The snow is thick on the ground, you can’t get the car out of the drive and your local shop has sold out of bread and milk… what are you going to serve up for supper? It’s time to rifle through your storecupboard.

My top three storecupboard essentials all come in tins. If you’ve got tomatoes, fish and pulses in the larder, you can curl up by the fire, safe in the knowledge that your family won’t go hungry!

1) Tinned tomatoes
Snow or no snow, it is impossible to starve if you have tinned tomatoes in the house. Make soup or pasta sauce, add to curries and casseroles, throw into omelettes, spread over pizza bases… the meals are endless.

2) Tinned fish
Fish takes very well to being canned and is wonderfully versatile. Flake into cooked rice and hardboiled eggs for a kedgeree, stir into cheese sauce to serve over pasta or mix into mayo for a quick jacket topping.

3) Tinned Pulses
Lentils, chickpeas, borlotti or cannellini beans – tinned pulses have a multitude of uses. They are great for bulking out a stew, adding texture to soups, or throwing into a chilli.

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My top 3 Snowproof Storecupboard Ingredients!

Pasta Portions…

I find getting portion sizes right with pasta can be a bit hit and miss, unless I actually weigh it out which is a bit of a faff. When it’s just me and my husband I use an ordinary mug, and cook about one and a half mugfulls (roughly 200-250g) for us both. For spaghetti, you can’t beat a proper spaghetti measurer – a clever little gizmo which removes all the guesswork. The trick is to remember that dried pasta tends to roughly double in size when cooked. Getting the kids’ portions right is a bit more tricky, but it doesn’t matter if I have been too generous. It will always get eaten up the next day.

Pasta Pie…

Our favourite leftover pasta dish is Pasta Pie. It’s really just an Italian omelette made with pasta, and you will have to trust me on this one – it’s delicious! It works brilliantly with spaghetti and it’s a great way to empty the fridge. Just beat a few eggs in a big bowl and then throw in, cooked pasta, cooked meat like bacon, ham, or sausage, cooked veggies, try peas, roast peppers, courgettes, a bit of garlic, loads of grated cheese and herbs and seasoning. Stir it all about, tip into a large frying pan and cook until it starts to brown underneath. Finish it off under the grill until gorgeously golden.

This is great chopped into wedges with a salad for lunch and the kids love ‘pasta pie’ for supper.

Have you got any clever ways to use up leftover pasta that you’d like to share? I’d love to hear them…

More Tasty Pasta Dishes…

Tuna Pasta Bake
Quick Pasta Carbonara
Big Spaghetti Bolognese
Ripe Tomato and Basil Pasta
Ham, Roast Garlic & Spinach Pasta
Vegetable Lasagne

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A Piece of Pasta Pie

A fortnight’s food…

I start by writing down what we need for the big one – Christmas lunch. Then I work out who’s coming to stay and what other meals I’ll need to provide. We tend to throw a party the week before Christmas and have people over for New Year, so I plan for those evenings as well. Then I fill in the gaps – a bit like joining up the dots – using leftovers and items from the store cupboard and freezer, until I have the whole fortnight’s food pretty much sewn up.

My extended store cupboard…

I treat my freezer as an extension to my store cupboard, only much colder. I’ve been buying a little bit for Christmas each week, already i have cocktail sausages, streaky bacon, sausagemeat and puff pastry in the freezer. Stocking up now means any unannounced visitors will be easy to cater for and they’ll be terribly impressed by how organised I am! (As long as I don’t lose my lists…)

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Christmas Crowd Control

There must be loads of people who face the same dilemma every day – finding ways to make your budget stretch further means jazzing up your leftovers to feed a hungry family. Short of starving the kids, which I’m told is illegal, sometimes you are forced to create something out of nothing.

The well-stocked store cupboard…

This is where the essential store cupboard comes in. I try and keep it well-stocked with tinned and dry goods, so that it is relatively easy to throw together a meal without having to think too hard about it – because like most working mothers, my brain is addled by the end of the day. I always used to smile at my mother’s larder, overflowing with tins and bottles and jars and packets, but now I can see why she stockpiles things. By combining what’s in the fridge with the stuff on the shelves… and a dollop of creative imagination, there’s always something to feed the family. Just don’t forget to keep an eye on dates – we have found jars of homemade gooseberry jam dated 1986 in Mum’s cupboard!

Pasta tonight then…

There’s always pasta in the cupboard and it takes no time at all. If I cook some onion and a bit of garlic, chuck in a tin of tomatoes after a few moments, and simmer for a while with a spoonful of sugar and dried herbs – there’s my sauce. Then add the tired courgettes and chopped chicken. Stir it through the pasta, grate the cheese over. Phew. Crisis averted. Hungry kids fed.

Let me know your ideas – I’d love to hear them.

More recipes to make something out of nothing…

Ham, Roast Garlic and Spinach Pasta
Quick Noodles Carbonara
Tuna Pasta Bake
Ripe Tomato and Basil Pasta

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Making something out of nothing

A forgotten and very furry loaf of bread…

The Green family, prompted by the discovery of a forgotten and very furry loaf of bread, have challenged themselves to a week of zero food waste. Mrs Green has been checking her use by and best before dates, and planning her grocery shopping around what she already has got in her fridge, freezer and store cupboard. Already she feels she’s saved money and drastically reduced how much food she was throwing away. So just how is Mrs Green getting her family to eat up those leftovers? “If you don’t eat it, you’ll find it in your soup!” Inspired!

Take the challenge…

Challenge yourself to a week of zero food waste. It’s a brilliant way to see just how much food gets thrown away in your house – even if you don’t think you are very wasteful, it’s a real eye-opener. It is also great to see just how much money you can save. Start by getting to know your Best Before and Use By dates which can be quite confusing. Knowing what your dates mean will help you use up stuff safely without having to cross your fingers!

More tips for a week of zero food waste…

Store cupboard essentials
Five sure fire ways to save money on your food bill

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The Zero Food Waste Challenge