"Oh, crap, it's cold. I don't want to go anywhere. Do we have food?"

[eyesroll]

Yesterday was a "whip up a good meal with only pantry and freezer ingredients" day, as I had very little fresh food and it was 3 degrees out.

My pantry is well stocked with Asian ingredients.

Luckily, I had a 10-oz pork tenderloin in the freezer.

So, my dinner for two last night:
1. Defrost and thinly slice the pork. Dust with cornstarch, and marinate in soy sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, sesame oil and a touch of sambal oleck.
2. While that was marinating, I boiled up some rice noodles, then tossed with soy sauce (dark for color, light for flavor) and a little sugar.
3. I heated the wok, added some canola oil, and threw in some frozen green beans. I stir-fried until the beans were hot but not fully cooked, and then added a splash of rice vinegar and way too much sambal. Oops. (BEANS O FIRE!!!) I stir-fried until the beans were done and then dumped them from the wok and kept them warm.
4. After wiping the fire oil from the wok, I added the pork and stir-fried until it was cooked (only a few minutes), then threw in the remaining marinade, brought it to a boil and it quickly thickened into a nice gravy.

So, dinner was stir-fried pork, BEANS O FIRE!!! and rice noodles in sweet soy sauce. My SO was impressed.

What do you do when you have to cook from your pantry and freezer?

[Warpy]

1. My pantry is always stocked with beans and grains

so coming up with something using the other staples on hand like herbs and oil and onion and maybe some frozen veggies is always a snap.

I don't think there's a whole lot you can do to ruin beans and grains.

[mike_c]

2. I do more or less the same thing you did....

Stir fry and noodles is a pantry staple around here.

on edit-- soup, too, since I always have stock in the freezer, and there's usually a bit of this or that to add as well.

[fudge stripe cookays]

3. I'm gonna have to try that! n/t

[japple]

4. Always have plenty of soup stock and stuff to make soup.

On the other hand, I'm blessed with a huge garden, huge freezer, so I also have lots of frozen peas, beans, corn, and home canned tomatoes and usually some kind of casseroles from when I cook big meals on the weekend. I also have the top tier of my niece's wedding cake for dessert, but only in case of emergency. If things really get down to the bare bones, I can always make up a batch of bird suet from the ham broth and plain cornmeal that I always seem to have on hand!

[The empressof all]

5. I can usually throw together a few different things.

Tuna Casserole is always a good go to dish when there's nothing fresh in the house. We've been eating less tuna lately here so there us usually some in the pantry now. We use to have a hard time keeping it around but now it's just for those rare occasions.

I always can do a Puttenesca, or Marinara sauce and there's always pasta with just olive oil, garlic and butter.

I always have stuff for soup of some sort and there's always the favorite cleaning out the pantry meal.....Pancakes. They're great with a can of corn thrown in the batter......Yum......

[catnhatnh]

6. SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM....

SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM,...no,really, I have done this without the slightest help from John Cleese.I love and lust over my collection of canned meats....A freezer is great-I have and utilize two...but freezers can break, or power can go down, and in the end (in my twisted survivalist dreams) it may come down to just me and my canned goods.I have Spam, I have tons o' tuna, I have ham,and roast beast, and white meat chicken.....I keep cheese (like about 10-15 lbs at a time) that likes refrigeration but keeps for months if you cut the multi-colored fuzzies off....I have jerky and dried beef.Eggs keep almost amazingly long.Comfort food comes in cans.So, no, I do not fear the valley of the shadow of-or blizzards...

[anitar1]

7. If you wrap the cheese in waxed paper and then place in

a plastic zip lock, the fuzzies take forever to grow.

[noamnety]

8. Curry is my staple

I always have lentils, rice, and mung beans. I can always grind spices and add spuds, carrots, celery, etc. to that and come up with something decent.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

9. One can condensed mushroom soup...

one can condensed vegetable beef over minute rice. sinful