Me vs. My Pantry

Making the most of what I have and trying not to throw it all in the bin

We moved house last week and when I close my eyes at night, all I see is cardboard boxes. But it’s all for a good cause. We moved to be closer to the theological college where my husband is studying this week and are now the inhabitants of a happy little inner city terrace with a wicking bed and tomato vines climbing up the windows.

I was determined to use up some of the bits in my pantry before the move, since we had enough to move to the new place already and I didn’t want to chuck everything away and waste all that food. Our friends (and reader of this Substack!) suggested I document the process of trying to find good (delicious) end points for the half empty packets in the back of my pantry. Here are the six things that were perfectly fine to use but that I might otherwise have thrown away.

Gluten-free breadcrumbs, dried shiitake mushrooms, Green Banana flour, Dried currants, Mixed nut butter and rice flour.

An almost empty jar of nut butter.

This nut butter is yummy. It’s almonds, Brazil nuts and cashews blended together. Too full to throw out but so close to empty that its annoying to keep, so I made a chia pudding straight in the jar to soak up all the yummy nut butter goodness. No recipe here, just do whatever you usually do but in an almost empty jar. You can also do this with overnight oats, and almost empty jam jars.

Nut butter and chia pudding

Gluten Free Bread Crumbs.

Half a bag of gluten free breadcrumbs does not excite me like most food does. Even that photo is the most boring photo I’ve ever taken. But, the gluten free sausage rolls I made with this bag of breadcrumbs were much more exciting. I used the recipe from Kate Young’s Little Library Cookbook and made GF substitutions where needed. Each of her recipes is inspired by a book and the sausage rolls are Harry Potter inspired!

Breadcrumbs becoming sausage rolls

About 3/4 cup of green banana flour.

Some people avoid the problem of having lots of open packets of different flours by not buying anything but plain wheat flour. Those people probably have much simpler lives, but I am not one of them. Having gone through a few different iterations of grain free, gluten free and wheat free in the past year, I have picked up some interesting flours along the way. Green banana flour has quite a savoury and earthy taste and while it’s nice, its probably not one I will buy again. I used the packet from my pantry in some zucchini and corn fritters. I haven’t tried every flour, but most weird and wonderful flours will fritter or pancake, so it’s a great way to use them up. I just add eggs, milk, baking powder and seasonings and fry them up! They’re not pretty but they taste great.

Brown flour, brown fritters

A box of rice flour.

Another random flour. I think this one came back from a camping trip with us after I swore we would use it up in no time. This one might not be called quite a success as the rice flour did come to the new house with us, albeit in a new, hopefully more useful form – a gluten free flour blend (from The Loopy Whisk). Extra points because I used up a packet of corn flour too, minus points because I had to buy potato starch to finish the recipe, so I think we about broke even here.

Flour being made into more flour.

Half a bag of dried shiitake mushrooms.

We bought these to make ramen when we had friends over for ramen last year, so I thought the best thing to make with them could only be more ramen. This is a dinner that everyone likes and while I confess to not making the 48 hour authentic broth commitment, this meal did use up mushrooms, chicken stock, half a packet of brown rice noodles, some miso paste and the remnants of a bottle of sesame oil, which was a huge win for this project. I’m not trying to be authentic this week, I’m just trying to clear our my pantry.

Mushrooms and Ramen for dinner!

Half a jar of dried currants

I had a vision of myself in a state of domestic bliss, cooking Chelsea buns in my new kitchen and offering them to the moving team as a heartfelt and delicious token of thanks. Instead, but me and my kitchen were a sweaty mess until a few days after we moved, so the currants came to the new kitchen and were happily eaten in Chelsea Buns here. I made a gluten free, dairy-free version (of course) starting with this cinnamon scroll recipe and adding currants and the typical Chelsea Bun glaze. I doubt there are any Chelsea bun purists reading this, but if there are, please be kind to me.

Currants and Chelsea buns finished proofing and ready to go in the oven.

We’re all moved in now, and I’m ironically enjoying having a larger pantry with more space for more half finished packets of food. But this little project has saved some half eaten packets from the bin and worked my muscle of using things up instead of just moving on to the next thing. It’s also reminded me how much I love some of the things I cooked along the way, like Chelsea buns. So, while the pantry is a little tidier, I might have to go out and buy more currants.