I Need Your Help!
OK, this isn't my normal kind of post, but I figured I would pick the brains of everyone else who reads my blog-- I'm drawing a lot of blanks, so some ideas from you guys would really be a lifesaver.
Our family has to live off of what we have in food storage (and what I can steal from my mom) for anywhere from four weeks to 2 months, depending on if or when Terence gets his next overtime job. So here's a list of what I have, and if you have any recipe or meal ideas that I can do with these things, please share!!! (My family will thank you on bended knee if we don't have to eat spaghetti three times a day for the next month.)
This is my ingredient pool:
- Applesauce
- Baking mix- multigrain
- Beans - refried, kidney, black, garbanzo
- Beef- canned, ground (a little)
- Broth- chicken, beef, vegetable
- Chicken- canned, & some frozen breasts
- Corn- canned
- Fish- frozen (I have no idea what kind it is)
- Flour- white & whole wheat
- Honey
- Jam- strawberry
- Macaroni & cheese- boxed
- Meatballs- frozen
- Milk- nonfat dry
- Oats
- Olive oil
- Olives- black
- Pasta- dry rotini, penne, farfalle
- Potato flakes
- Rice- brown
- Saltine crackers
- Soup - cream of chicken
- Spaghetti
- Sugar- granulated
- Tomato paste
- Tomato sauce- canned (I have oodles and oodles of this)
- Tuna- canned
I've also got various condiments & spices & baking needs (like baking soda), so I can liven things up a bit. Really, when I look at this list it seems like I should have endless options, but I am drawing a blank. Terence is normally the creative one with cooking but 1) often it's really scary to see what he comes up with and 2) even he is looking at the pantry now and at loss for something new to come up with.
If you have any ideas, please post them in the comments, or if you have a complicated recipe, you can email me...you never know, one of you may be the Martha Stewart of food storage cooking creativity. (Can you imagine how different her show would be if she could only use food storage stuff?) Anyway, please don't let me down! We're counting on you! (No pressure, right?)
Comments
4 to 6 chicken breasts
1 pkg. Lipton onion soup mix
1 sm. bottle Russian dressing
1 sm. jar apricot preserves
Combine dressing, onion soup mix and apricot preserves and marinate chicken breasts 4-6 hours. Barbecue or broil breasts - basting with marinade until done. OR, combine all ingredients in slow cooker and cook on high for 4-6 hours instead.
1 lb browned ground beef
1 can corn
1 pkg. taco seasoning
1 can refried beans
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 c. shredded cheddar
1-2 c. tortilla chips/Doritos
Combine all ingredients in large skillet and stir constantly until heated through. I'm pretty sure you could forgo the chips if necessary and be creative with the stewed tomatoes.
1 c. white vinegar
1 c. catsup
1 c. water
Mix together ingredients in a saucepan. Cook over low heat until thick and bubbly, about 1 hour. (Mixture will be even thicker when cool.) Makes about 2 cups. Sauce keeps indefinitely in the refrigerator.
Pour over meatballs to make sweet and sour meatballs; serve with rice.
1 sm. onion, chopped
2 tbsp. butter or oil
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
1-2 tsp. salt
1-2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. dry mustard
1/4 tsp. pepper
Saute onion in oil until tender. Stir in tomato sauce, salt, chili powder, mustard and pepper; simmer 5 minutes.
Spread on chicken. Bake at 400 degrees for one hour or until fork tender, basting occasionally.
Salt
Pepper
Garlic (powder or fresh)
1 onion (sm.)
1 can tomato sauce
Oil
Season the chicken with salt, pepper and garlic. Saute the chicken in a small amount of oil until brown with onions. Add tomato sauce and simmer until tender, about 20 minutes.
1/4 c. chopped onion
4 tbsp. sugar
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/4 c. catsup
3 tbsp. vinegar
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
Mix together and cook over low heat 5 minutes. Easily doubled.
Marinate chicken in it and bake.
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 can cheddar cheese soup (optional)
Cook in crockpot for 6 to 8 hours.
Serve over rice or mashed potatoes.