May I impose again/tyytjones

Salt and pepper the stew meat, brown it in a skillet, and deglaze with wine, or water, beef stock. Add it all into the crock pot. That would add plenty to the flavor.

Gail, is the cupboard truly that bare? No staples? No rice, flour, pasta, bread of any kind? No oil? No vinegar? No cheese? Etc. If you have any of them it's a bit easier to make varied meals (or, at least, the appearance of varied meals) with what you've listed.

Assuming there really is nothing else laying around you've got a job to do to provide four meals that aren't precisely the same. But it can be done by cycling those ingredients in various ways. But with salt, pepper, and the spices you've named, you should be able to vary the flavors and presentation a bit.

Night one I would make a soup, using the beef, potatoes, some of cabbage, enough onion for flavoring, perhaps some of the carrot.

For night two I would cook that down a bit more, turning it into a stew. Then use some of the reserved veggies to make a salad.

If you have any sort of pasta, night three I would recombine the stew and veggies, and turn it into a pasta sauce, using the Italian seasoning. Or, if you have some flour, make pancakes, and serve the sauce over them.

Then, for the fourth night, I'd make another soup, including the leftover pasta as a component, and adding in oregano to kick up the flavors.

If you have even one egg laying around, you can vary your presentation by combining it with some of the mashed up carrots or potatoes (or a combination of the two), add in a little binder (flour, cornmeal, breadcrumbs, etc.) and make pan-fried patties out of them, to serve as a side-dish.

Frankly, this is a long way to stretch a pound of meat. But, fortunately, your other ingredients all happen to be hearty and filling. So the trick is to think of the stew meat as a flavoring component, rather than as the star of the show.

If you have some tomato sauce/ketchup, this can add some variety and flavour to your soups and stews.

If there's some bread about (or some pieces in the freezer), and its about to go stale, cut it up into croutons to use with the soups & stews. Adds flavour, crunch and is a great filler. Can just toast the slices, cut up, use what you need for the meal. Freeze the rest in plactic bags and seal up. When you want them hot and crispy for the next meal, just pop on a baking tray in hot oven for few minutes.

If you've got some flour and a bit of oil, you can make some flat bread, Google some recipes. They are good fillers as well, and add more variety. Or some spiced up flour and water dumplings to go as a filler into your soup or stew. Again, Google is our friend for these. They cook inside the soup/stew on the stovetop.

Or some of the veg mashed, work into a firm dough with flour, pepper and salt, roll out about 1/2 inch thick, fry in a pan with a little oil. Fry till golden underneath, then flip it over and do other side. Makes a nice "pan" cake. Take some juices from the stew/soup and pour over top to serve.

I remember (long ago!) hearing a story about Dolly Parton before she was successful and famous, making a meal at a diner that she called (I think) ketchup soup. Orders hot mug of water, adds ketchup from the condiments available at the table, S&P, and that was the meal. Think it's mentioned in one of her songs.

Look where she has come from there :) It cheers me up thinking about that when we've had a heap of bills cut right into the houseold budget - we're much the same this week. I've headed for the freezer last couple of days, and the tinned veg.

When you can, freeze up some meals from what you can, freeze up your leftovers even.... buy sausage meat to mix with a dried soup packet (e.g. French onion or chicken noodle soup), some mince if you have some, or minced up leftover meat/ chicken etc., some grated or chopped up leftover veg, S&P, spices on hand, even add leftover cooked rice, or some breadcrumbs, bit of grated cheese, egg if you have one, bit of mustard or sauce, make into patties and freeze. Any combo of these really, they come in really handy, make them to what you like to eat.

When you want to use them, eiher thaw and fry/broil/bbq them or just bung them onto a baking sheet into a moderately hot oven 200C/400F till done.


If you've got too much bread - freeze it! Great for toast/garlic bread, or just grate it straight from frozen for breadcrumbs. Sometimes the stores clear out the bread at slashed prices at certain times late in the day - visit your local shop at various times of the day - ours happens about 6.30/7pm, the meat is marked down at 11am-ish, vegies at 8am. I have done my homework...anything to save on food bils! Just use it quick or cook or freeze it, label and freeze it quick - no wastage.

Everyone has to be inventive at some stage - we're always here to help :)

Dolly Parton before she was successful and famous, making a meal at a diner that she called (I think) ketchup soup.

We've all gone through times like that, I reckon. And the easiest way of coping is with soups, because they're the most efficient way of stretching ingredients.

You know the old story about Stone Soup? How three traveling soldiers make enough soup to feed a village just with a borrowed kettle, water, and three rocks? I've written up an abbreviated version of it on my website, which you can find at Autumn Soup. Tips and techniques for making soups while camping this fall.

The beautiful thing about making soup, of course, is that there are no rules. You take whatever liquid you have, cook any other ingredients, spice it up as best possible, and, voila! Soup! Hot, filling, and, usually, nutritious.

I enjoyed reading this thread!

I am new here and particularly enjoyed this thread. In times of lean or flush, I love being creative and seeing what I can do with just a few ingredients. I currently have some lovely beef soup bones in my refrigerator and I'm looking to make a hearty beef soup for this gray fall Sunday in the Black Hills. What a great group this is! I am going to learn a ton.

>I had no idea all the things you could do with so little...<

The thing to remember, Gail, is that there's not one of us here who hasn't gone through lean times. Once learned, stretching limited food budgets is just something you never forget.

Your only real problem, I reckon, is that you don't realize how much you actually have to work with. I'd be willing to bet good money that there's more in your freezer than that bag of bread.

Welcome Tyyt :) Cars help us earn a living by getting us to work, then they take all our pay when they break down....hmmmmm!

KYH...love that Stone Soup tale, and yes, a stew is pretty much a thick soup, and soup a thin stew. I love making a soup that sits on a simmer for hours, walk away, leave it, do something else, come back, tweek it, and it waits faithfully for you to enjoy it later. A stew can need more attention, but if you make a big batch, you can save some, either fridge or freeze it, and the taste only gets better. Then you can change it, add a can of beans, or some lentils/pasta/dumplings etc etc.

I've got a really nice, thick, pea and ham soup in the fridge. Gets better every day. Just a packet of dried split green peas soaked overnight, drained, sautee large diced onion, stick of diced celery, big carrot diced and some garlic, add peas with enough water to cover, some chicken stock ice cubes that were lurking in the freezer, and couple of bacon bones that were hiding in freezer too. Lots of pepper, couple bay leaves, simmered very slowly about 4 hours (added more water along the way) then strained, blended with stick mixer, added meat picked from bones and chopped roughly. checked seasoning, and its darn lovely, "stand the spoon up in it" soup :)

Hi BHLocavore - good to see you here....this is a great place to learn many things, ask for help, and offer help, plus meet a great community :)

Daina

Next time you make soup make your own noodles. Recipe should be something like this:

2 cups flour
2 eggs
Pinch of salt
Enough water to make it come together

Knead it all together. Divide into 2-4 pieces, dust the cutting board with a lot of flour and roll each out about 1/4" then cut into strips. Doesn't matter how wide, just don't roll it out too thin. Drop into a pot of boiling water and cook until done. Not too long, 3-5 minutes or so maybe?