Economy Cooking from your pantry

[Parson's Wife]

Hi ya'll,
I had a thought, ran back in the house, and am submitting the following thread:
Please submit recipes that you make for your family from your pantry, I know we are from all over, but we usually stock similar basics....ever needed a meal, couldn't get to the grocery store, and went an stared at the pantry? Plus, times are getting hard, money is getting tighter, and I would like this thread to be meals under $5....not possible? Oh yes, let me treat you to:

Pinto Beans (Soaked overnight)
Cornbread
Fried Taters or Mashed
Corn
Fried Okra
Fresh onion
Sweet Tea
A cake, or Pie, or cookies, even fudge.

Now, granted I understand that some folks don't like cooking like this, or certain parts of the menu, but submit with a recipe your meal.
I hope this helps someone, including me.
so give me a post of your economy meal straight from your pantry.
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[kbarrett]

Shepherd's Pie

1lb Ground Beef : I buy in bulk & average $2.39/lb

6-8 lg taters : Under $2

1 baggie corn : I'm guessing $.50 I put loads up every summer

Brown & drain the hamburger, boil taters & mash, warm corn on stove and layer in a casserole dish...meat, corn, taters then potatoes & sometimes I sprinkle top with cheddar. Pop into the toaster oven to melt cheese & serve. Feeds 3 of us with leftovers the next day. My mother used to make it with peas but my son prefers the corn.

 

[Tutter]

Great idea...and yours sounds delicious!

Twice baked potatoes, stuffed with some of everything you can find, don't forget the chives or green onions from the garden

Salad or Vegetable on hand

Tea/lemonade

Angelfood Cake w/ Berry topping

I make angelfood cake a lot in the summer, when the chickens are laying well. Mine is a 15 white cake, recipe to follow.

To top I cook, say, blueberries (Either fresh berries, or ones I have frozen.) with sugar and maybe a T. of water only. Also a squeeze of lemon juice, if you like.

When fully cooked down, I add a cpl of handfuls of fresh berries, cook just a second, and let stand in the hot cooked berries until cool. I refrigerate this, and spoon over slices of cake.

Cake:

Tutter's Best Angel Food Cake – 15 White

This cake can’t be beat! It’s great straight up, or with cooked fruit, such as blueberry sauce, ladled over.

Letting it sit for a few hours, to overnight, gets rid of any “egginess.”

When you cut it, put a piece of white bread on the open end, and attach with toothpicks. This will keep the cake from becoming stale.

Egg Whites, 15
Sugar, 1 ¼ cups
Flour, 1 cup
Cream of Tartar, 1 teaspoon
Salt, ½ teaspoon
Vanilla, 1 teaspoon

Sift flour, salt, and 1 cup of sugar.

Beat whites until ½ done, then add vanilla and tartar and continue beating to stiff peaks. Add last of sugar, peaks should appear glossy.

Fold powder mix into whites with rubber spatula.

Put batter carefully into dry bundt pan, (No Oil) and add a 4” heavy duty foil collar.

Bake in 350 degree oven for 50 minutes, approx.

In Jet-Air oven, cook 28-30 minutes. The first 2-6 minutes on low, the rest on high.

Cool by turning the pan upside down on a bottle neck until cool. (Put paper under the bottle/pan, just in case the cake comes out, though I've never had it happen. I've heard of it, though.)

When 100% cool, remove from pan.

Best eaten after 24 hours.

 

[chcknrs]

Venison stew:
Bread stew meat and brown lightly, taste a piece

add water to cover, chop onion and garlic and add to pot, cook until tender, add whatever veggies are in the fridge and/or freezer, cook til tender. When DH is not dieting I will often top with dumplings.
Served with water or tea.

 

[Tutter]

An under $5 spaghetti meal.

Menu:

Mixed Spaghetti
Garlic Toast
Salad or vegetable.
Tea/lemonade
Cookies and/or Sorbet....I like raspberry, mango, blackberry, or lemon.

I keep smaller amounts of homemade spaghetti sauce in the freezer, or maybe it's just leftover from a dinner a couple of nights before. If you toss the smaller amount of sauce with the spaghetti, it goes further than other nights, when you might serve the sauce over the top. I serve it on top the first time around, and mixed with what's left of the sauce another night. Serve tossed spaghetti in a large bowl in the middle of the table. My grandmother, who would serve a lot of people, kept it in a pot on the stove.

Also, I bake bread, and always freeze a couple of slices from any given loaf, so I have extra around, even if I haven't baked any.

 

[Tutter]

It's pathetic how I far I can stretch a chicken, but I'm good at it.

Menu:

Garden Fried Rice
Tea/lemonade
Sherbet and Cookies

These are good vegetables for a fried rice, and they are easy to get from the garden. Use some of the chicken breast you've saved, it doesn't require much, or make it without chicken.

2 bunches collard. (Cut off each side of center rib ~ use rib for something else ~ roll 1/2 leaves, chiffonade finely, then cross cut.)

2 Carrots, grated

Fresh or Fozen Peas

Chicken, diced into medium cubes

1-2 Eggs, scrambled just before using

Pot/steamer of Rice, real or instant....leftover works well if you keep extra rice.
If not, make a bit ahead of time.

Fresh Ginger slices. I grow it now, but before I kept it in the pantry in damp sand, or pre-sliced in the freezer

Favorite sauce, such as a mix of soy and toasted sesame oil. Add sugar, and garlic for teriyaki flavor.

Cook in hot pan, one thing at a time, putting ginger in all along. When vegetables and chicken are done, add egg/s, peas, rice and sauce. Fresh peas go in earlier, frozen at the end. Finish cooking.

The biggest mistake people make is undercooking the greens.
I often cook the chicken with minced garlic, but that's a matter of taste.

You might have sherbet in the freezer, but you can whip some up in an ice cream maker if you have one, and think of it early enough.

 

[Tutter]

I think this one's fun, because it's in the spirit of pantry cooking.

Once, when my children were small, the cupboard was pretty bare. I had a little ground meat, a couple of potatoes, a can of creamed corn, some shake 'n bake powder ~ barbeque flavored, a little butter, and half an onion. Not bad, but not enough to make burgers, for example, or much of anything for 5 people.

I put the potatoes on to boil, and mashed them with the butter, salt and pepper.

Meanwhile I cooked what meat there was with the onion, finely diced. Then, when it was no longer raw, I added the barbeque powder, and a little water to moisten.

The potatoes were still dry, my milk was gone, so I opened the corn and since it was creamed corn, mashed it right into the potatoes.

I put half the potatoes into a medium baking dish, covering the bottom, and going up the sides. Then I put the barbequed meat in, then covered with the remaining potatoes to seal.

Then I remembered a ridiculously small piece of cheese which I pared fine and put on the top, then baked.

I don't even know if they make that powder anymore, but I still make my "famous"

bar-b-qued beef pie now and then.

All I change is the powder, and use barbeque sauce now, which I make myself....from pantry ingredients.

Also these days, I plan it usually, so we have whatever vegetables are available, or growing, or salad, with it.

You can make the potatoes a more usual consistency by adding as much milk and butter as you normally would, but for an interesting change, add the creamed corn anyway. Or, for a less "sweet" flavor, maybe just corn, or Mexi-corn, if you keep it.

Another thing I've done is use the last bit of a piece of parmesan in the potatoes.

Menu:

Bar-b-qued Beef Pie
Coleslaw
Tea/Lemonade
Warm Cobbler

 

[Tutter]

Kbarrett, I'm sorry, I had my recipes on Wordpad, and didn't see your pie, or I'd have not posted a similar one.

 

[Parson's Wife]

I have another one, Thank you everyone for all your great recipes!

Tuna Melt

2 boxes of Mac & Cheese (completely prepare as normal)
2 cans of Tuna (drained)
1 diced onion (size depends on your taste)
1/2 bell pepper diced
1 can of Green Pea's, drained (I prefer English peas)
1 pkg shredded cheese

Pre-heat oven to 350*. Mix all the above ingredients in a greased (sprayed) casserole dish, top with the cheese. Cook for about 25 minutes (cheese melted and tipped brown)

Serve with mashed potatoes
Salad
Cornbread or Buttered Toast
Sweet Tea
lemonade cake

 

[Parson's Wife]

I know, I forgot to post my recipe for lemonaide cake....will do....shortly.

Sorry, phone calls, company, and then....Life. So I'm back now, thankyou for all your responses! Great Ideas!
Keep those meals, and shopping tips coming. I try to make a menu for the whole week on Saturday or Monday, the new grocery sales week comes out on Tuesdays. Take time for coupons. We have a store that doubles!

Lemonade Cake:

white cake mix
liquid jello - use the lemon flavor (lime, orange, or cherry works too)

Mix cake according to box. Mix Jello according to box. (Do Not add to cake yet)

Bake cake at 350*, pull from the oven. Use toothpick to poke holes all over cake. Slowly pour jello mixture all over cake. (slowly so cake absorbs jello)
Use cool whip for your icing.
Chill in frig about 1 hour before serving.
Can serve right away, we just like the chilled taste on hot days.

I always have these ingredients on hand, and it's quick and great on a hot day.