Shelter at home food
In lieu of my weekly menu plan, because we are still working on the one I made two weeks ago, I thought I should write about cooking from a pantry filled with staples. Probably, I really should have written this four weeks ago when everyone was thinking about stocking up so they wouldn't need to leave their homes as much. But, perhaps you now have a pantry full of food that seemed like a good idea to have, but now are wondering what to do with it. I'll try to go through what I assume people would stock up on. It is by no means a definitive list, and actually not even a thought out one as the idea occurred to me when I sat down to write tonight's post. We'll see what I come up with.
Rice
I keep several kinds of rice in my pantry... jasmine, basmati, arborio, and brown. The jasmine I use as a default rice and for stir-fries; the basmati for more Indian-spiced dishes; arborio is for risotto; and the brown is for a base for grain bowls. But, I was given fifty pounds of just plain old medium grain white rice when I picked up my wholesale order, so I have a lot of rice. What to do with it?
Growing up, we would have white rice and butter as a side dish. This is always a possibility. More likely, I will just get in the habit of cooking a couple of cups of rice in the morning because many of my people enjoy making themselves fried rice for either breakfast or lunch. They are pretty insatiable in this regard, so I imagine this will make a significant dent in the fifty pounds. J. will also make rice congee in the morning for people sometimes. (I asked him for his recipe, but he makes it differently every time... rice with a significantly higher proportion of water to rice, chicken bouillon, whatever Asian condiments he happens to grab. He suggests googling a congee recipe.)
Rice can be added to soups, added to ground meat (cooked) to make meatballs, or as something to serve any number of vegetable or meat and vegetable dishes over. We also will do a sort of Asian taco bar, except instead of tortillas we'll use rice paper wrappers, cooked meat (usually pork), fresh herbs, rice, and hoisin sauce or a nuoc cham (Vietnamese dipping sauce). These are all set on the table, and each person wraps their own.
If you have too much cooked rice (though it has been years since that has happened around here), you can freeze it in one cup amounts to add to other dishes without having to cook some.
Pasta
Based on how empty the pasta shelves were at the stores, I know for a fact many people have pasta on their shelves. Sure you can always match that pasta with a jar of bottled sauce, but that gets old after a while. Like rice, pasta is the perfect base for any number of toppings. Roast some vegetables and throw in some olive oil and garlic. (This will use up any of those long keeping root vegetables you might have stocked up on as well.) You can add it to soup, serve chili over it, or add beans to it for (pasta e fagioli). It can also be the base for a cold salad.
Make homemade macaroni and cheese. It's pretty simple and I think tastes far superior to a boxed mix. You'll have to make a cheese sauce, but if you can master this than you're good anytime you see instructions to make a white sauce. Same thing, but with cheese added. Want a recipe? This is for baked macaroni and cheese and will make two 9 x 13's. (Halve it if you think it is too much.)
Melt one stick (8 TBSP) of butter in a heavy saucepan. Add 8 TBSP of flour, whisk to combine and cook for a moment. Then, over medium heat, slowly whisk in 4 cups of milk. (If your heat is too high, you will break your sauce. It will taste fine, but will look ugly. Btdt) Continue stirring until the sauce starts to thicken. At that point, I add a healthy dose of Worcestershire sauce, some dehydrated minced onion, and some dry mustard. Stir a bit more, then add in 16 oz of shredded cheddar until melted and well blended. Turn off heat and set-aside.
In the meantime, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and heat a pot of water in a large pot . When it boils, add in two pounds of macaroni; cook for 10 minutes. When done, drain well and add the cheese sauce into the noodles. Mix well. Divide between two sprayed 9 x 13 pans, top with wheat germ if you have it. (I will also serve french fried onions with it, but in a bowl on the table so people have a choice.) Bake for about 20 minutes.
Finally, if you have leftover pasta, you can make spaghetti (or whatever pasta) omelets. They are just like a regular omelet except you heat the noodles in your pan and then add your eggs and other toppings as you normally would. My people will also just heat up plain pasta for lunch and top with olive oil and Parmesan.
Potatoes
Your options are pretty limitless. I try to always have potatoes on hand because they are so useful. There are the standards... baked potatoes (which can be made into a meal if you add enough toppings to make a baked potato bar), mashed potatoes, oven fries, or over roasted garlic potatoes. (For the last, cube your potatoes, mix well with olive oil, a little salt, and a healthy dose of chopped garlic. Put in a sprayed 9 x 13 and roast in a hot oven until brown and crispy, stirring every now and then.) You can add cubed potatoes to any number of soups or use them as a base for the soup. (I make a spicy potato soup which has cubed potatoes,chopped onions, ground beef, pureed tomatoes, with your choice of hot sauce.)
They are great for an almost instant lunch. Chop them and fry them adding whatever you have on hand. Many of my children will do this for their own lunches. The trick is to dice them small enough so that they cook all the way in the skillet. Another version of this is to use leftover baked potatoes and make a hash for dinner. This is perfect if you have little bits of leftovers... meat, vegetables, etc. Chop the potatoes and the other leftovers and saute it all in a large skillet. Once it is brown, crack eggs over the top and cover until the eggs are the desired doneness.
Another family favorite are latkes (or potato pancakes if you prefer). These are a little time intensive if you are feeding a crowd, but they are good. Leftover mashed potatoes (once again, that doesn't happen much around here) can be mixed with some vegetables (if you have some chopped ham it would be good, too) and shaped into patties, browning them in some oil.
___
These seem to be to be some of the top stock up foods. If I've missed one that you are wondering what to do with, let me know. I'll see what I can come up with.
A couple more things about cooking out of your pantry instead of running to the store all the time. The first, and biggest, is make complete use of the food you have, and this most definitely includes leftovers. If you know leftovers are not going to be eaten as they are, you need to make plans for them. This often means adding other ingredients or seasonings to turn them into something else. Even small bits should be saved. As I mentioned above, soups, hashes, pastas, stir-fries can all be made more interesting by adding the little bits of what is in the refrigerator. If you can't think of a plan for, say, the 1/4 cup of green beans from dinner, start a freezer bag for leftover vegetables. (I do the same thing for little bits of leftover meat when I have them for the same reason.) Just throw them in the bag which lives in the freezer. When it is full, you have an awesome start to some pot pies. These can be a pain to make because there are so many different parts which need to be cooked, but if you have cooked vegetables on hand, it is a little bit easier.
Try to think of meat as a condiment. What I mean by that is you can stretch meat by not assuming each person is going to get their own large piece. Use other things to stretch it. Tonight we had a steak salad. It was steak on spaghetti with a ponzo dressing and green onions. It doesn't sound like much to read about it, but it is very good. I fed 11 people, but only thawed a few steaks. Each person got a small amount of steak and much larger amount of pasta. Everyone survived and everyone had enough food. It also means that I still have steak in my freezer for another several meals rather than using it all up on just one or two. For some families this might require a shift in expectations, but it also means you spend less and use fewer food stuffs. If you are concerned about going to the store, this makes sense.
Finally, don't be afraid to substitute. I know in times when life is easier and the checkbook is happy, if I'm making a recipe and realize I'm missing an ingredient listed, I don't think twice about sending someone out to go pick up the one item from the store. It's not frugal and these days it's not smart. The truth is, there is rarely something listed in a recipe (as long as it is not a main ingredient, choose a different recipe in that case) that cannot be left out or substituted without harm. I actually think that this is really how people learn to cook (as opposed to just blindly following a written recipe); the trial and error of seeing what happens with a recipe is changed. Sure, sometimes things don't work out as well as you would like, but truly this is not very often. Sometimes things are improved. If that's the case, make sure you make a note on the recipe so you can repeat it. Trust me when I say you won't remember the next time you make it. This can also make the daily-ness of cooking meals have some creativity involved, and anytime you can make some activity creative, you have made it more interesting to do.
Try to see pantry cooking as an adventure or at least your home version of a cooking show. Then you can focus on what you do have rather than focusing on the food you cannot have at the moment.
Rice
I keep several kinds of rice in my pantry... jasmine, basmati, arborio, and brown. The jasmine I use as a default rice and for stir-fries; the basmati for more Indian-spiced dishes; arborio is for risotto; and the brown is for a base for grain bowls. But, I was given fifty pounds of just plain old medium grain white rice when I picked up my wholesale order, so I have a lot of rice. What to do with it?
Growing up, we would have white rice and butter as a side dish. This is always a possibility. More likely, I will just get in the habit of cooking a couple of cups of rice in the morning because many of my people enjoy making themselves fried rice for either breakfast or lunch. They are pretty insatiable in this regard, so I imagine this will make a significant dent in the fifty pounds. J. will also make rice congee in the morning for people sometimes. (I asked him for his recipe, but he makes it differently every time... rice with a significantly higher proportion of water to rice, chicken bouillon, whatever Asian condiments he happens to grab. He suggests googling a congee recipe.)
Rice can be added to soups, added to ground meat (cooked) to make meatballs, or as something to serve any number of vegetable or meat and vegetable dishes over. We also will do a sort of Asian taco bar, except instead of tortillas we'll use rice paper wrappers, cooked meat (usually pork), fresh herbs, rice, and hoisin sauce or a nuoc cham (Vietnamese dipping sauce). These are all set on the table, and each person wraps their own.
If you have too much cooked rice (though it has been years since that has happened around here), you can freeze it in one cup amounts to add to other dishes without having to cook some.
Pasta
Based on how empty the pasta shelves were at the stores, I know for a fact many people have pasta on their shelves. Sure you can always match that pasta with a jar of bottled sauce, but that gets old after a while. Like rice, pasta is the perfect base for any number of toppings. Roast some vegetables and throw in some olive oil and garlic. (This will use up any of those long keeping root vegetables you might have stocked up on as well.) You can add it to soup, serve chili over it, or add beans to it for (pasta e fagioli). It can also be the base for a cold salad.
Make homemade macaroni and cheese. It's pretty simple and I think tastes far superior to a boxed mix. You'll have to make a cheese sauce, but if you can master this than you're good anytime you see instructions to make a white sauce. Same thing, but with cheese added. Want a recipe? This is for baked macaroni and cheese and will make two 9 x 13's. (Halve it if you think it is too much.)
Melt one stick (8 TBSP) of butter in a heavy saucepan. Add 8 TBSP of flour, whisk to combine and cook for a moment. Then, over medium heat, slowly whisk in 4 cups of milk. (If your heat is too high, you will break your sauce. It will taste fine, but will look ugly. Btdt) Continue stirring until the sauce starts to thicken. At that point, I add a healthy dose of Worcestershire sauce, some dehydrated minced onion, and some dry mustard. Stir a bit more, then add in 16 oz of shredded cheddar until melted and well blended. Turn off heat and set-aside.
In the meantime, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and heat a pot of water in a large pot . When it boils, add in two pounds of macaroni; cook for 10 minutes. When done, drain well and add the cheese sauce into the noodles. Mix well. Divide between two sprayed 9 x 13 pans, top with wheat germ if you have it. (I will also serve french fried onions with it, but in a bowl on the table so people have a choice.) Bake for about 20 minutes.
Finally, if you have leftover pasta, you can make spaghetti (or whatever pasta) omelets. They are just like a regular omelet except you heat the noodles in your pan and then add your eggs and other toppings as you normally would. My people will also just heat up plain pasta for lunch and top with olive oil and Parmesan.
Potatoes
Your options are pretty limitless. I try to always have potatoes on hand because they are so useful. There are the standards... baked potatoes (which can be made into a meal if you add enough toppings to make a baked potato bar), mashed potatoes, oven fries, or over roasted garlic potatoes. (For the last, cube your potatoes, mix well with olive oil, a little salt, and a healthy dose of chopped garlic. Put in a sprayed 9 x 13 and roast in a hot oven until brown and crispy, stirring every now and then.) You can add cubed potatoes to any number of soups or use them as a base for the soup. (I make a spicy potato soup which has cubed potatoes,chopped onions, ground beef, pureed tomatoes, with your choice of hot sauce.)
They are great for an almost instant lunch. Chop them and fry them adding whatever you have on hand. Many of my children will do this for their own lunches. The trick is to dice them small enough so that they cook all the way in the skillet. Another version of this is to use leftover baked potatoes and make a hash for dinner. This is perfect if you have little bits of leftovers... meat, vegetables, etc. Chop the potatoes and the other leftovers and saute it all in a large skillet. Once it is brown, crack eggs over the top and cover until the eggs are the desired doneness.
Another family favorite are latkes (or potato pancakes if you prefer). These are a little time intensive if you are feeding a crowd, but they are good. Leftover mashed potatoes (once again, that doesn't happen much around here) can be mixed with some vegetables (if you have some chopped ham it would be good, too) and shaped into patties, browning them in some oil.
___
These seem to be to be some of the top stock up foods. If I've missed one that you are wondering what to do with, let me know. I'll see what I can come up with.
A couple more things about cooking out of your pantry instead of running to the store all the time. The first, and biggest, is make complete use of the food you have, and this most definitely includes leftovers. If you know leftovers are not going to be eaten as they are, you need to make plans for them. This often means adding other ingredients or seasonings to turn them into something else. Even small bits should be saved. As I mentioned above, soups, hashes, pastas, stir-fries can all be made more interesting by adding the little bits of what is in the refrigerator. If you can't think of a plan for, say, the 1/4 cup of green beans from dinner, start a freezer bag for leftover vegetables. (I do the same thing for little bits of leftover meat when I have them for the same reason.) Just throw them in the bag which lives in the freezer. When it is full, you have an awesome start to some pot pies. These can be a pain to make because there are so many different parts which need to be cooked, but if you have cooked vegetables on hand, it is a little bit easier.
Try to think of meat as a condiment. What I mean by that is you can stretch meat by not assuming each person is going to get their own large piece. Use other things to stretch it. Tonight we had a steak salad. It was steak on spaghetti with a ponzo dressing and green onions. It doesn't sound like much to read about it, but it is very good. I fed 11 people, but only thawed a few steaks. Each person got a small amount of steak and much larger amount of pasta. Everyone survived and everyone had enough food. It also means that I still have steak in my freezer for another several meals rather than using it all up on just one or two. For some families this might require a shift in expectations, but it also means you spend less and use fewer food stuffs. If you are concerned about going to the store, this makes sense.
Finally, don't be afraid to substitute. I know in times when life is easier and the checkbook is happy, if I'm making a recipe and realize I'm missing an ingredient listed, I don't think twice about sending someone out to go pick up the one item from the store. It's not frugal and these days it's not smart. The truth is, there is rarely something listed in a recipe (as long as it is not a main ingredient, choose a different recipe in that case) that cannot be left out or substituted without harm. I actually think that this is really how people learn to cook (as opposed to just blindly following a written recipe); the trial and error of seeing what happens with a recipe is changed. Sure, sometimes things don't work out as well as you would like, but truly this is not very often. Sometimes things are improved. If that's the case, make sure you make a note on the recipe so you can repeat it. Trust me when I say you won't remember the next time you make it. This can also make the daily-ness of cooking meals have some creativity involved, and anytime you can make some activity creative, you have made it more interesting to do.
Try to see pantry cooking as an adventure or at least your home version of a cooking show. Then you can focus on what you do have rather than focusing on the food you cannot have at the moment.
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