Saturday, April 19, 2008

Use up the cupboard

I've just made a list of all the foods in my cupboard which have either never been used or used only once. gf means gluten free (read: expensive!) and pbb means past 'Best Before' date.

almond butter
canola oil - pbb
buckwheat flour
gf pizza mix
maple syrup
amaranth grain
baby food - jar of apple and cinnamon porridge
rock salt
rice flakes
sunflower seeds
3 packets of Indian curry mixes , gifted to us 15 months ago. 1 pbb
dried bananas
unhulled tahini (nowhere near as nice as hulled tahini)
cocoa
carob
fine ground cornmeal
gf buckwheat pancake mix
potato flour
chickpea flour
linseeds
walnuts
oat bran
rice paper
peanuts
dates
buckwheat groats
suchi wrappers and sushi rice

I also found a number of items in storage which I didn't realise I had as back up to the packet I am currently using. I also didn't get up on a stool and thoroughly check all cupboards, so the total will be slightly larger than this.

We are going to eat ALL of this, inclouding the pbb stuff. All suggestions for recipes (pancakes and maple syrup, plus sushi, won't be challenging, but some of the other stuff may be).

Before this I made a concoction for the slow cooker of marrow which is overgrown zucchini (which stores very well for winter - doesn't go off at all while you wait days and days for inspiration on how to cook it so you want to eat it), red lentils (pbb but as much of the world is starving, a bit of stale lentils will, I am hoping, teach me better cupboard ingredients use planning), kumara (sweet potato), onions, ginger, garlic, spices and herbs and tinned tomatoes.

This coming four weeks is-use-up-the-cupboard month here, even though it is out of calendar month sync.

2 comments:

Robbyn said...

Hi Sandra, just found your blog, and it's great! I was delighted to find my own blog on your sidebar and just wanted to say thanks :)

Anonymous said...

I've had most of these things in the cabinet at one time or another so I have lots of ideas.

chickpea flour is the standard flour in onion bhaji

this looks good for the sesame paste and the rock salt
(anything you end up grinding or is liquid is good for the rock salt)

fine ground cornmeal screams polenta or cornbread

oat bran - muffins
buckwheat groats - kasha varnishkes (though then I suppose you have to find some gf pasta)

split and stuff the dates with the almond butter, or the walnuts, dust in carob