Baltrum

Necessity is the mother of invention--so what last-minute dish have you made up that turned out well?

I've made some miracle dishes out of a scanty pantry when I have forgotten about dinner guests and I've forgotten to go grocery shopping. Tell me about your experiences with last-minute recipes you whipped up! :)

Public Comments

1. noodles..
2. i find that almost any banana bread recipe turns out :)
3. I always have spaghetti sauce in the fridge and even though I felt like I had no food, I sliced rounds off of a polenta loaf and sauteed them, topped them with sauce, some frozen shrimp and a little parm cheese. Would have been better with mozarella, but I make that now when I plan for it. Also, I chopped up a bunch of peppers and broccoli once and put them in a small casserole dish, poured 4 beaten eggs and some seasonings over top and baked it. It was easy and nice for breakfast that felt a little out of the ordinary.
4. Once I used top ramen noodles, boiled them, microwaved some stir fry veggies, topped with some soy sauce and the seasoning packet...it was really good!
5. egg scrambles- fry potatoes, add tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, ham sausage, even summer sausage if thats all you got, then add eggs and scramble all together. Eat with tortillas or toast, whatever is available
6. I've made pancakes for supper when there's nothing in the house (from scratch) - kids love it.
7. the last ten minute meal i made was a chicken Penni with chicken, tomatoes, green peppers, onions, and banana peppers!! It was so good but only if you like that kind of stuff!!
8. shrimp enchladas.........quict fast easy they were fabulous
9. I cook brown rice in a rice cooker and heat up some frozen vegetables. Top with soy sauce.
10. ive made curry beef shepherds pie out of stuff in the pantry. fried rice with red cabbage and olives aswell as a lot of other things (mum said it was the best she ever had and she didnt know olives were in it lol) never made it as good since (cant work it out). puff pastry is good with leftover fillings tucked inside, serve with a side salad.
11. Last week I forgot to make my menu thru the whole week and buy enough groceries, so I started digging. I came up with ground beef in the freezer, fresh mushrooms, cream of mushroom soup, sour cream, half and half and egg noodles. So I made hamburger stroganoff with some home made beer bread and asparagus. It was a nice meal and definitely resulted from a little bit of stress at first.
12. This is hearty, but heavy. A bit heavy on the grease, but on a cold nite this keeps you going. 5 pounds of potatoes cubed into 2 inch peices. Leave skin on 1 large onion finely sliced 1 pound pepper bacon 2 cups sharp cheddar 1 cup mayo brown the bacon set meat aside. put potatoes in pan you cooked the bacon in, cooking in ALL of the grease until well brown mix cheese, mayo, onion and crumbled bacon into the potatoes. Serve warm
13. I needed a veggie dish one night and I mixed up a tomato/mushroom salad with balsamic vinegar and Italian seasonings. Served with pasta.
14. Years ago, I was in this situation. I had virutally nothing in my cubboards with people who dropped by unexpectedly. I had a can of beef stew (dinty moore or any store brand) and I had bisquick. In a pie pan or small casserole dish, open the can of beef stew, and dump it in. Mix up bisquick for like a bisquit dough. Cover beef stew with the bisquit/pancake dough and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 - 40 minutes or until the dough is done. Serve with mashed potatoes I called it my "Beef stew bake" and we have been eating it ever since LOL I am all for recipe's with very little ingredients that takes very little time to whip up :) I have 3 kids (Obviously) and I also work a full time job.
15. It all depends on what your pantry is like! I was searching for dinner food the other night and remembered I had leftover cooked chicken. Started water boiling and started searching for veggies. Added carrots strips I had (cause BF doesn't like crunchy), added pasta after they had boiled for a bit and then dumped in fresh broc halfway through that. Drained all of it - made a white sauce in the pan - added some parm cheese, the cut up chicken, pasta and veggies and heated through. Worked for us! I like to cook up a bunch of chicken ahead of time when it's on sale and freeze it in broth to make quick recipes later. Ground beef precooked comes in handy as well. Then there is always tuna casserole ....