Made my favorite roasted carrot & red lentil ragout tonight. I usually serve it over rice but tonight I mixed 1/4 c tri-colored quinoa with 3/4 c basmati rice (thanks sisi!) and cooked as usual. It was a great combo and helped me dig into three different jars in the pantry. Only problem, as soon as I get low on any of these staples, I freak out and buy more. At this rate, I'll never clean out my pantry.

Love these Brown Rice-Mushroom "Burgers" and got to use up walnuts, pecans, brown rice and homemade bread crumbs. Tomorrow the rest of the brown rice goes into Bryant Terry's Roasted Winter Vegetable Jambalaya from a recent issue of Vegetarian Times. One bag down, many more to go. Yay!

Olive Oil Tart Dough served as the base for my veggie pie. I added herbs to the dough but after covering a pre baked shell with tomato jam (Food in Jars) , sautéed onions, orphan veggies, chard stems and greens I couldn't taste it. Maybe I work it too much but my olive oil doughs are cracker-like not flaky. If I get it right I won't need to fall back on store bought pie crusts again.

Roasted Tomato Soup is a perfect Sunday night meal from the pantry. Although the instructions are for fresh tomatoes, the initial comments explain how to used canned, which for much of the year are the tastier alternative. I'm always looking for labor saving steps- like roasting the garlic in the skins rather than mincing then pasting them. I also placed the chopped onions and herbs (celery leaves and parsley) under the tomatoes. A little miso paste for saltiness, an immersion blender for laziness and dinner is served.

Figgy Buckwheat Scones: Used up an old bag of somewhat crystallized dried figs-- the jam is delicious.  The scones turned out very nicely and I didn't find the dough difficult to work with. Unfortunately for the pantry challenge, I still have about 1/3 cup of buckwheat flour left-- grrr!

Using up the red lentils left me by a friend who moved to southeast Asia, AND the tamarind pods we have had for years.  (They were still fine.)  Red Lentil Eggplant Stew.  There are of course still many other ingredients waiting for another turn. 

There is no way the challenge can last long enough for me to use up my pantry supply of beans, grains, etc. But I love the idea and I am in!

I made Heidi's Oatcakes out of what I had in the pantry/fridge after working the weekend (and Monday). Perhaps the batter was dry because I had to sub some instant oats for half of the rolled oats (a VERY uncomfortable feeling to be out of oats. I meant to smush the flax seeds in the mortar & pestle for digestibility but forgot. I had used up all my walnuts so subbed pecans; and buried nuggets of forgotten goat cheese in the middle. I even used some neglected buttermilk, forgot @ the bananas in the freezer but I bet they would add a new dimension to the recipe.

I found another stash of potatoes, fortunately before meltdown (not a pretty thing) to use for the crust. I roasted cauliflower and steamed Red Russian kale, the last of my CSA for the year, for the filling. Heavily adapted to what was on hand: crumbled feta, Greek yogurt and farm eggs for the custard. I served it with roasted wedges of Kabocha squash which was threatening to compost on the counter. This is not a quick recipe in spite of roasting cauliflower in advance, but the potato crust is sort of like a latke and makes it all worth while. ;D

Finished up the wild rice by adding it to the Kale and Toasted Coconut Salad

10/31 we had tuna sandwiches with preserved lemon, and 'last of summer' tomato caprese salad with kalamata olives. Then tonight 11/01, Roasted Cauliflower & Hazelnut Salad (Jerusalem) with barley and pecans instead of hazelnuts with za'atar potatoes and fennel ( Big Sis Little Dish ).

Fried rice, the ultimate frugal meal- pantry, fridge & freezer items. I made Chinese Indian Vegetarian Fried Rice, a spicy variation based on a dish at a Chinese Indian restaurant in NYC. The sauce is a mix of ketchup (I used tomato jam from Food in Jars), chile sauce (I used 1/4 of the recommended amount) and soy sauce. I added rice wine vinegar to increase the volume, and cooked left over diced turkey separately in the sauce. It was just like Chinese spare ribs or twice cooked pork. The cheat- frozen mixed vegetables so its on the table in minutes.

Have you seen this? http://cookyourcupboard.tumblr.com/

I just love seeing people's weird pantry items.