine you have sauce.
Soy sauce and butter is pretty good for a sauce, miso butter is even better.
I dunno what your pantry holds but I think here we always have some way to make pretty good pasta of some sort. My kids live spaghetti fried in chili garlic paste.
Quiche! Flour, butter/crisco, eggs, cheese. If you have those you can make quiche.
Then you can customize it so easily. If you have multiple cheeses you can mix them however you want. And then you can toss in anything from leafy greens to bacon. Healthy or rich it’s so versatile.
You’re in luck, I went grocery shopping las saturday so I have options.
I could make some version of rissotto alla milanese, there’s also pasta and I could probably improvise a decent tomato sauce.
But since It is for dinner I would go with “bocata de lomo con queso”, that a quick internet search tells me that in English would be a pork loin with cheese sub.
The bread opened lengthwise, slightly toasted. Garlic and tomato rubbed on the inside, since I don’t have rubbing tomatoes I would improvise with diluting some concentrated tomato paste, olive oil and salt. Then pork tenderloin, cheese and glazed onions. And oregano.
Tonight, I made some fried chicken tenders from frozen fillets that I thawed, cleaned a bit, and then marinated in spiced rice wine vinegar. I used a simple cornstarch to egg dredge, and an all-purpose/rice flour breading with a shit ton of spices:
* MSG
* Table salt
* Garlic powder
* Onion powder
* White chili powder
* Freshly ground white and black pepper
* Dried chives
* Sage
* Cilantro, garlic, lime salt mix
* Baking powder for the crispies
* Don’t forget to drip some egg into the breading for extra crunchiness!
Used an 8-inch pan and peanut oil for the frying.
Whole thing took about half an hour, and I was happier than a pig in slop
One of like eight types of pasta with one of like eight types of sauce. Tuna salad, creamed tuna on toast. One of about twelve different types of soup. Beans, rice, stir fry, hot dogs, burritos, turkey with stuffing, pasties, butternut squash bread, pancakes or waffles with honey and homemade raspberry jam, about ten different types of scones, about 17 different types of bread, almond cake with poppyseed and lemon, brownies, hummus, chips with salsa, veggies with green goddess dip, brie on crackers with quince paste, a bunch of different types of eggs, baked Asian pears stuffed with dates, sweet potatoes baked with apples, cinnamon roasted baked potatoes, feta stuffed tomatoes, a bunch of different types of sandwiches, pickled beets, garlic bread (mozzarella, marinara, or both optional), plain or vegetable pizza, vegetable salad with like six different dressings, pasta salad, sweet potato salad, roasted sweet potatoes, and stuffed peppers.
That’s the stuff I remember I have the ingredients for without actually getting up and checking stuff, I’m certain I could make more if I went and checked.
Side story: I’ve always kept a pantry which I’d refill during my weekly grocery shopping, and I’d always put extras in the freezer when I make stuff.
Years ago, I got really depressed and decided that, this one week, I’d eat out of the freezer instead of getting new stuff (the freezer was for like backup meals when I didn’t feel like cooking, the pantry was for staples when I did feel like cooking). The following week, I was like, “The food thing went well and I’m still depressed, I’m not gonna shop this week either!”
As I went through stuff, I found partially-forgotten and partially-used items that had been sitting around for a while. And at some point, I decided I was going to eat through u stores instead of buying any new stuff. The challenge began.
In the beginning, it was easy: I had lots of ingredients and could make lots of dishes, and there was a bunch of premade stuff in the freezer, along with a whole stash of various frozen vegetables.
But as time went on, I had to start getting creative, the way our ancestors did. I ran out of flour and made a fairly decent pizza with an oatmeal crust. I made pasta and seasoned it with salad dressing. I started rather liberally substituting in different spices.
After about two months of increasingly odd meals, I hit desperation times. I ran out of vegetables and meats, in almost all their forms. I still had a stash of pasta and rice, some bouillon cubes, and an odd array of various half-used things I had bought either on a whim or to make a single recipe.
That last month was hard. It was all carbs, and I was starting to become malnourished, but I soldiered on, just eating my way through everything.
I still remember that final day, when I opened the freezer and it was empty, the fridge contained a half-dozen bottles with the drugs of condiments in them, and the contents of the pantry consisted of one unopened jar of garlic powder and some salt.
I threw away the condiments, thoroughly cleaned the fridge, and went to the grocery store.
Reader, I had not left my apartment except to get the mail for over three months. The grocery store was bright, and a riot of color and sounds! Having not had fruits or veggies for over a month, the produce section was so seductive! Oranges! Pineapples! Bananas! Apples! I wanted them all, and there was nothing to stop me!
I went up and down every aisle, restocking my pantry of everything from butter and spices, soup bases to beans. I spent something like $600, and it was one of the best shopping experiences of my life.
And then I got home and realized I’d bought the normal account of apples I would’ve if I’d had a sudden urge for apples. And that would’ve been okay, if I hadn’t also bought the same “urge-satisfying” amount of bananas, and oranges and strawberries and …
It was a huge effort to get through all the fruit before it went bad, but I did that as well, and I loved it.
Anyway, OP, to answer a question you didn’t ask: based on previous experience and the current contents of my house, I’m pretty sure I have enough food for about four months, even if I don’t buy anything new. But, yeah, the recipes will get increasingly weird as time progresses, and the last carb-heavy month will be somewhat grim.
I’m really well stocked as well, so reading your story I wonder how long it would take for me to get through it all. I have been trying, but not hard enough. I am aiming to move overseas within 2 months so I’m not taking any of it with me. I’m sure I can give some of it away but I really need to try harder to use it up.
I got a cupboard full of basic staple ingredients and a freezer full of meat, veg and leftovers. I think I can last a week, if not two, if I really have to. And that’s for a family of three.
Also if you haven’t tried it take a look at “soy meat” it’s basically dried tofu and it’s a popular meat substitute in Mexico. Once cooked it has the texture like ground beef, but since it’s a spongey material when dry it soaks up flavor like none other. I like to cut it 50:50 with ground beef and soak it in a slightly different spice mix than the rest of the dish for things like sloppy joes and chili.
Yesterday I made a frittata with onions, carrot, ham (from Christmas, diced and frozen), kale that I grew myself, cheese and eggs from my family’s chickens. I don’t mean to brag but it was outstanding, and big enough that I had it again for dinner tonight. It was maybe a bit dense because I used too small of a bowl to properly whisk the eggs but it was still great.
But if I had to make something else it would probably be a chicken, veg and lentils soup. I generally keep 6mo worth of food in either chest freezer or pantry shelf stable, and quite a wide variety so I generally have a pretty wide choice of what to eat. I haven’t been to the supermarket in almost 2 weeks, and I’ve almost run out of fresh veg, but I have a lot frozen so I’ll be fine for another week at least.
I have some leftover burger patties and chicken from a couple days ago so I plan to have some leftovers. But I keep a well stocked freezer and dry pantry too. Right now what I am working on making is chicken pot pie filling, the chicken meat and broth is from a leftover slow long cooked Costco chicken. I make the filling and freeze it, and keep crusts in the fridge most of the time so it’s really easy to assemble.
That’s the main way I cook because I’m usually not good enough of a planner to buy groceries with a plan in mind for more than maybe 1 or 2 meals. So we are always stocked up pretty well for what little space we have in our flat.
Yesterday we made quesadillas with gluten-free tortillas, kimchi, thinly sliced fried spam, and smoked cheese. All stuff we happened to have in our pantry. This was better than it had any right to be.
I can also make vegitarian maki (sushi), spam musubi, or korean gimbap with a bit more prep work. We also always have Korean sides (pickled radish, cucumber, and more) on hand to throw together healthy meals fast.
If push comes to shove, I can just thaw some ground beef out, season it up, and throw it on rice.
If I’m feeling really lazy: peanut butter straight out of the jar. Don’t @ me.
Disclaimer: I can’t eat wheat, so my whole diet got up and (mostly) moved to Southeast Asia to compensate.
I’ve always got self preserved vegetables and fruits. I would likely make a quick roux and then turn it into vegetable soup. Throw some kind of pasta in there.
Pasta. Probably tortellini, but I have several options. In pesto because that’s my favorite, plus I don’t have any marinara or similar. My youngest would vote or a lemon-butter-garlic instead. I usually throw in bell peppers and spinach
It’ll likely be short on protein but my oldest had wisdom teeth removed last week so I’m sticking with softer foods
PieFed.World
toomanypancakes
Fish fragrant eggplant
Mapo tofu
Dumpling soup
Chicken veggie stir fry
Fondant potatoes (fried in duck fat mmmm)
Beef bourguingon (or whatever it’s called, the wine meat stew)
Black bean soup
French onion soup
Ropa vieja (with chicken)
I could go on but that’s what comes to mind quickly.
I’ll be there in an hour.
How is frying with duck fat compared to other fats?
For roast potatoes, it’s amazing. Fondant potatoes, I’d imagine it is similarly better than butter or oil. However, it would be wasted on a regular stir fry, for instance.
The other reply pretty much sums it up. Use it in lieu of butter, not vegetable oil.
Any instance you’d use schmaltz or beef tallow, duck fat can be used without issue. Though I know they deep fry potato wedges in the stuff in Frendh Canada… I just don’t have that much fat at once to use it for deep frying haha
It didn’t occur to me to use duck fat for fondant potatoes! I have some fat in the freezer oh hell yeah
https://www.seriouseats.com/fondant-potatoes-recipe-5217320
This is the recipe I use, I replaced all the fats with duck fat during my last prep of it, but I think it would have been improved slightly by using an herbed compound butter (or margarine, in my case, I chose duck fat and duck bacon for making this with the beef bourguingon for kosher reasons) for the butter they throw in before the potatoes go in the oven.
Frozen pizza a’la Aldi
Well, I’m making a mushroom pasta right now… chopped some garlic, leek, shiitake, white button, portobello. Gonna sauté the mushrooms a bit with butter, sauté the garlic and leek with olive oil separately because the mushroom releases too much water, then make a béchamel (butter, flour, milk, and I also use heavy cream), mix them when they are ready, add salt, black pepper and perhaps paprika and voilà.
I felt like there was something missing so I picked some chives from my garden.
The pasta I’m making is an Italian Paganini “trafilata al bronzo”, might not be a big deal for Europeans, but is way better than anything local I have in my third world country.
White rice with 2 poached eggs and some chili oil.
Spaghetti aglio e olio.
This is my go-to “can’t be arsed to cook properly” dish. But I add peperoncino as well. Like a nice fiery rawit chilli.
Basta pasta
Fusilli, with homemade pasta sauce from tomatoes I grew over the summer, topped with yak meatballs.
This is actually what I plan on making for dinner 😁
Are you in a part of the world where yak meat is commonplace?
No, I am not. I found it at a local meat store that sells all kinds of frozen foods and meats. They have bison, antelope, crocodile, etc, but yak was the only on there I had not tried.
I ate it last night. It was pretty good, but I think I messed up the recipe because the meatballs were a little dry.
Is it beef like? Gamey at all?
I think I used a bit too much Italian seasoning, it reminded me more of a pork sausage than a beef sausage. It was a little gamey, but I prefer meat that way.
Bruh, I cant make shit.
I guess just cook rice (using a rice cooker obviously, idk how they cook it before rice cookers, I never tried the old methods) and fry some eggs… 🤷♂️
I suck at “being an adult”
Fry the rice and egg up together with some soy sauce, add some garlic in whatever form, bonus points if you have any white pepper, suddenly elevated.
Or even just some ketchup, make omurice, can’t go wrong.
Ketchup wtf
that ruins the egg lol
Nah just the eggs are fine, sprinkle some salt and its good
Hey, it’s a thing, blame the Japanese!
You fry the rice in ketchup, serve it in an omelette. Optionally top with more ketchup.
Can sub the ketchup for demi-glace if that is more palettable, but that’s way more effort than I’m willing to put in for lazy time breakfast food.
Omurice is awesome! Sounds terrible but is great. I frying some chopped onion and adding to the rice.
Tell me more about this. Any other tips? Soy sauce?
You can use ketchup in stir fries the same way you’d use hoisin sauce or oyster sauce. Breaking it down, ketchup is tomato, vinegar, salt and sugar. I put it in after I’ve gotten the wok hei I want off the rice/veg/meat/egg, immediately after getting the food and fond off the sides of the wok with a lil shaoxing wine. Add in your sauces, toss to mix, sprinkle with scallion/chive/garlic scape greens, sesame seeds, serve.
I cooked rice in a pot for decades before my kids got me a rice cooker. It’s not much more complicated, and is quicker. Put rice in a pot, rinse it, cover with water by about 3/4 inch (from fingertip to first knuckle, yes? You have seen some old person sticking their finger in the rice? That is what we are measuring. )
Bring to a boil on high, cover and turn the heat way down to low (medium low if your stove sucks) Check it in 15 minutes if white rice, 45 if brown rice. If done, take it off the heat. If not, give it 5 more minutes on the burner then move it.
Chicken tikka masala, but I feel like I’m cheating, because we just went shopping earlier today and picked up everything we needed to make an alarmingly large batch.
Deleted by moderator
Im also currently well stocked
Dairy free stroganoff
Chicken pot pie from home made bone broth
Chili casserole
Alfredo or other pasta combos
Birria or carne asada
Ham and brussel sprouts and potatoes from my garden
I don’t spend money on anything, I don’t have many vices. Food and drink are my only real ‘guilty’ indulgence. Plus I stocked up the pantry a bit the last several times there were supply chain concerns. There’s a couple dozen things I could make right now and could likely feed several people for a couple weeks if needed.
Did you take the time to inventory the food in your home?
Not in full, but there is a bit of sending the kids to check if we have this or that.
That’s genius!
I can make a number of things, depending if I have time to thaw chicken or not. Otherwise it’ll be potato curry. With chicken it becomes…chicken curry (with potatoes and onions). Or I could bake some bread? Or we have cold cuts, so sandwiches. Or pasta, we have pasta sauce and noodles somewhere!
I will give my guest a three course meal!
Pasta
For example, I’d wind up with sauceless pasta, beans, and frozen broccoli for a meal
Do you have olive oil or butter? You have sauce.
I have very small bottles of wine, decanted when we opened two different wines, if you have wine you have sauce.
Soy sauce and butter is pretty good for a sauce, miso butter is even better.
I dunno what your pantry holds but I think here we always have some way to make pretty good pasta of some sort. My kids live spaghetti fried in chili garlic paste.
Depression pasta… Again.
Ice soup.
Don’t burn it.
Rainbow stew
A sandwich possibly tuna, possibly ham and cheese. Grocery day is tomorrow
We just got soup. So probably soup with like spices or something.
And dont you all dare make soup into something like beans or corn or whatever.
Dinner of THE GODS! (Peanut butter & Ritz crackers)
Do frozen meals count? If so, pizza. If not, I guess burritos with rice, beans, cheese, grilled onion, avocado, and lemon.
Quiche! Flour, butter/crisco, eggs, cheese. If you have those you can make quiche.
Then you can customize it so easily. If you have multiple cheeses you can mix them however you want. And then you can toss in anything from leafy greens to bacon. Healthy or rich it’s so versatile.
Beans and rice, we always have beans and rice. Today I also have sauerkraut, kielbasa and pierogi so I can make exactly what is planned.
But at any time, can make beans & rice of some sort.
You’re in luck, I went grocery shopping las saturday so I have options.
I could make some version of rissotto alla milanese, there’s also pasta and I could probably improvise a decent tomato sauce.
But since It is for dinner I would go with “bocata de lomo con queso”, that a quick internet search tells me that in English would be a pork loin with cheese sub.
The bread opened lengthwise, slightly toasted. Garlic and tomato rubbed on the inside, since I don’t have rubbing tomatoes I would improvise with diluting some concentrated tomato paste, olive oil and salt. Then pork tenderloin, cheese and glazed onions. And oregano.
Tonight, I made some fried chicken tenders from frozen fillets that I thawed, cleaned a bit, and then marinated in spiced rice wine vinegar. I used a simple cornstarch to egg dredge, and an all-purpose/rice flour breading with a shit ton of spices:
* MSG
* Table salt
* Garlic powder
* Onion powder
* White chili powder
* Freshly ground white and black pepper
* Dried chives
* Sage
* Cilantro, garlic, lime salt mix
* Baking powder for the crispies
* Don’t forget to drip some egg into the breading for extra crunchiness!
Used an 8-inch pan and peanut oil for the frying.
Whole thing took about half an hour, and I was happier than a pig in slop
Crack cocaine souffle
Rice, corn, beans, fried chicken and half an onion.
Well I just made gumbo, so that
One of like eight types of pasta with one of like eight types of sauce. Tuna salad, creamed tuna on toast. One of about twelve different types of soup. Beans, rice, stir fry, hot dogs, burritos, turkey with stuffing, pasties, butternut squash bread, pancakes or waffles with honey and homemade raspberry jam, about ten different types of scones, about 17 different types of bread, almond cake with poppyseed and lemon, brownies, hummus, chips with salsa, veggies with green goddess dip, brie on crackers with quince paste, a bunch of different types of eggs, baked Asian pears stuffed with dates, sweet potatoes baked with apples, cinnamon roasted baked potatoes, feta stuffed tomatoes, a bunch of different types of sandwiches, pickled beets, garlic bread (mozzarella, marinara, or both optional), plain or vegetable pizza, vegetable salad with like six different dressings, pasta salad, sweet potato salad, roasted sweet potatoes, and stuffed peppers.
That’s the stuff I remember I have the ingredients for without actually getting up and checking stuff, I’m certain I could make more if I went and checked.
Side story: I’ve always kept a pantry which I’d refill during my weekly grocery shopping, and I’d always put extras in the freezer when I make stuff.
Years ago, I got really depressed and decided that, this one week, I’d eat out of the freezer instead of getting new stuff (the freezer was for like backup meals when I didn’t feel like cooking, the pantry was for staples when I did feel like cooking). The following week, I was like, “The food thing went well and I’m still depressed, I’m not gonna shop this week either!”
As I went through stuff, I found partially-forgotten and partially-used items that had been sitting around for a while. And at some point, I decided I was going to eat through u stores instead of buying any new stuff. The challenge began.
In the beginning, it was easy: I had lots of ingredients and could make lots of dishes, and there was a bunch of premade stuff in the freezer, along with a whole stash of various frozen vegetables.
But as time went on, I had to start getting creative, the way our ancestors did. I ran out of flour and made a fairly decent pizza with an oatmeal crust. I made pasta and seasoned it with salad dressing. I started rather liberally substituting in different spices.
After about two months of increasingly odd meals, I hit desperation times. I ran out of vegetables and meats, in almost all their forms. I still had a stash of pasta and rice, some bouillon cubes, and an odd array of various half-used things I had bought either on a whim or to make a single recipe.
That last month was hard. It was all carbs, and I was starting to become malnourished, but I soldiered on, just eating my way through everything.
I still remember that final day, when I opened the freezer and it was empty, the fridge contained a half-dozen bottles with the drugs of condiments in them, and the contents of the pantry consisted of one unopened jar of garlic powder and some salt.
I threw away the condiments, thoroughly cleaned the fridge, and went to the grocery store.
Reader, I had not left my apartment except to get the mail for over three months. The grocery store was bright, and a riot of color and sounds! Having not had fruits or veggies for over a month, the produce section was so seductive! Oranges! Pineapples! Bananas! Apples! I wanted them all, and there was nothing to stop me!
I went up and down every aisle, restocking my pantry of everything from butter and spices, soup bases to beans. I spent something like $600, and it was one of the best shopping experiences of my life.
And then I got home and realized I’d bought the normal account of apples I would’ve if I’d had a sudden urge for apples. And that would’ve been okay, if I hadn’t also bought the same “urge-satisfying” amount of bananas, and oranges and strawberries and …
It was a huge effort to get through all the fruit before it went bad, but I did that as well, and I loved it.
Anyway, OP, to answer a question you didn’t ask: based on previous experience and the current contents of my house, I’m pretty sure I have enough food for about four months, even if I don’t buy anything new. But, yeah, the recipes will get increasingly weird as time progresses, and the last carb-heavy month will be somewhat grim.
I’m really well stocked as well, so reading your story I wonder how long it would take for me to get through it all. I have been trying, but not hard enough. I am aiming to move overseas within 2 months so I’m not taking any of it with me. I’m sure I can give some of it away but I really need to try harder to use it up.
I have some hopping John leftovers I have to finish.
I got a cupboard full of basic staple ingredients and a freezer full of meat, veg and leftovers. I think I can last a week, if not two, if I really have to. And that’s for a family of three.
What are you? My alt account?
Also if you haven’t tried it take a look at “soy meat” it’s basically dried tofu and it’s a popular meat substitute in Mexico. Once cooked it has the texture like ground beef, but since it’s a spongey material when dry it soaks up flavor like none other. I like to cut it 50:50 with ground beef and soak it in a slightly different spice mix than the rest of the dish for things like sloppy joes and chili.
Thanks for the tip! I haven’t tried soy meat yet. I usually use 50% lentils when I want to stretch ground beef
Tacos, probably. I could stretch to other dishes, but tacos are where my mind is.
Risotto plus some random protein, not sure which but I have options.
Risotto is easy to make and doesn’t look like much, but it’s hard to say no to pure carbs, butter, and cheese.
Risotto isn’t complex per se, but 20-30 minute of stiring/babysitting isn’t exactly easy.
It takes time but it’s really not hard
Yesterday I made a frittata with onions, carrot, ham (from Christmas, diced and frozen), kale that I grew myself, cheese and eggs from my family’s chickens. I don’t mean to brag but it was outstanding, and big enough that I had it again for dinner tonight. It was maybe a bit dense because I used too small of a bowl to properly whisk the eggs but it was still great.
But if I had to make something else it would probably be a chicken, veg and lentils soup. I generally keep 6mo worth of food in either chest freezer or pantry shelf stable, and quite a wide variety so I generally have a pretty wide choice of what to eat. I haven’t been to the supermarket in almost 2 weeks, and I’ve almost run out of fresh veg, but I have a lot frozen so I’ll be fine for another week at least.
Pasta Napoli
Chili sin carne
Tofu Tika Masala
Spaghetti Cacio e pepe
…
Channa Masala, spiced lentils, felafel, pork belly ramen, chicken yakisoba, pork dumplings, sirloin tip fajitas, Dahl, butternut squash bisque, chicken soup, meatloaf.
I’ve got steak, salmon, sole, chicken nuggets, tater tots, burger patties, hamburger, pork tenderloin and 2 chickens in the freezer.
A 10 pound bag of potatoes which can be cook several ways.
Tons of canned goods, rice, mac n cheese (white variety).
If I’m feeling lazy - peanut butter sandwiches.
I could list off all the combos but it’s time to make dinner.
Lemon Chicken w/ Black Beans and Rice or some other canned vegetable if I’m out of beans
I have some leftover burger patties and chicken from a couple days ago so I plan to have some leftovers. But I keep a well stocked freezer and dry pantry too. Right now what I am working on making is chicken pot pie filling, the chicken meat and broth is from a leftover slow long cooked Costco chicken. I make the filling and freeze it, and keep crusts in the fridge most of the time so it’s really easy to assemble.
Tonight is leftover night.
Chicken in Red Thai Curry sauce over rice that I made this past weekend.
Tuesday is tacos, Wednesday will be grilled cheese with tomato soup and Thursday will be spaghetti.
I could prepare meals for the next several weeks with what is on hand, dependent on how many people I’m feeding.
Maultaschen with broccoli and cheese sauce, ergo yesterday’s leftovers.
I can make pretty basic burritos. Alfredo sauce with pasta. Basic caesar salad. Cookies. Budget chicken noodle soup.
That’s the main way I cook because I’m usually not good enough of a planner to buy groceries with a plan in mind for more than maybe 1 or 2 meals. So we are always stocked up pretty well for what little space we have in our flat.
Yesterday we made quesadillas with gluten-free tortillas, kimchi, thinly sliced fried spam, and smoked cheese. All stuff we happened to have in our pantry. This was better than it had any right to be.
I can also make vegitarian maki (sushi), spam musubi, or korean gimbap with a bit more prep work. We also always have Korean sides (pickled radish, cucumber, and more) on hand to throw together healthy meals fast.
If push comes to shove, I can just thaw some ground beef out, season it up, and throw it on rice.
If I’m feeling really lazy: peanut butter straight out of the jar. Don’t @ me.
Disclaimer: I can’t eat wheat, so my whole diet got up and (mostly) moved to Southeast Asia to compensate.
Oooooh, maybe I should make quesadillas
My youngest loves them. My older kid can’t eat them because he recently had wisdom teeth removed but we have leftover soup or mac&cheese
I’ve always got self preserved vegetables and fruits. I would likely make a quick roux and then turn it into vegetable soup. Throw some kind of pasta in there.
A bagel and some fruit.
Pasta. Probably tortellini, but I have several options. In pesto because that’s my favorite, plus I don’t have any marinara or similar. My youngest would vote or a lemon-butter-garlic instead. I usually throw in bell peppers and spinach
It’ll likely be short on protein but my oldest had wisdom teeth removed last week so I’m sticking with softer foods