Silvana Franco’s guide will allow you to finally make good use of those products collecting dust at the back of your cupboard. Photo / Getty Images
OPINION
After an indulgent winter break, a quick glance at my bank balance has made one thing clear: it’s time to tighten my belt and get the family’s household budget back on track.
The eating out, daytime boozing and mince pies have all left their mark, not just on my wallet but on my waistline too.
Now that the holiday is well and truly over, the fridge is certainly looking a little depleted. The food cupboards and freezer tell a slightly different story, however, and could provide the solution to getting back on track. Instead of returning to my old weekly routine and splurging on yet more groceries, could I shop my own cupboards – and freezer – and finally put those overlooked tins, jars and packets to good use? Here’s how:
Rather than rummage through the fridge looking for inspiration as is my usual daily method when trying to conjure up an easy lunch for myself and a proper dinner for the family, when the shelves are nearly bare, a more strategic approach to meal planning is called for.
While I am prepared to buy a few fresh essentials when necessary, such as milk and eggs, my key goal is to spend as little as possible while using up foods that are reaching their best-by dates. That means turning first to the food in my store cupboard that I’ve already shelled out for and leaning into the freezer for useful but mostly ignored ingredients such as sliced bread, fruit and vegetables.
Begin by going through the cupboards shelf by shelf, checking the dates to see if anything is approaching its expiry. In recent years I’ve conducted an annual pantry overhaul, so while there’s nothing vintage, there are plenty of half-empty packets that need consolidating into containers and a fair few jars and cans that are reaching their best-before that need to be put to good use sooner rather than later.
I also make a note of any untouched or multiple packs to ensure I don’t buy them again (a sort of reverse shopping list). Now is also a great time to use up any emergency ingredients. In my case, it’s tins of tomato soup and pouches of microwavable rice (so my nearly-adult kids will survive if I miss the last train) that never seem to make it off the shelf.
I come across several forgotten impulse purchases patiently waiting for their moment to shine (hello, hearts of palm and pickled walnuts) – I’ve put these items right at the front of the cupboard and have given myself until the end of the month to come up with a good plan for them before they go on a food sharing app.
I’m not a natural menu planner, but there’s no better way to ensure a balanced set of meals than by drawing up a schedule of dishes to last the week. It doesn’t need to be too laborious; there’s no need for detailed spreadsheets, but a plan for each day’s meals noting the ingredients to use up and a list of anything that needs to be bought will set you up for success.
Once sorted by date, I group together ingredients that would naturally work together to form the basis of a meal. I try to ensure each meal is nutritionally balanced in terms of complex carbs, protein and fibre (see below).
Some ingredient groupings are simple to spot – for example, a can of black beans, some rice, a jar of grilled peppers and can of tomatoes are shouting out to be baked into a spicy Mexican-inspired rice dinner. Likewise, a storage container of pasta remnants such as spaghetti, linguine and fettuccine can all be boiled together even if the cooking times are slightly different – any variance in texture will enhance the dish once they’re tossed with garlicky anchovies, a slow-cooked tomato sauce or jarred pesto and frozen peas.
I come across an excessive amount of dried beans and lentils that will be brilliant in soups and stews, but finding suitable partners for quinoa and bulgur wheat takes a bit more thinking. I also have a decent supply of longer-life root vegetables, including potatoes, onions, carrots and garlic that can be used to add bulk and flavour where needed, as well as a couple of oranges and lemons.
Whether considering what to make for lunch or dinner, carbohydrates such as rice, pasta and grains are often the starting point of my meal planning. They’re in plentiful supply in my store cupboard and there’s enough variety to use several types throughout the week without it feeling monotonous.
Protein in the form of beans and other pulses, tinned fish, nuts and seeds, and meat or fish from the freezer are next on the list, and adding enough variety using just what I already have to hand proves quite challenging. Eggs and basic dairy such as milk make it on to my “essentials” shopping list. I have parmesan and mature cheddar in the fridge, plus half a tub of feta, all of which can be used for flavour and to boost the protein count in meat-free dishes.
I aim to use only tinned, frozen and dried fruit and vegetables and am keen to whittle down the many half-bags of peas, soya beans and frosted-up cubes of spinach lurking at the back of my freezer.
Read more: Where to store your groceries: Do spreads, condiments and chocolate go in the fridge or pantry?
Breakfast
There are plenty of long-life ingredients, including whole oats, cereal and peanut butter, in the store cupboard, as well as berries and bread in the freezer, so I expect my family to make their own nutritious breakfast without me having to factor it into my planning. In the event, when the cereal runs out (surprisingly quickly), my 15-year-old daughter turns to microwaving her own porridge while my husband makes a surprisingly decent granola and an excellent dent in the baking cupboard, using up dried fruit, seeds and a satisfying amount of desiccated coconut.
Lunch
If there are no leftovers from dinner to utilise, then soups are my next stop when it comes to making a nutritious lunch. I have an electric soup maker, which takes a lot of the effort out of the prepping and even keeps it warm if I get stuck on a work call, but a big saucepan and a stick blender, if you’ve got one, can magically turn basic store cupboard ingredients such as lentils and canned tomatoes into a delicious meal.
I’m also a fan of instant noodles and liven them up by whisking an egg into the broth, adding frozen vegetables for fibre and bulk, and a sprinkle of sesame seeds, crispy onions or flaked seaweed from the store cupboard for texture and flavour.
Long-life tortilla and wraps are fantastic sandwiched together with any available fillings and crisped up in a frying pan like this easy pizza quesadilla from Xanthe Clay.
Dinner
Hearty pasta dishes, one-pot casseroles and many different traybakes form the basis of my family meals. The slow cooker proves useful both for the convenience of being able to go out for the day and come home to find dinner ready and for the energy and cost savings.
Treats
My overstuffed baking cupboard, along with leftover Christmas chocolate, means that cheap and easy treats such as coconut flapjacks, macaroons and oat muffins are easy to knock up over the weekend. However, I only have one packet of butter in the fridge and want to make it last, so look for recipes that use olive oil, coconut oil or suet as the primary fat source.
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Like any plan, the ones that work are those you stick with, and cooking from scratch does take more effort, especially when you’re limited to using only what’s available. But not being able to rely on my standard repertoire definitely inspires more creative thinking – particularly once I’m a little bored of lentil soup.
As a family, we discover a love of fluffy dumplings and suet pastry (getting rid of an unopened box of vegetable suet in the process). We make pizzas at the weekend which prove not only incredibly inexpensive but a fun task, too – and absolutely delicious. I also use up meat and fish that had shamefully been left to develop freezer burn at the bottom of the freezer – while the texture in some cases has declined, the food itself is still safe and I can’t justify wasting it.
Yes, we ate a lot of beans and pulses. We drank most of the wine in the house and finished off the Christmas sherry. The only things I bought were milk and eggs and one ball of mozzarella to mix with cheddar for pizza, saving the household budget around £300 (NZ$660) for the two-week period (and I also went back down to my usual belt notch).
Read more: Tips for spring cleaning your pantry
If you need a break from the slopes or don’t fancy a ski, there’s still a lot to do this.