2010-01-08

Day #9 & #10: Eating from my pantry: Rice Crust

Since my pantry is stocked with items that I have been dragging around for years, I decided the only way to make sure I get rid of it all without throwing it away was to not go grocery shopping. There will be no grocery shopping at all until Dec 31, while from January 2 through January 31 I will only buy fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, and meat. Wine, beer, and soda, of course, are excluded ;-)
Here is the list of items I started out with in my freezer/refrigerator/pantry.


My favorite use-it-up recipe is the rice crust recipe. I finally found a way to use leftover cooked rice. Here it is:
2 1/2 cups cooked rice
2 eggs, beaten
4 tbsp butter, melted
1/8 tsp pepper
Combine, mix. Press into ungreased 9 inch pie pan. Fill with desired filling of meat, vegetables, or cheese in white sauce (preferably whatever leftovers you have to make this a true leftover meal). Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

For those of you who don't know how to make a basic white sauce, here it is:
Melt butter in a saucepan. Throw in some flour, and mix that a bit until mixed well. Pour in a little bit of either milk, wine, or stock until it's the consistency you want. That's it.

You can use a white sauce as dressing over meat, in a casserole, pot pies, or over potatoes.

Tip of the day
When cooking, usually milk, wine, and stock are interchangeable. I can't think of any time that this is not true. (Note, I said cooking, not baking.

Pantry Items Used:
Chicken Pot Pie
• pastry dough
• leftover cooked rice
• 2 eggs (purchased)
• leftover chicken (purchased) & broccoli (purchased) & shredded zuccini from last summer's garden
• homemade chicken stock with flour & butter to make a white sauce
• handful of raisins in the rice (it's really good!)

The leftovers are from yesterday's baked chicken & broccoli over rice dinner.

And, as always, we have had zuccini bread for breakfasts.

Day #1
Day #2
Day #3
Day #4
Day #5
Day #6
Day #7 & #8

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