Pantry diving

**Updated! I made it through Week One with broccoli stir fry. See the very end of this post for more.

So, in the spirit of a true recession buster, I figured there was plenty of money to be saved … thanks to my overstuffed and often overlooked pantry.

How about yours?

Not mine but close enough!

Once or twice a week I venture out to my favorite grocery haunts: Trader Joe’s and Fresh & Easy. The same scenario generally plays out when I get home … there’s not enough room in the cupboards for the new food.

This got me thinking about my 2009 resolution to spend wisely and save more. I dare say there is likely hundreds of dollars worth of food just sitting in my cabinets, waiting and aging while I continue to buy new goods, then consume half.

My latest endeavor is to eat from the pantry as many times a week as possible. I’m thinking at least four times a week is fair. I’ve given myself up to $5 daily (yipee) for fresh vegetables and protein. Since I don’t eat any land-dwelling creatures, that leaves me a generous amount for a daily dose of green stuff (and tofu is cheap).

Trust me, I have enough food at home to feed a family of four for days and days.

I gathered up a bunch of fresh vegetables and fruit over at Food 4 Less on my way home. I spent $23 (gasp!) on broccoli, tomatoes, cauliflower, cabbage, onions, carrots, peppers, herbs and various fruit. Talk about a bargain. I won’t go back for more until all of it is eaten. And another goal: don’t let any of it rot!

So far, so good. Here’s a quick rundown on the first week, so far:

Roasted tomato basil soup

(inspired by recent Ina Garten show on Food TV)

Roasted tomato basil soup

This recipe was simple and turned out delicious. It reminded me that roasted tomatoes are always better, and a perfect foil for several dishes (pasta, pizza sauce, antipasti, sandwiches, you name it). I’ve fed off this soup for several days. It was perfect for lunch with cheese toast I threw together from items scavenged from the frige.

Pantry items used: large can of crushed tomatoes and a quart of vegetable stock.

New items used: fresh tomatoes, carrots, onions and basil.

Note: How often do we buy cheese and let it languish in the refrigerator? Too often, I say. I made a point to NOT buy any new cheese until the aging varieties at home are all gone.

Grilled halibut with roasted cauliflower, onions and garlic

I love just about any vegetable roasted with caramelized centers and crunchy edges. The giant cauliflower head was cheap ($1.79) and ditto for the brown onions (2 pounds for 69 cents). A quick visit to Fresh & Easy produced a package of two halibut steaks on sale (two days before sale date), for $4.

Roasted cauliflower and onions with grilled halibut steak. (This is actually the plate of leftovers)

I broke down the cauliflower, rough chopped the onion, added four cloves of garlic and tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper. After roasting at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, I turned off the oven and sprinkled the vegetables with Trader Joe’s goat-milk gouda cheese and more black pepper. Then I shoved the pan back into the oven so the cheese could melt.

On my grill pan I cooked the halibut steaks with salt & pepper and a touch of oil mixed with butter. At the end, I chopped some Italian parsley and squeezed a lemon (free from a co-worker). The dish was fabulous. I had to stop myself from eating all of the cauliflower. The meal stretched into two.

Pantry item used: old but still good cheese (and I still spent barely $7 on a meal that fed me twice).

Note: because I’m single, everything usually stretches to more than one meal … sigh.

Cheese & shrimp quesadilla served with spicy refried beans

I was hungry and impatient, so the broccoli and cabbage would wait another day. After a quick scan of cans in the pantry and goods in the frige, my eyes settled on a sad plastic sleeve of tortillas. I studied them closely for any sign of blue spots and upon deeming them worthy, set up ingredients for a quick quesadilla.

I had several cans of beans in the cupboard and opted for vegetarian refried beans with green chilis. I also found a small can of Mexican salsa, something I usually keep for cobbling enchiladas, tacos or a pot of chili. From the freezer I dug out some lonely precooked shrimp.

(I prefer to use either fresh shrimp or raw frozen shrimp, but in the interest of pantry diving, I went with what I had.)

Cheese and shrimp quesadilla with refried beans (my lunch, the day after I had it for dinner)

After a quick thaw in some hot water, I chopped the shrimp into manageable pieces, then got the stove going. As you can imagine, the quesadilla took no time. I chopped a fresh tomato and some green onions, threw them onto the first tortilla, now heating on a large nonstick frying pan. Then went the shrimp, followed by the cheese and the top tortilla.

In a microwaveable bowl (remember, I’m REALLY hungry by now), I mixed the can of beans with some cheese and the salsa, then nuked for 3 minutes, stirred.

The tortillas were the bigger version, so when all was said and done, again I had what amounted to two meals. I used my pizza cutter to divvy up the quesadilla and stashed half for lunch the next day.

Pantry items used: Just about everything, save the fresh tomatoes and green onions.

Broccoli stir fry with brown rice

Broccoli and rice says stir fry to me.

I followed through and made it to Night Four of Pantry Diving. This time, I tackled two out of three stalks of broccoli, saving one for a lunch dish (steamed broccoli with tuna salad).

What I really, really wanted was broccoli tempura, but my good senses overruled my craving. Tempura can be messy, it’s fattening, and I was too hungry to spend more time wrestling with my id. So, I modified the fry and went with stir vs. deep.

This was almost too easy … and super fast. I chopped half an onion, halved some mini portobello mushrooms that were close to a slimy end, and split up the broccoli spears. The longest part of the stalks went to the dogs, who waited eagerly by my side.

Katy chews her stalk

Note: Anytime I start chopping vegetables, the dogs show up. They know the sound of knife hitting cutting board, and they get a lot of rough ends, which saves the food from the compost pile. Sister and I basically restrict them from onions and the otherwise noxious vegetables that can wreak havoc on their system. Their favorites, however, include carrots, cabbage, broccoli and sweet potato skins.

Dinner, a la pantry.

To flavor my stir fry, I used some vegetable stock, a splash of soy sauce, 1/8 cup of rice-wine vinegar and a little bit of teriyaki marinade (I like the sweetness in it). From the pantry I yanked down a tired sleeve of precooked brown rice. I knew it wouldn’t be the best rice, but it would be done in 90 seconds. I flavored and softened it a bit with some of that teriyaki marinade and some of the vinegar (not bad but still a  tad chewy).

I had the leftovers again for lunch. It was filling; broccoli really does the job. But sometime soon I’ll have to hunt down some tempura.

Next up: grilled cabbage with vegetarian sausage.