# Pantry Creations?



## AnnMarie (Jul 16, 2010)

Hey guys, 

I poked around a bit to see if there's another thread like this, but couldn't find anything - if there's another one - we'll combine this in, etc. 


Anyway, I occasionally just grab a bunch of stuff and try to make something that would possibly taste good. Often it's a modification of a fairly normal thing, other times it's like 3 of the strangest things, but I have nothing else so I put them together somehow and see if it comes out like real food. 

Anyone else do this??

I am asking today because when I got home I started grabbing things and poking around and this is what I ended up with: 

3 small cans chicken broth (I'd have used a large single if I'd had it, I prefer those)
2 cans of corn (I had no creamed or one probably would have been creamed)
salt/pepper
Hormel Bacon Pieces
1 lb of shredded frozen potatoes (the hash brown kind)
and 1 package of instant cheesy mashed potatoes
1c or so of FF half and half
some dehydrated onion thingies from Tastefully Simple (onion onion)


Anything I used there that's not the real deal (a fresh onion or newly cooked bacon or actual cheese) is because I didn't have the real stuff anyway - hence the "experimental" aspect. 


So I dumped the broth, corn, potatoes, salt, pepper, and bacon into the pot and boiled it on medium heat (rolling boil) for about 20 mins. Started to smell amazingly good!! Stirred it up, checked potatoes and they were nicely soften up (I was a little afraid they'd stay real crunchy). 

Then I added in the instant cheese potato packet as a thickener, then the half and half. 


So that's it, and it's cooking still right now - always better the longer things set up. It smells GREAT and from what I tasted as quick sample it's really, really good. 

So basically a down and dirty potato corn chowder. 

I'm going to have it in a little while, but as of right now I would definitely like to remember and make this again. it was ridiculously easy and quick. 



Anyone else making crazy dinners?


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## jdsumm (Jul 16, 2010)

Sounds yummy! I LOVE cooking like this, I have done it lots of times and sometimes I come up with amazing stuff but never remember it so that I can recreate it. I can't think of anything in particular right now or I'd share it. But I really do enjoy experimenting like this.


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## AnnMarie (Jul 16, 2010)

hahah, that's exactly why I started the thread - I thought "how the hell am I ever going to remember this?? I was just grabbing things!"

This would be a great place, if we get some loony experiment right, we could record it for others and ourselves.


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## Fuzzy (Jul 16, 2010)

I thought you were going to make potato latkes with that list.


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## spiritangel (Jul 16, 2010)

oh my its how I mostly cook is how I came up with my chicken fried rice recipee and have a few more pics floating around that I have yet to post of things I love to be a free thinking cook


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## Wild Zero (Jul 19, 2010)

I just threw together a badass sauce with 
1/2 cup Korean BBQ sauce
1/2 cup chunky chipotle salsa
two pinches of sea salt
and a dollop of Teddie peanut butter

popped it in the microwave long enough to melt the peanut butter, mixed it up and threw it on pasta.

Delicious blend of sweet and heat.


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## SoVerySoft (Jul 20, 2010)

Wild Zero said:


> I just threw together a badass sauce with
> 1/2 cup Korean BBQ sauce
> 1/2 cup chunky chipotle salsa
> two pinches of sea salt
> ...



sounds terrific!


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## AnnMarie (Aug 17, 2010)

Dammit, I want this thread to work!!! I will not.give.up.yet!


So last night in a moment of desperation I threw together: 

1.5 cups of left over white rice
parmesean cheese (dry kind, nothing fancy)
butter
salt/pepper/onion powder
can of peas


It was delish! I was shocked. In fact, it was so good that I'm making it deliberately again tonight, except I only have a can of peas and carrots - hoping they don't throw it off too much. 


MOAR PEOPLE MUST DOO THIS!??

ugh.


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## supersoup (Aug 17, 2010)

AnnMarie said:


> Dammit, I want this thread to work!!! I will not.give.up.yet!
> 
> 
> So last night in a moment of desperation I threw together:
> ...



when i have my own place/pantry, i totally do this, and will post allllll over this thread.

in the past, i have done...


blue box mac n cheese prepared as per the box; mixed in tuna and can of peas; dumped into a baking dish and top with the remnants of a box of cheezits and some butter chunks, baked at 350 til bubbly on top. 20 mins maybe? SO GOOD.


i like to take leftovers from holidays, i.e. taters/turkey/stuffing and mix them all together, cold...scoop it into big balls, and flatten em in a pan with a wee bit of oil. amazing.


oh, and one night my brother and i were hungry, but there wasn't much in the house, so i threw frozen tater tots, a frozen hillshire farms turkey kielbasa that we chunked up, shredded cheese remnants from like 3 different bags, and packet gravy all into a baking dish. i baked it at like 350 for 20 minutes...something like that, and it was soooo good. ha. that sounds gross, but it was great.

potato flakes/instant mashed potatoes, and i make them a little drier/not as loose as they would be if i followed the liquid amounts exactly. then a can of any kind of soup dumped on top a bowl of the 'taters'. again, SO GOOD.


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## AnnMarie (Aug 17, 2010)

supersoup said:


> blue box mac n cheese prepared as per the box; mixed in tuna and can of peas; dumped into a baking dish and top with the remnants of a box of cheezits and some butter chunks, baked at 350 til bubbly on top. 20 mins maybe? SO GOOD.




You will make me this. And I will rejoice.


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## supersoup (Aug 17, 2010)

AnnMarie said:


> You will make me this. And I will rejoice.



done and done!


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## Esther (Aug 17, 2010)

supersoup said:


> blue box mac n cheese prepared as per the box; mixed in tuna and can of peas; dumped into a baking dish and top with the remnants of a box of cheezits and some butter chunks, baked at 350 til bubbly on top. 20 mins maybe? SO GOOD.



This sounds like something I do! Except I use the white cheddar mac and cheese and mix it with a can of tuna and some peas. I have never done it like a casserole though... sounds like a good idea!

I often clean out my vegetable crisper by making random pasta dishes. As long as I have some kind of noodle and some olive oil, parmesan cheese and garlic, pretty much any veggie can be thrown in. The other day I did mini cheese tortellini with diced zucchini, red onion, some sweet peppers from my garden and some random snap peas I had laying around... and it was actually REALLY good.


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## Ash (Aug 17, 2010)

AnnMarie said:


> You will make me this. And I will rejoice.



It is so yum.

:eat1:


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## AnnMarie (Aug 17, 2010)

Ashley said:


> It is so yum.
> 
> :eat1:



Why do you torture me, fattie!? So mean.


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## Fuzzy (Aug 18, 2010)

supersoup said:


> blue box mac n cheese prepared as per the box; mixed in tuna and can of peas; dumped into a baking dish and top *with the remnants of a box of cheezits* and some butter chunks, baked at 350 til bubbly on top. 20 mins maybe? SO GOOD.



try also... *with the remnants of a bag of crushed sour cream and cheddar potato chips*..


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## succubus_dxb (Aug 19, 2010)

just had a look in the fridge and cupboard.....

frozen veggies
beef sausages
cheese
assorted bits of veggies from this weeks dinners
tzatziki

sooo..... I've decided to make up a home made pizza base and chuck them all on (will cook the sausages out of their casings like ground beef) 


If it's not a complete disaster, i'll post pictures


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## Dr. Feelgood (Aug 19, 2010)

A survey of my refrigerator revealed:

*about a cup of soy chicken (you could use real chicken)
*half a can of condensed mushroom soup
*one-fourth of an 8-oz. container of sour cream
*half of one of those tiny cans of chopped green chiles
*and a scallion

I chopped up the scallion and the soy chicken and sauteed them in 2 Tsp of peanut oil. After about five minutes I added the rest of the stuff and mixed it all up. Meanwhile I had brought some water to a boil, so I cooked some pasta (mostaccioli), which I drained and then mixed with everything else. I greased a casserole dish, emptied everything into it, sprinkled grated cheddar over the top, preheated the oven to 350, and baked it for 20 minutes. It turned out to be a keeper.:eat2:


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## Jes (Aug 20, 2010)

All right. Here's my secret shame, finally made public after all these years.

You take one roll of the 4-rolls-for-a-dollar round biscuits (or at least they used to be) and you put them into a pyrex pie dish. Bake. Then pour on 3/4-1 cup of prepared Marinara (prego, etc.). then add shredded cheddar. Let the last 2 ingredients heat up. Eat by pulling biscuits off one-by-one.

Yes. I know.

Obviously, it would've been better with mozz cheese, but I never had any. This was my go-to college study food, when I was young and desperate. That shit was cheap, and it was filling. I never cooked at home, so I wonder if I even knew there was shredded mozzarella at the store. Maybe I did but I wouldn't have used it for other stuff, so I got a cheap block of cheddar. And yes, I shredded it myself (I mean, it--POOR). 

That dish got me through many a night during my undergrad (and grad?) days and afforded me a 4.73 GPA, so it couldn't have been all bad!

And, I think, with mozzarella, it might still be worth 1 more college try!


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## succubus_dxb (Aug 24, 2010)

ok, here's my Pantry Pizza- it was f*cking DELICIOUS! 

View attachment IMG_0863.jpg


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## littlefairywren (Aug 24, 2010)

succubus_dxb said:


> ok, here's my Pantry Pizza- it was f*cking DELICIOUS!



Yum! That looks really good, Bobbie!


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## Esther (Aug 24, 2010)

Dr. Feelgood said:


> A survey of my refrigerator revealed:
> 
> *about a cup of soy chicken (you could use real chicken)
> *half a can of condensed mushroom soup
> ...



I am totally gonna try this (with the soy chicken). I love pretty much any casserole-type meal, and I am always on the lookout for quick vegetarian ones.





Jes said:


> All right. Here's my secret shame, finally made public after all these years.
> 
> You take one roll of the 4-rolls-for-a-dollar round biscuits (or at least they used to be) and you put them into a pyrex pie dish. Bake. Then pour on 3/4-1 cup of prepared Marinara (prego, etc.). then add shredded cheddar. Let the last 2 ingredients heat up. Eat by pulling biscuits off one-by-one.



This actually sounds amazingly good to me!!!


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## AnnMarie (Aug 24, 2010)

Yay!! Posts and pictures.


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## Brenda (Aug 24, 2010)

One night I had not planned anything for dinner and wanted to avoid ordering out so I threw some things together and ended up with complete deliciousness! I have made it several times since and everyone I have served it to really enjoyed it.

Saute an onion and some garlic in a large skillet. Add one large can of crushed tomatoes and left over white wine (or red). Liberal salt and pepper and throw in about half a bag of frozen artichokes. As the artichokes soften use a wooden spoon to break them into small pieces. When the artichokes are cooked and the wine has reduced throw in some frozen shrimp (you could totally skip the shrimp but it is a nice addition) When the shrimp are done grate in some (okay a lot) of parmesan cheese and a splash of heavy cream. The goal is for it to be saucy not watery so you have to keep in mind that the artichokes will release liquid when adding the wine.

I served this over cheese tortellini because that is what I had but I think it would work with most pasta.


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## Wild Zero (Aug 24, 2010)

Tonight I had some tortilla chips, shredded cheese and leftover massaman curry w/veggies and sticky rice.

A minute in the microwave later and I was eating Massaman Nachos. They were goddamn amazing.


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## Dr. Feelgood (Aug 28, 2010)

In case you can't figure out what to make with the odds and ends you found in the pantry, help is available here. Type in the foods you want to consider and it will find you a recipe; or you can type in a dish and get a recipe for it. A word of warning, though: it's a British site, so the measurements are all metric; be prepared to convert!


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## FatAndProud (Aug 31, 2010)

Can I just say I love this thread? I do this ALLLLLL the time....as a college student...ya know...it happens lol

Today I made a fried egg with garlic, pepper, and Mrs. Dash's Spicy seasoning....and topped the fried egg with hot salsa. It was nice. Then I had some crackers with peanut butter. I needed something sweet lol


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## Mishty (Aug 31, 2010)

I made a sweet and sour type stir fry like this:

So in my Ma's fridge I found 3 baked thick cut pork chops, 10 baby carrots, half a yellow bell pepper and 4 cups or so of cooked brown rice.

From the pantry I grabbed a can of pineapple chunks,teriyaki sauce,soy sauce, clove of elephant garlic and a giant red onion.

I cut everthing into kinda long strips, and just sat there wondering how to get my pork that pretty red/pink color the Asian Palace always has. Well Catalina dressing work (just a drizzle) worked AWESOME!! I put my pork in a bowl and just tossed it around with the dressing and salt and pepper and some onion powder and right before i threw it in the wok i poured a tiny bit of pineapple juice(sugar makes carmel colors, sometimes) let it sizzle threw in half the garlic clove(sliced paper thin and in sheets). sizzzle. onion and carrots. sizzle. pepper. and then all my sauces went it, plus a half can of pineapples. i let it get bubbly and thick and i put it over the warmed rice.


Today I added a giant can of beef broth to the leftovers, added in 2 cups of the rice, the rest of the pineapples and now i'm gonna have soup. lol


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## Green Eyed Fairy (Aug 31, 2010)

AnnMarie said:


> Dammit, I want this thread to work!!! I will not.give.up.yet!
> 
> 
> So last night in a moment of desperation I threw together:
> ...



This actually sounds really good to me....as in it's uber starchy AND cheesy  :bow::bow:


My quick creation is usually making the boxed mac n shells (the kind with a pack of cheese....not the powdered stuff) but I boil frozen broccoli and cauliflower in with the pasta and pour the cheese over all of it. 
I'm thinking adding small chopped up chunks of ham or even frozen carrot pieces would be good, as well.


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## cinnamitch (Aug 31, 2010)

Take a can of spam cut it up into cubes, brown in the skillet with some oil, onion and garlic and a couple of potatoes that you cube. When its nice and brown and the potatoes are pretty soft, add a 14 oz can of diced tomatoes, simmer a few minutes , voila a meal thats pretty tasty and not that expensive . You can sprinkle some cheese over it if you have it and just cover it with a lid till the cheese melts


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## Mishty (Sep 2, 2010)

cinnamitch said:


> Take a can of spam cut it up into cubes, brown in the skillet with some oil, onion and garlic and a couple of potatoes that you cube. When its nice and brown and the potatoes are pretty soft, add a 14 oz can of diced tomatoes, simmer a few minutes , voila a meal thats pretty tasty and not that expensive . You can sprinkle some cheese over it if you have it and just cover it with a lid till the cheese melts



Girrrrrl you just took me back a decade! I love some Spam creations! 
And this one sounds rather yummy, I'd like it with some velveeta thrown in to cream it up! :eat1:


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## Cynthia (Sep 18, 2010)

Dr. Feelgood said:


> A survey of my refrigerator revealed:
> I chopped up the scallion and the soy chicken and sauteed them in 2 Tsp of peanut oil. After about five minutes I added the rest of the stuff and mixed it all up. Meanwhile I had brought some water to a boil, so I cooked some pasta (mostaccioli), which I drained and then mixed with everything else. I greased a casserole dish, emptied everything into it, sprinkled grated cheddar over the top, preheated the oven to 350, and baked it for 20 minutes. It turned out to be a keeper.:eat2:



Mmm, this sounds savory. My head is whispering, "Ooh, artichoke hearts!" so I might try adding that to your ingredients to see what happens. 

For everybody ... when I heard The Splendid Table on NPR today, it brought this thread to mind. The host has a really joyful, intuitive way of layering flavors, probably not unlike the way that artists paint. It's very cool to listen to her create as she talks.


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## AnnMarie (Sep 19, 2010)

Tonight: failure.

I was on the right track, but didn't execute it right, and I should have been able to forsee this as I've been cooking forever and I'm not half bad. 

I finely chopped a bunch of left over chicken, added breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, pinch of Bell's seasoning, onion powder (was going to mince onion, but I was in the middle of too many things so I quicked out), an egg, half a cup or so of chicken broth, and mixed it all up into a paste, rolled into balls, baked on 350ish for about 25 mins. 

TOOOOO DRRYYYYYYY. 

I think another egg and more broth would have been the way to go. I knew they were a little dry because the balls were not gooey, but sort of breaking apart a little... so that should have been my clue that I needed more moisture. I could have done a breadcrumb coating as well, and just fried them a bit, but I really wanted to avoid the frying. The oven worked well, but I think with more moisture and perhaps a breadcrumb coating I would have been a lot better off. 

Taste wasn't bad (next time real onion), but man.... DRY. Wow.


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## Dr. Feelgood (Sep 19, 2010)

Cynthia said:


> Mmm, this sounds savory. My head is whispering, "Ooh, artichoke hearts!" so I might try adding that to your ingredients to see what happens.



Artichoke hearts! Inspired! I'll bet some sauteed mushrooms would be good in it, too ...


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## Fuzzy (Sep 19, 2010)

AnnMarie said:


> Tonight: failure.
> 
> I was on the right track, but didn't execute it right, and I should have been able to forsee this as I've been cooking forever and I'm not half bad.
> 
> ...



Yeah, 2 egg whites, a little milk, and a breadcrumb coating. Makes me want to try it first, tho.


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## Wild Zero (Sep 20, 2010)

Lemon Bars

I had some Lemon Bar mix and was like "f' that noise" when I saw it was just some eggs and water in the mix. Threw in a half stick of butter, two scoops of buttercream frosting and a cup of cream.

My girlfriend had a slice and reported it wasn't so much a lemon bar as a lemon custard pie.


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## supersoup (Sep 24, 2010)

AnnMarie said:


> Tonight: failure.
> 
> I was on the right track, but didn't execute it right, and I should have been able to forsee this as I've been cooking forever and I'm not half bad.
> 
> ...



this is along the lines of something i do with leftover thanksgiving crap. we are stovetop fans, as opposed to homemade in my family, so it's always on the dry side the next day. i finely chop up turkey, add in the stuffing, some spices, an egg, bit of mayo, aaaaaaaaand...some of the leftover gravy. they come out so delicious. also, this works really well with the jar gravy that's low sodium, it's my favorite way to do it, and better for mah beans. i only throw in enough mayo to make em gooey, maybe a couple of tablespoons. this actually started out as a fake meatloaf, but i prefer them as the meatballs.


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## Fuzzy (Sep 28, 2010)

I got a request the other day for my pancake recipe. I can't find it anywhere on the forum.. that doesn't mean it isn't there.. I'm just a 'orrible seacher. 

Anyway, i've never used a recipe, its just what I had on hand (8 ingredients), and it worked, and became the standard.

Beat 1 *egg* in a medium mixing bowl, add 2 cups *milk*, 1/3 cup *vegetable oil*, and 2 teaspoons *vanilla*. Stir until mixed, then add 2 cups *flour*, 2-3 tablespoons *brown sugar*, 1 tablespoon *baking powder*, and 1 teaspoon *salt.* Stir until blended, it will be lumpy.

Add more flour if too thin, add more milk if too thick. If you have 8 cups of batter, STOP!!!


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## Your Plump Princess (Sep 28, 2010)

I recall the other night we were really low on food and I looked into our pantry cupboard to find some canned chicken, broth, and vegetables. Mixed with some Egg-Noodles, and Bam! Stock-Pot full of delicious Soup!

When I Remember how exactly I turned it into soup, I'll type it all up.


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## Fuzzy (Sep 28, 2010)

Your Plump Princess said:


> When I Remember how exactly I turned it into soup, I'll type it all up.



Help! I'm all out of rep!


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## Your Plump Princess (Sep 28, 2010)

Fuzzy said:


> Help! I'm all out of rep!


GASP!

ImREPotence strikes again!


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## JerseyGirl07093 (Sep 28, 2010)

I thought of this thread tonight when I was making dinner. I was making pork chops and needed something to go with them. I sauteed some onions and peppers in olive oil. When they were done I removed them from the pan. I had originally intended to put them back over the pork chops but I changed my plans. I then cooked the pork chops in the pan and since I put some spices on the chops that I thought might not taste as good with the peppers and onions I decided to make the pepper onion combo into a new side dish. When the pork chops were done I set them aside and put the peppers and onions back in the pan and poured two little cans of tomato sauce over them. Then I added some leftover sticky rice that I had. I put the lid on the saucepan and let it all heat up so it would get hot and I could break up the rice and mix it in. It came out pretty good. It was sort of Italian but also reminded me of Spanish rice. It was a good side dish. Maybe next time I'd add some more spices but that's about it.


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## SuperSizedAngie (Sep 28, 2010)

Yesterday I was starving, but only had a few random things in the pantry. So I decided to put on my chef hat and see what I could come up with. 

I took a can of tomato soup, some heavy cream, some grated colby jack cheese, paprika, black pepper, and some canned chicken breast chunks. 

I heated the tomato soup until it was very hot, put the chicken breast chunks in there (they were pre-cooked, so I just heated them up completely), stirred in some cream until it was very tasty and mellow. I added in paprika and some black pepper for a little bit of kick and microwaved it some more. Pulled it out, stirred it up, added in some cheese, stirred again, layered a lot of cheese over the top, and then microwaved it until the top cheese layer was completely melted.

Mmmmmmmmmmm. It was so good. Way better than I'd been expecting.


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## Tooz (Sep 28, 2010)

AnnMarie said:


> Tonight: failure.
> 
> I was on the right track, but didn't execute it right, and I should have been able to forsee this as I've been cooking forever and I'm not half bad.
> 
> ...



Also try a 9 x 13" pan with water in it on the rack below to keep the cooking environs more humid.


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## AnnMarie (Sep 28, 2010)

Tooz said:


> Also try a 9 x 13" pan with water in it on the rack below to keep the cooking environs more humid.




Oh yeah, good tip! If I attempt these again, I'll be trying all the tricks... I'll probably end up with the wettest balls on the planet. 


I... eh... whatever, I'm leaving it.


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