Meal Ideas for the Limited Pantry

February 6, 2010 4:19 AM

Paycheck Deposit Borked: Help me figure out how to not starve for the next week until it's fixed!

So, long story short, I have $18.44 to last for the next week due to paycheck deposit woes. Luckily, I have some food in the pantry and I'm trying to figure out how to make it last for a week until this is all straightened out. I have:

~3 lbs white rice
~2 lbs brown rice
~2lbs each (dried) black beans, adzuki (small red beans), lima beans, pinto beans, navy beans and garbanzo beans
2 cans green beans
2 cans rotell
3 cans petit diced tomatoes
3 cans corn
1 package sour cream and chives potatoes
Various and sundry noodles
1 jar Alfredo sauce
2 boxes Kraft macaroni

So, give me your food ideas! I'm thinking alfredo one night, chili another and thats all I've got so far. I'm thinking I have the makings of some bean-ish soups, but I'm not sure what, recipes anyone?

Thanks for the help!

posted by julie_of_the_jungle to Food & Drink (20 answers total)

Response by poster: I forgot to add things from the fridge:

1/2 red bell pepper
Salsa
Sour cream
Lunch meat (honey ham)
posted by julie_of_the_jungle at 4:23 AM on February 6, 2010

Best answer: How many people are you feeding? It seems like chili and alfredo would be enough food for 1 or 2 people for the week.

My favorite cooking website is Cook for Good. She has some fantastic bean recipes and she guarantees her meals to cost on average $1.12 per meal.
posted by hydropsyche at 4:31 AM on February 6, 2010 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Looks like you could make some bean and rice burritos with what you have, if you are willing to spend a few dollars for some tortillas.
posted by twblalock at 4:32 AM on February 6, 2010

Response by poster: Cooking for two people, and the alfredo jar is relatively small, it's enough for a meal for two.

Burritos are something I hadn't thought of, thanks!
posted by julie_of_the_jungle at 4:40 AM on February 6, 2010

Not exactly what you asked, but do you have a lot of change in your couch cushions & etc? You can roll it and take it to the bank, or for like a 9% fee, just dump it in one of those Coinstar machines. I got like $30 that way once and bought some soup to eat!
posted by drjimmy11 at 4:54 AM on February 6, 2010

Best answer: Good thing you have the rice - it's more than enough to get you through the week.

You could make fried rice with the corn, green beans and lunchmeat.

Rice also makes a great breakfast. Add some brown sugar and cinnamon if you have any.

If you have any spices left, you can use the can of tomatoes and the garbanzo beans to make channa masala. Skip whatever you don't have in the pantry, and serve it on rice.

Add the red pepper to the macaroni and it'll taste slightly less like box food.

Do you have any other stables like flour or spices?
posted by embrangled at 6:12 AM on February 6, 2010

Best answer: Staples, that is.
posted by embrangled at 6:14 AM on February 6, 2010

You've got the black and red beans; one of them is for chili but you could turn the other into a different ethnicity of beans to give your beans week as much contrast as possible. Cajun red beans and rice, or Brazilian feijoada; might work well with your ham, if you're not planning on using that for sandwiches.

You might want to buy some onions.

good luck! I like that you're looking at this as an almost-fun challenge instead of purely a burden.
posted by aimedwander at 6:36 AM on February 6, 2010

Best answer: * Cook up the black beans. All of them. Because you can do a lot with that --

-- Black bean soup, which largely will just involve cooked black beans, broth, and onion.
-- Black bean salad, which you'd only need some cooked black beans, one can of tomatoes and one can of the corn for
-- Black beans and rice -- cooked black beans mixed with cooked rice.

* When you cook the sour cream and chive potatoes, save the leftovers. Then dump them into a pot, puree them, add milk to thin it out, and add a can of the corn -- that could be a really interesting corn chowder there.

* If you get some bacon and onions, you can stretch all of that for yards. You'd probably only be out 5 dollars. You could add cooked crumbled bacon to any of the bean dishes, sprinkle it on the chowder, and even crumble it up in the Kraft macaroni.

* If you really want to have fun, also pick up some grated parmaesan and some eggs with the bacon and make pasta carbonara -- for two people, you'd probably only need 2 eggs, about 5 slices of bacon, a half cup of grated parmaesan, and a half pound of pasta. This is really easy -- start the water going for the pasta, and while that's going on, get a big bowl and beat together the 2 eggs and the parmaesan. Let that sit. Then cut the bacon slices into pieces and dump them into a frying pan. When you put the pasta in the water and start that going, start frying up the bacon pieces; when they get crispy, turn off the heat, but LEAVE THEM IN THE PAN. Then when the pasta's done cooking, drain it and dump it into the bowl with the egg and cheese and mix it up. Then turn up the flame under the bacon just for a minute to warm it back up, and then dump the bacon - DRIPPINGS AND ALL -- into the bowl too. Mix that all up, add some black pepper, and dig in.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:43 AM on February 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

Not quite the answer you are looking for, but can you go to your employer and insist that since they messed up your paycheck, they give you a cash salary advance? Most companies have the means to do this. Can your human resources folks help out somehow?
posted by slateyness at 7:00 AM on February 6, 2010 [3 favorites]

Yeah, the answer depends on whose fault the paycheck problem was. If it was yours, somehow, you'll eat a lot of rice and beans this week, but you'll be fine. If it was your employer's fault, however, you should insist on being paid immediately. If your employer refuses, call your state's department of labor and ask them what to do about no-show paychecks. Also, if this is your employer's fault, you may want to start looking for a new job. Late paychecks (with a variety of excuses) are a classic sign of a business that is out of operating capital and is in danger of going under.
posted by decathecting at 7:04 AM on February 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

If you want to stretch the rice even more, you could make rice congee. I combine the rice with about 4 times the amount of water I would normally use (you can check the pot from time to time to add water if it's drying out), add in a knob of peeled ginger and throw in either a piece of fish or minced/ground pork. A rice-cooker makes the whole process very easy - if you don't have a rice-cooker you could use a regular pot on your stove, and cook on low/med heat (make sure the rice doesn't stick to the bottom and burn). The ginger and fish/pork help to flavor the congee, but it can be omitted or substituted with anything else you want. Plain congee can be eaten with condiments/toppings like soy sauce, sesame oil, slices of ginger, scallions etc for more flavor.
posted by aielen at 8:58 AM on February 6, 2010

When this kind of thing happens at our house I tend to get way more creative. All the food suggestions you've had are great. I would add, save all the leftover bits of rice, beans, bean soup and lunchmeat, mix them together in a food processor and make balls! Mix them, roll in flour and fry or cook in the oven.
The other thing I do is put a list of ingredients straight into google and see what comes up. I've discovered fantastic things like this. Once all we had were potatoes, milk and mackerel -- which created a fabulous fish gratin.
Let your imagination go wild! It can be a fun way to find new things you'll want to keep making even after you get the pay thing sorted.
posted by bwonder2 at 9:01 AM on February 6, 2010

There's always sample day at the grocery store.
posted by lakeroon at 10:58 AM on February 6, 2010

You could make a big pot of vegetable soup with noodles with what you have available (maybe grab an onion or two to add to the stock - they're cheap). Beans and rice on the side and you have more than enough food for a while. You can have the alfredo for variety during the week. Soup gets really good after a couple of days, so make a big pot.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 12:39 PM on February 6, 2010

Response by poster: Update:

I dumped all the (rinsed, sorted) black beans in the crockpot along with a can of rotell and it came out pretty fabulous considering the simple ingredients, so that concoction over rice is going to be lunch/dinner for today.

Tomorrow I'm thinking pinto beans and the bell pepper with some rice (maybe brown for variety? I'm not sure, I hate waiting forever for rice).

Next up will be fried rice ala embrangled's suggestion for lunch/dinner, then the Alfredo with some green beans for the next day.

Thank you so much for all of your suggestions, they turned this panic moment into more of an adventure and I'm grateful for that.

Also, yes, I probably should have a credit card for things like this but I've never signed up for one and don't really know what to look for in a card, but I guess that's a separate AskMe question though!
posted by julie_of_the_jungle at 12:44 PM on February 6, 2010

Check out a local Farmer's Market for fresh fruit and vegetables. If you go towards the end of the day, many farmers will unload their produce at reduced prices so they don't have to cart it all back or dispose of it.
posted by spinifex23 at 12:57 PM on February 6, 2010

My super easy chili/beans n rice dish: cook some rice seperately. Drain and rinse one can of beans (I like pinto beans), add this to a pot with one can of tomatoes. Throw in some garlic, onions, and anything else that looks interesting (jalapeno peppers, green peppers, celery, etc). Season with salt, pepper, and chili powder. Let cook for a half hour or so. Hubby likes his just out of the pot, kind of a watery chili, I like mine served over the rice. It's yummy.
posted by MsKim at 1:45 PM on February 6, 2010

You could make a delicious coconut curry stew that I wrote about in another thread.

You are only missing one ingredient which is a can of coconut milk (about 87 cents at an Asian store). If you don't have curry powder and your grocery store sells spices in bulk, you can just buy 1 Tbsp worth and it will not even register on the scale (so free).
posted by special-k at 4:51 PM on February 6, 2010

Oh and you would need 1 onion (also pretty cheap).
posted by special-k at 4:52 PM on February 6, 2010