Can you help me clean out the pantry??

[HollyBearsMom]

Money is tight till next week but I have a pretty full pantry and ZERO creativity!! Any idea for some yummy meals, starting with dinner tonight?? I am sick of plain old beans and rice or pasta and sauce!

Here is an idea of what I have on hand. I *can* supplement w/ fresh veggies/meats etc if needed.....

1 or 2 cans each:
Lentils
Black beans
Red beans
Pinto beans
Whole tomatoes
Crushed tomatoes
Tomato paste
Pumpkin
Sweet potato

Bags of:
Wild rice
Basmati rice
Arborio rice
Dried red lentils
ww flour

Boxes of assorted pasta-lasagna noodles, penne, rigatoni

Freezer:
pizza dough
baby peas
edamame
meatballs
chicken sausage
venison chops and stew meat
tomato sauce

So all you creative cookers-help me out!

[wife&mommy]

Well it sounds like you could make a pizza. Then you have things for chili if you wanted to make that. You could make a pasta dish with the peas, chicken sausage, pasta, and a bechemel sauce with some butter/flour and add cheese to it if you can and it would be yummy! Or risotto with peas. Black bean soup is also yummy but you'd have to get a couple of other things to go with it. OK I'm out of creativity! Oh if you can get sour cream you could make a stroganoff with the stew meat.

[QueenOfTheMeadow]

1. venison stew (yum!)
2. chili (you can chop up the venison and throw it in there)
3. meatball pizza. I know it sounds weird, but my kids get a kick out of the meatballs on top of the pizza.
4. You can get some great recipies for lentil and sausage soup on line. I can't find mine at the moment. Sounds like the sweat potatoes on the side would go nicely with that.
5. basamati rice with baby peas and a little dash of balsamic vinegar, garlic or garlic powder, and a dash of red pepper flakes.


That's all I could come up with at the moment.

[HollyBearsMom]

Pizza! that would be great for tonight because we rented the Nightmare before Xmas and were going to have a family movie night. What could be better than pizza and a movie???

You know it is cold and rainy so perfect time to drag out the crock pot. I like the idea of chili or stew. off too google some recipes.....

I KNEW I could count on you all!!

Keep 'em coming! It's a looooog time till payday!

[mum5]

www.allrecipes.com has a great search feature. You plug in the ingredients that you want to use, the ones that you want to leave out and it will come up w/ ideas for you.

[elisabeth78]

I'd make tomato or black bean soup. Saute some stock veggies (onion and garlic are the basics, and if you have carrots, peppers, celery, etc., throw 'em in too), add broth and the can of tomatoes/beans, let simmer for a while, puree and voila.

[BetsyS]

I'm making this this week:

Spicy Grain Soup (adapted from Food and Wine, November 2007)


1 cup pearl barley
1 cup brown basmati rice
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 ancho or dried mulato chiles—stemmed, seeded and broken into 2-inch pieces
1 large onion, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, halved
2 quarts low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
One 15-ounce can diced tomatoes

6 cilantro sprigs
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 pound mushrooms, stems discarded, chopped
One 15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 medium zucchini, finely diced (same size as mushrooms)
1 lime, cut into wedges
chopped cilantro, about 1/4 cup

Cook the barley and brown rice (I used my rice cooker and cooked each separately. I see no reason why you couldn't use leftover brown rice that you bought at a Chinese restaurant). Have the grains cooking while you're making the rest of the soup.

In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil and add the chiles, onion and garlic. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion is lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add the broth, tomatoes, and cilantro sprigs and season with 1 tablespoon of salt and a pinch of pepper. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer over low heat for 45 minutes.

Puree the soup with an immersion blender or in a blender and return to the pan.

Add the mushrooms, black beans and zucchini to the pureed soup and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes. Add the barley and rice and season with salt and pepper. Ladle the soup into bowls, sprinkle with chopped cilantro, and squeeze a lime wedge over each serving.

Note: This will turn stewy and risotto-like if made ahead. If you want to keep it soupy, don't add the grains until you want to serve: keep them aside, heat the soup base and then scoop in the grains to heat through