There are a lot of boxed and canned items in the cabinets here. There are 3 boxes of pasta, 2 boxes of rice, mac n cheese, and soup. These are foods that don’t usually make the cut for a weeknight meal, and with the nice weather coming probably won’t see the light of day.
In honor of being frugal and using up what we got, this week has been a challenge to use what’s in the cupboards.
Monday was pierogi salad. Since going to Pittsburgh last August pierogies have been a staple in the freezer. We had some salad that was going to go bad if not eaten, hence pierogi salad. This is always a good, filling meal.
Tuesday was loaded nachos. We used a can of refried beans, almost stale spinach flavored flour tortillas, and some veggies to load up those bad boys. We made our own chips by cutting up the tortillas, brushing them with oil, and baking them at 375 for about 10 minutes. They were AMAZING.
Wednesday we used a box of Annie’s white macaroni and cheese. Now, I was a bit leery about this because I’ve heard that Annie’s can be disappointing. To curb the disappointment, we cooked the shells, and while they drained threw some chopped onion, olive oil and garlic into the pot to cook down. Then, added 1/2 cup sour cream, yes, sour cream. The box said to use yogurt. We had no milk and no yogurt, but sour cream we had. Add the sour cream to the onion mixture and then the powdered cheese to make the sauce. We added some of our own shredded monterey jack cheese and cut up sundried tomatoes. To bulk it up and add fiber we added roasted cauliflower. Mix it all together, top with bread crumbs, and bake for about 20 minutes and voila!
This is the result:
Served with 1/2 a homemade English muffin and salad.
