How to use food in my pantry?

[twainny]

We just moved... and I think I moved more food than anything else! (yeah, I got a little carried away when chicken broth was on sale for 25 cents a can!) I have tons of canned food, pasta, rice, beans, etc. Anyone know of a website that I can list the food I have and it would tell me what I can make?

(obviously I bought the food for a reason, but I am looking for new recipes. Like I have all the ingredients to make chili, but I don't feel like having chili...)

My DH told me my goal is to not have to pack any food when we move in 2 years!

[Ericka_Jarett]

What I do is just a google search for a recipe for a food I want to use. ex - want to use kidney beans, you put that and tons of recipes will come up.

When we moved here in 2006 I had a tote of food, but most of it was newly bought before having the baby, since I was on bedrest.

[Kimberland30]

If you haven't signed up for the Kraft Foods magazine, you can go to their website and do it for free. It has a ton of great (easy) recipes that use common items in your pantry.

You could also get creative. If you have ingredients for chili, how about trying to use it with pasta? You can do a chili-bake using the same ingredients. Or make a ton of regular pasta sauce, and freeze some of it. That way if you want to make spaghetti or some other pasta dish, you don't have to prep the sauce (which takes up most of my time).

We always have a ton of canned veggies because I get them on sale. Every now and then I'll do a pasta dish and dump a can of corn it in. Or make Shepards Pie. Or add it to soup. I try not to buy so many staples, but it's hard when I don't keep 'inventory' of what I have so I always end up with more than I need.

I ended up giving a bunch of stuff to the food bank because I knew I wouldn't eat stuff before it expired. I'd rather have it go to someone who needs it rather than throw it out.

[Rosebud]

Allrecipes.com has an ingredient search (http://allrecipes.com/Search/Ingredients.aspx) feature. Simply enter the ingredients you have and it will list all the recipes you can make with them. I use this all the time.

[Medako]

try cookingbynumbers.com. You just chick on the items you have on hand and it will give you ideas and recipes.

[twainny]

rosebud & Medako - thanks, this was the sort of thing I was looking for!

errr- hmmmm... I just did the cookingbynumber thing, and yeah, well it said I can 1) eat an apple 2) fry an egg. I was looking for stuff a little more - filling! LOL

[Medako]

okay, so I didn't say it would always give GREAT ideas! :p

[twainny]

actually, I jumped to page 10, and the recipes started getting better! :) I will have to do that when DH returns! Thanks!