I’m pet sitting right now, and will be for just over another week. My friend didn’t have a lot of food here, so I bought and brought some. I’m not a great cook, but I’d prefer to eat-in than eat out a lot. And I don’t want to eat lots of Kraft Dinner and ramen.
So, I thought maybe I’d inquire here and get some advice. It’s a pretty bare kitchen, and not a lot of kitchen tools (for example, no food processor, no blender, no potato masher), so it wasn’t hard to do a food inventory.
Here’s my list. Just for fun, I’ve included a star by the things that I brought or bought. I’m going to the store tomorrow, but I’ll be walking and metroing, so I can’t buy a lot or anything too heavy.
Suggestions?
granola bars*
tropical fruit salad
mandarin oranges
pear halves in pear juice
peach butter* (Can peach butter go bad, or did I just hate it when I tried it this morning?)
raspberry jam
graham crackers
marshmallows
apples
2 small butternut squashes (a pound or less each)*
potato bread (not worth making sandwiches out of, I got an off brand)*
macaroni
mac n cheese (generic, if that matters to some people)
chicken teriyaki rice-a-roni
pancake mix
canned light tuna in water
cream of mushroom
cream of chicken soup
1.25 jars spaghetti sauce
garbanzo beans*
canned corn
black beans
sugar (granulated, brown and confectioners)
flour
dry lasagna
5 eggs
margarine (almost two sticks)
shredded mozzerella
shredded cheddar
presliced cheddar
cream cheese and flavored cream cheese swirlled spread
hoisin sauce
texture (pre-grated parm)
1/4 onion
peanut butter (reduced fat)
oatmeal*
instant flavored mashed potatoes
chocolate chips
baking chocolate
baking powder
vegetable oil
breadcrumbs
cornmeal
olive oil
carrots*
various herbs and spices
Got any milk or cream? If so, melt the baking chocolate with a little cream (or milk), stir in a bit of the raspberry jam, and you*ve got a fondue that you can dip the mandarin oranges, graham crackers and and marshmallows in.
Saute about half an onion, chopped in oil until soft
add 1 can cream of muchroom or chicken soup add about half a can of water or milk. It should flow but be thick
When it starts to simmer add a can of tuna and about half a cup of the shredded cheddar cheese.
Let simmer as you boil about a cup of macaroni. When cooked add to soup. Stir and serve.
This recipe is great with most kinds of meat, leftover ham, turkey or chicken works great as well.
I don’t know how this would go over with your tastes and sensibilities, it might be repugnant to some… but I’m thinking a squash lasagna.
Cut the two squash in half and bake the squash till tender: boil the lasagna noodles. Scoop out the squash and mash with a combination of 3 egg yolks, a goodly amount of softened plain cream cheese, a dash of brown sugar, a genorus heap of parmesan, salt and pepper, and a dash of nutmeg if you have it (you can use a fork to mash and combine this, btw). Combine the cream of chicken and cream of mushroom soup with only 1 and a half cans of either warm milk or water, making a thick volute. Throw down a bit of the volute into the bottom of a baking dish and lay down the first layer of lasagna noodles. Spread a third of the squash mixture on top of the noodles, sauce with the volute, top with mozzarella; lay down another layer of noodles and repeat two times. Top with a final layer of noodles, the remaining sauce, parmesan and mozzarella cheeses. Bake at 375F for 45 minutes.
Well, today I’m going to get some milk, and probably another onion and some garlic. Oh, and some real butter (unsalted) and some edible bread.
Outside of that, I’ll probably buy what impulse takes me.
devilsknew, I can’t decide on that recipe. I’ve had squash pastas before, and they were yummy. But I’m having a bit of a mental block about combining my squash with the “cream of” soups.
Lissla, I do have five eggs. If that’s not enough, I’ll be surprised. At home, I don’t go through eggs very quickly, and I’m only here for about another week.
I may experiment with making this bread into something else later. Anybody know if yucky bread make edible french toast?
Oh! You’re talking about food in the pantry! What a relief! The abbrieviated preview on this computer made me wonder what pet sitting had to do with making yummy meals…
Please, continue your thread while I go get a cup of coffee.
I was just Iron Chefing it all out with the ingredients you had on hand. If the soups don’t work for you, an alternative is to make a simple bechamel sauce in substitute. You could crush a clove of garlic in the bechamel for some added flavor as well.
Okay, I went to a real grocery store after my tutoring session. My student is a sweetheart, but she really needs to slow down. I can’t seem to get it through to her that if she slows down from the get-go she will spend less overall time doing subjects she hates…
Anyway, I did that and also stopped at the corner store for some milk. So, now here’s an addendum to my list above.
Whipped plain cream cheese
1% Milk
Apple Juice
Unsalted Butter
Hummus
Apricot Jam
Cornflakes
2 Lemons
3 Oranges
1 Avacado (Why, I don’t know, but when I saw the avacados, I really wanted one)
1 yellow onion
Edible Bread
That’s now it, the sum total of what’s in the kitchen, barring her “lean cuisine” meals and things of that nature (and the veggies in the freezer that I hate, so won’t eat).
Maybe that’ll make this yet more fun. Anyway, I’m going to try the butternut squash lasagna tomorrow, most likely.
And tomorrow I’m going to try to make it to the farmers’ market and get some fresh spinach (and broccoli, if they have it).
That was the original plan for the garbanzo beans, actually. But I forgot the tahini, and then when I got here I found she has no potato masher, no food processor and no blender. So then I decided it didn’t matter anyway.
And, frankly, the “real” grocery store didn’t have anything that “fancy” (tahini). I was surprised for Bethesda. I looked for hummus there, and saw none. That was the really surprising thing. The corner store was where I got the hummus, and while I’m sure I paid more than I needed to for it, it wasn’t a lot more, and I’m sure I’ll be super happy to have it when I dip my carrots in it.
That, and she doesn’t have enough olive oil for my hummus…
I was in that situation recently. I got the urge to pick up hummus fixings while in Giant but forgot that Harris Teeter is the only store around here with tahini. Giant did have cashew butter and, thinking that cashews aren’t much differenf from sesame seeds, I bought a jar. I ended up with something not quite hummus but just as tasty.
Alas, no mixer. Honestly, I had to hunt for a wooden spoon, and when I found it the “made in china” sticker was still on the back of the bowl. This is really a sparse kitchen.
I wouldn’t have thought to try cashew butter, but that does sound tasty. And I was in a Safeway, but I didn’t know HT had tahini. I’ve been hitting Whole Paycheck when I need it.
I now love HT even more than I did when they had my brand of blueberry tea.