Using up the cupboard meal 1

It's worse really. I neglected to notice three kinds of expensive premixed gf flour plus some ryemeal during my initial audit. This doesn't count the flours I have been using of late.

So last night's dinner of marrow and lentil concoction in the slow cooker turned out nice. Like a bulky soup. I made far too much of course and so I greased a casserole dish and then scooped the remains of the meal into that to store in the fridge. Tonight I think I'll make a pie crust for the top and reheat it in the oven. Will pile lots of dark green leaves from the garden in first. To go with the soupy concoction (marrow and lentil chowder?), I made gf cheese scones. Which were a hit.

Marrow and lentil chowder.
1 marrow, peeled, split lengthwise into quarters, seeds removed and then sliced
red lentils, I just poured straight from the packet. I'd estimate a cup.
1 kumara (sweet potato), peeled and sliced thinly
1 onion, finely sliced.
3 garlic cloves, chopped.
1cm piece of ginger, chopped.
2 sticks of celery, chopped
curry powder, coriander seeds, whatever gentle curry flavours you have and want to use
thyme and bay leaves
2 tins of tomatoes.
Extra water if it doesn't look enough for the lentils to expand into.

Bung it all into the slow cooker and cook on slow most of the day. I added sultanas afterwards, simply because I found some when I had thought we didn't own any for weeks. Favourite Handyman and Fionn both complimented me on dinner which was too lovely not to mention.

Cheese scones
2 cups Horleys gf baking mix
2 tsps baking powder
75 g grated cheese
1.25 cups milk

sift first 2 ingredients, then mix in cheese. Then mix in milk. Knead for a minute and then shape into a rectangle and cut into 12 small scones. Put on lightly floured tray in oven for 10 minutes at 215 degrees celsius.

Today I want to make some bread, low gluten rather no gluten I expect. I am pretty sure we have sufficient ingredients for several loaves, spinning out the bread until Wednesday. I am trying to get back to shopping for groceries only once a week. Multiple shops make it very difficult to know exactly how much we are spending on food per week.

I have some ambitious (for me) goals for this using up the cupboard project. I want to work out what we really eat, and want to eat, and find useful and make up a meta list of ingredients which I can choose from when I write the shopping list for the week. I presume I am not the only person in the world prone to throwing unusual items into the shopping trolley because they'd be nice for a change and then leaving them to languish and die in the back of the cupboard or fridge.

Being an incorrigible drama queen, I have visions of the global food shortage getting really dire for the wealthy world as well as Haiti and Africa (and and and, sadly), so these skills I am developing should keep us in good stead for coping. I want us to cope well enough that we can donate to the Sallies' food bank or similar organisation cos there are going to be some hungry people in our small town soon, if not already.

Getting some chooks is looking even more of a good idea than last summer (is that possible? I was obsessed!). We need to find the time to make a house for the chooks though. Given that on Friday I managed to break the garage door closed, leaving the car and my wallet inside, chook houses remain a while down the maintenance/building projects list. There is a side door to the garage, and FH had to undo the three rows' deep stack of firewood to get through it in order to open the garage door. It was one way of saving money and zilching petrol use...