I have some odd little quirks. For some reason I LOVE when I get down to the bare bones in my pantry/fridge/freezer, and I equally love stocking it back up! Lately I have just not been in the mood to drag my butt to the store, and so it has been a bit of the former. Add the fact that my rent is going up $200 on May 1st and well, my budget is doing a lot of shifting. I know it must seem quite glam to everyone out there, but alas, for the past 2.5 years I have actually not had my own bedroom, and no I don’t live with Matt. I won’t get into the nitty-gritty, but basically my mother and I live together with another roommate, and this weekend the roommate is moving out and my mother and I won’t be sharing the same bedroom. It’s a bit of a secret as I don’t share this with too many as it seems “strange” to bunk with ones mother, and yes my therapist is aware of the situation. let’s just say that there was a necessity, and hopefully the necessity won’t arise again. I am not a huge fan of close quarters, and we have been living with a twin bed, a queen size, a chest of drawers, and a book case. Perhaps now there will be a spare corner in my room for a corner TV stand and I won’t have to trip over the sad couple of plastic milk crates (where my TV now sits) on my way to the bathroom anymore. In any event, my kitchen is seemingly sparse, but mostly in the fresh department. Somehow last night I was still able to come up with a full meal and the only thing that I bought for it was 2 bags of frozen spinach. Luckily I am a bit of a squirrel and so I tend to have a lot of store-able items on hand at all times. I guess it is a combination of wanting to Spring clean, and a desire to cut back on my spending that has me in the mood to whip up meals out of thin air.
Along with these recipes I am happy to announce my First giveaway!
If you would like to be the happy recipient of a brand new set of Victorinox Swiss Army Paring Knives and also a Fantastic Victorinox Swiss Army Santoku Knife (the very same knives I use in my kitchen, and the knives that come highly recommended by Cooks illustrated Magazine) then please look for how to enter on the bottom of this posting!
But first, eye candy of those precious babies!
The Santoku is the knife on the bottom
This giveaway comes courtesy of CSN Stores. Thank you VERY much for this generous giveaway!
And now on to the food…
But first, some notes:
*I didn’t do a proper measurement for the spices in the spinach masala, so you might taste as you go along. I just kind of threw some things in there.
*For the spices in BOTH, you might want more…you might want less. Spiciness here is very personal, so you might err on the side of caution early on and add later if you want more.
*I thought about adding raisins to the spinach dish. I was glad I didn’t this morning as I used leftovers in a scramble :-) but you might want to toss a few in for flavor!
*for the chickpeas, I cooked some from dried last week and then popped jars full of them into the freezer. When I wanted them all I did was soak them in hot water for about five minutes and they were perfect. Less expensive and healthier than canned.
*Also, usually I don’t eat peas because they are just a starch. I made an exception for these because I was cleaning out the freezer, they look pretty, and a pea dish a year isn’t going to kill me ;-)
Spinach and Chickpea Masala
Ingredients:
- Virgin Coconut Oil
- 1 Large onion, chopped
- 2 Cloves Garlic, minced
- 2 Dried red Chile Peppers
- 1.5 T Garam Masala
- 1.5 tsp. Cumin
- 1 tsp. Turmeric
- 1 Box Chopped Tomatoes
- 2 Bags Frozen Spinach
- 3 C. Cooked Chickpeas
- Sea Salt to taste
Method:
- In a large heavy bottomed pot, melt your coconut oil. Add the chopped onion and garlic and sautée until the onion is translucent, being careful not to brown the garlic.
- Add in the peppers and the spices and stir, heating until aromatic.
- Add in the Tomatoes and chickpeas and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Salt to taste (and season with more spices if you like).
Curried Quinoa with Peas
Ingredients:
- 1 Small Onion, or 1/2 Large, chopped
- 1 Clove Garlic, minced
- Virgin Coconut Oil
- 4 T. Curry powder
- 2 tsp. Garam Masala
- 1/2 tsp. Cumin
- 2 Dried Red Chile peppers
- 2 C. Quinoa
- 4 C. Water
- 1.5 C. Frozen peas
- 2 T. Coconut Butter or Creamed Coconut
- Sea Salt to taste
Method:
- Thoroughly rinse the quinoa.
- In a pot, sautée the diced chopped onion and garlic until the onion is translucent.
- Add the spices and stir. heating until aromatic.
- Add the quinoa to the pot and stir. Add the water and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until the water is almost fully absorbed, about 10 minutes.
- Add the frozen peas and continue to cook for another 3-5 minutes, or until the water is fully absorbed.
- Spoon in the coconut butter and sea salt to taste. Stir to combine and fluff with a fork.
And now for the giveaway!
To enter this give away you can do one or all of the following:
- Make a comment at the bottom of this posting and tell me About the strangest dish you have ever made because you were dealing with a “bare pantry” dilemma.
- Tweet about the give away. All you have to do is mention that I am having a giveaway and also include #PnPSwissArmy in your tweet.
- If you have a blog, link to this give away in a blog posting.
- Add me to your blogroll.
- Follow my blog on facebook
You will get 1 entry for each of these that you do for a total of 5 entries. ***Additionally*** please let me know in a comment or an e-mail how many of these things you will be doing and please do make sure you tell me what your blog url is! I am going to assign numbers to each entry and then next Wednesday evening I will use a random number generator to select a winner!
Entries must be done by 8:00P.M. On May 5th 2010
I cannot wait to hear all about your bare pantry dishes! Bon Chance!
** I did not receive any compensation for mentioning the products or websites for this giveaway. I took advantage of an opportunity to be able to give one of my readers a fantastic gift, and the people at CSN Stores made that possible.**
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My pantry is always bare! So the strangest thing I make is usually veggies drenched in hot sauce. I take the idea of a bare pantry to another level :) Thanks for this post!
The strangest thing I ever made due to a bare pantry dilemma was radish sandwiches. Radishes on toasted bread with nothing else!
Ooh, I can’t wait to use the hot curry powder you sent me in the curried quinoa! I am not really a rice person but LOVE basmati rice in Indian dishes but quinoa is obviously much better and healthier. And oddly enough, I hate peas but only like them in Indian food.
The strangest dish I ever made was a mishmash of all the veggies in my fridge, but the veggies did NOT go together. Beets, broccoli, carrots, sweet potato, eggplant with some tofu and random spices. Not sure what combination didn’t work, but it was bitter and weird.
Great question! I am kind of known for throwing last-day-or-they’ll-spoil vegetables in a pot and make end-of-the-week-soup. Or I throw all the veggies in a pan and stir fry them. I guess I’m a two-trick pony because that’s all I’ve got. It gets interesting only when I have strange veggies on hand. When things get really slim, a mustard sandwich alway does the trick!
I’m sort of a compulsive grocery shopper, so my pantry is almost never bare. I did want to do some baking once and had zero ingredients except frozen pumpkin pie filling that I had made a month before… so I thawed it, mixed it with almonds, dried cranberries and a little extra flour and ended up with a weird pumpkin pie custard/bread thing.
ps: mentioned P&P on my blog http://tropicalstormb.blogspot.com/2010/04/insomnia-brownies.html
Can you believe I’ve never had a bare pantry? I always have beans and rice on hand; so while its not unusual, black beans and rice is my go to meal when times are lean.
I’m hosting a web carnival this month. Just in case you’re interested: Go ahead Honey It’s Gluten-Free
One time a used some diced potatoes, some sliced hotdogs a can of mushrooms and a can of peas and fried it all together then stirred in some ketchup. It was actually pretty good and we still have it occasionally.
Ha – I wish I could tell you the strangest thing I’ve made when my pantry is bare, but I’ve never had that scenario.
My pantry is always stocked full, plus I’m anal enough to plan my menu in advance, so I know exactly what to buy at the grocery store and what I’m cooking for the whole week. I told you I’m strange, LOL.
Yummy! The weirdest dish i have ever made would have to be… green oatmeal. Sounds and looks gross but is so so yummy!
Your already on my blog roll! :)
[...] There is still time to enter to win the fabulous knives I use on a daily basis! Enter here! [...]
Sounds strange but incredibly delightful, I had a craving for some brownies and had some bananas to use up, so chocolate banana brownies and they were divine, they’ve become a regular in my house ever since!
I just made a “patry bare” dish today. I had a sad, poor half of lavash sitting on the fridge so I mixed cooked broccoli, some fresh watercress (that had a cute little live escargot in the bunch-I didn’t eat that one, hee hee), an egg and Mt. Townsend Scotch Ale Toma Cheese. All went in the skillet and I made sorta fritatta, put on the lavash, some Siracha sauce and some guasacaca as well (Venezuelan version of guacamole).
It was divine!
XOXO
PB + Triscuits + 5th of Vodka = dinner nightly from ages 20-27.
Bare pantry galore :)
blogrolled
FB fanned you
and thanks for the great comments the past couple days :)
xo
we’re twitter friends but I cannot find you on FB so hopefully twitter is good by you :)
Wow. I think my most creative endeavors in the kitchen are also when I am in desperate need of a trip to the store. Mine usually end up a being a hodge podge of ingredients that turn into some sort of soup or stew. I call it creative because the mix of ingredients never makes sense but somehow it always tastes delicious.
Your lack of groceries looks restaurant worthy.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a bare pantry, but one thing I used to eat long ago when I had cheap crappy food in my pantry was spicy chicken ramen noodles. I would cook the noodles in plain water and then sprinkle the cooked noodles with the spice packet (instead of adding it to the cooking water). Then I’d top it off with a chopped fresh tomato from my garden & canned parmesan cheese. I hate to think of the sodium I used to consume with that concoction!
How do I follow you on Facebook? I don’t see a link on your blog –
P.S. I don’t like chickpeas (except in hummus) but your chickpea dish looks fab! I might have to try it!
[...] are still a few hours to enter my knife giveaway! And I am so sorry,the way to follow my blog on facebook is by clicking on the “Networked [...]
[...] are still a few hours to enter my knife giveaway! And I am so sorry,the way to follow my blog on facebook is by clicking on the “Networked [...]
I don’t have a strangest meal since I menu plan, but I do have a list of meals that require no fresh ingredients: tuna with crackers or vegetables, Karina’s Sesame Solo soup, Wheat Free Meat Free’s frugal chickpea stew to name a few. Thanks for the giveaway!
I follow your blog on facebook (2nd entry).
i LOVE this question because i do have a somewhat interesting story to share! i was really craving cheesecake one day and decided to substitute goat cheese for cream cheese and while it’s not exactly strange, it tasted GREAT! somewhat silly, but i’ve been really wanting to share that with others, especially those that can’t have cow dairy.
i also follow your blog via google reader!
I’m dying for some new eats! Thanks for the recipes!!! You rock. :)