Pantry Challenge – Day 6

Over the last couple of days we have made some fun things with our stocked ingredients. Wednesday night (day 4), I made a Thai Chicken Coconut Curry (based on recipe here: https://www.averiecooks.com/thai-chicken-coconut-curry/print/) with brown rice. The ingredients used were:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion
• 2 chicken breasts, diced
• 1 teaspoon of mined garlic
• 1 teaspoon crushed ginger
• 2 teaspoons dried, ground coriander
• 1-16 ounce can coconut milk, full fat
• 1 1/2 cups shredded carrots
• 1 tablespoons Thai red curry paste
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• about 3 cups fresh spinach leaves
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• rice, quinoa, or naan, optional for serving

I realized that I am probably going to run out of pour olive oil soon, but I have olive oil spray, avocado oil spray, coconut oil, and vegetable oil to fall back on. I also have some sesame oil that will work in a pinch and will definitely be good with any Asian dishes.

I also finished up the tomato soup for this weekend. I am hoping the soup will be equally as good on Saturday, but I wanted to make it before the tomatoes started to turn and when I still had time. I thought about freezing it, but decided against it. G got to taste this soup on Wednesday with his bananas. My husband also gave him a tiny bit of hummus when he was snacking on carrots with hummus. I know you technically aren’t supposed to give foods like that to a baby to try for his first foods, but considering what I have seen some parents put in a 6 month old’s mouth, I think he will be ok. Tomato soup ingredients used:

• 20 roma tomatoes
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 large yellow onions
• 1 whole head of garlic
• 2 – 28 ounce cans of whole Marzano Tomatoes
• 3 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
• 4 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 2 quarts chicken stock or water
• salt and pepper to taste

Thursday, I had the last green apple with some walnuts. I am so sad these are gone! I love green apples so much! Lunch was leftover curry, which is now gone. For dinner, I made a butternut squash soup with the squash I roasted on Tuesday. The ingredients for this were:

• 1 leek, diced
• 1/2 celery heart, diced
• 1 large carrot (costco bag carrot, so a giant carrot)
• The rest of the rosemary from the fridge
• One whole, pre-roasted butternut squash
• One whole, pre-roasted acorn squash
• 2 red sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 – 32 ounce carton of low-sodium chicken broth

The butternut squash soup was pretty tasty. I didn’t add any seasonings to it except for the fresh rosemary and the salt that was already in the broth, so that I could feed the soup to G too. He loved it! I ended up feeding him about 4 tablespoons because he kept leaning in for more. I ended up putting him to bed before I ate, but when I got back down I realized I liked the soup the way it was and didn’t need additional seasons myself. I frozed about half of the leftovers in an ice cube tray so that G will have this for future meals. I refrigerated the other half for my lunch the next day and for G’s lunch and dinner the next day. I ended up using the leftover soup to put on the rest of the whole wheat spaghetti noodles that I had in the cupboard for lunch today.

The last and most exciting, in my opinion, is what I am doing with the sourdough starter I got from some of our friends. I pulled the starter out of the fridge and am feeding it to get it ready to make the bread that will eventually be the croutons for the soup I am serving at our Saturday course dinner. I am taking the discard and making pizza dough for tonight. Toppings will be tomato sauce, olives, mushrooms, and red onions on top. My husband will most likely be sad that we don’t have anymore cheese, but he will live. Everything appears to be working so I just hope that continues and we have an awesome next couple days of food eating!