The Pantry and Freezer Challenge Week 1

Welcome to the Pantry and Freezer Challenge Week 1 update! With a public holiday almost half way through the week last week, it was easy enough to find the time to whip up a couple of meals using several items from our pantry and freezer.

For breakfast during the week, we mostly had Melba toast in a variety of combinations: with homemade Marmalade, Bovril and/or grated cheese. We hadn’t had Melba toast for such a long time that I’d almost forgotten how yummy it is, and all because it had probably been sitting at the back of one of the shelves for so long! We are now 1 ½ packets down.

For dessert I made a quick and easy Peach Cobbler which we served with Custard or had plain during the week. I used up the tinned peaches for this recipe and I also added the tin of fruit cocktail which we had in the pantry, which was probably a bit unusual (how likely are you to find a slice of pear in a traditional serving of Peach Cobbler?) but we were happy with the taste nonetheless. I also used up the leftover packet of Castor sugar in this recipe. You can check out the super-easy-thrown-together Peach Cobbler recipe here.

The Mushroom sauce turned out very nicely and yielded quite a few servings, some of which we had during the week and some of which I stored in the deep freeze for later use. We served the sauce on mash with a nice piece of meat the one night and with a pepper steak pie on another night, with a side dish of lightly microwaved greens. Have a look at the Mushroom sauce recipe here. It’s a simple and easy side dish to make, and perfect for using up frozen mushrooms.

I also used up the 2 Puff Pastry rolls which we had in the freezer and made Puff Pastry Twisters with bacon, and ham and cheese. This is really more of a snack although we do sometimes have it as a light lunch or dinner, served with a side salad. One of my friends shared this recipe a few months ago and it has been an absolute favourite in our household because it is so easy to make and nothing beats the taste of warm, fluffy pastry straight out of the oven. You can have a look at the Puff Pastry Twisters recipe here.

My most creative recipe of the week was the Soya Beans & Mince Meatballs. A few months ago I bought a 500 gr. packet of non-GMO soya beans from Dis-Chem as this is something I’ve always wanted to try cooking with. We were more than happy with the delicious meatballs which we served on pasta and tomato sauce, and on another night we had the meatballs with lightly microwaved vegetables and mashed potatoes. Check out the scrumptious Soya Beans & Mince Meatballs recipe here.

What did you cook for dinner last week? I always love to hear from my readers. Stay tuned for the Pantry and Freezer Challenge Week 2 update!

This post is part of Take the Pantry and Freezer Challenge series on this blog.

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