What creative recipes can you stir up with food pantry items?

Apple sauce makes a great substitute for veg oil in cakes. Helps them be moist. I would make chili, stir fry, or just serve corn as a side to a meat dish along with rice or mashed potatoes.

My ex used to make corn fritters. They’re sort of like pancakes, but with canned corn in them. You can throw all sorts of stuff in them, even jalapeño peppers. Yum. You can make them with cream corn, canned corn or frozen corn. Really doesn’t matter, just adjust the recipe and drain the corn well when using canned instead of frozen.

http://www.foodinaminute.co.nz/Recipes/Chilli-Corn-Fritters

The figs remind me of a steamed pudding recipe I love. I just make up the basic recipe and then add yummy things to it, like dates and figs and caramel sauce. Here is one from a GREAT standard book from New Zealand. Use figs instead of dates. http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-EdmCook-t1-body1-d1-d21.html

My husband made chili last weekend, and for the first time, added some canned corn. It was good! I think you can even make meatless chili, which should reduce the cost.

In our area, bacon is often on sale ‘buy one, get one free’. When it is, I always buy two, and throw one or both packs in the freezer. I make green beans in a crock pot, with pre-cooked bacon and onions mixed in. Delish!

Here’s a recipe for apple fritters that uses applesauce. They look yummy.

At first I thought you were looking for a recipe that used all of the ingredients you mentioned, yukkkkkkkkk!

I just saw Jamie Oliver make a dish with green beans that sounded good. He sauteed some garlic, chili, onion and an anchovy (which I could do without, although it actually dissolved in the pan with the heat) then added green beans and a can of stewed diced tomatoes. Simmered it for a bit until the beans were tender and then served. I was thinking with some roasted potatoes that would make a good main meal.

Lately I have bought a package of the frozen pie crusts. I take everything left over in the fridge, well one kind of meat and all the veg, mix up some gravy with a box of the liquid stock, pour it over the meat and veg, put a pastry on top and throw it in the oven. It makes a good tasty dinner. If you were trying to fill up growing kiddos, you could put the pastry on the bottom as well. I am always watching my weight so I just put it on the top. I used to do it with bisquick biscuits on top, that is good too.

Green bean casserole is always yummy. Canned cream of mushroom soup a little milk and the crunchy french onions. The recipe is on the canned onions. I use half the milk recommended so the casserole isn’t runny.

I was going to suggest applesauce as a substitute for oil also. I usually do half oil and half applesauce to cut the fat. Or, my MIL makes an apple cake. Not sure of her recipe? It’s a very basic cake, something like one egg, one cup of flour, one cup of sugar, but that is not it for sure, and there must be oil or butter? I just remember years ago she said it was very basic, and then she adds a flavor, apple, or lemon, etc. No icing.

The figs maybe you can put into fruit cocktail.

The apple sauce and figs could be made into a spic cake with cream cheese frosting.

You could dress up the canned green beans with bacon pieces, chopped mushrooms, walnuts, a little finely diced onion and a little cream or half and half. (Saute all of the additions [except the bacon] in a frying pan until the cream is thickened and reduced.) Stir in the green beans. Then sprinkle on the bacon.

You could add canned corn, diced green chiles, and grated cheese to corn bread or corn muffin mix.

Check this out. It is recipes from the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.

http://www.pittsburghfoodbank.org/programs/recipes.aspx

I make soups just about every day with whatever I have.

One of my favorites is pasta with a little bit of butter or oil and spices. The different choices of spices makes it unique every time, but it’s cheap, good, and always on hand.

I haven’t tried it yet, but this taco soup recipe looks good, and it’s just made with canned staples and a couple packets of seasoning. Whenever a recipe calls for a seasoning packet, I just google a recipe for the seasoning so I can make it myself with the spices I already have on hand.

Beans and rice can be very good if you are a little bit creative with it.

One of my favorite breakfasts as a kid was rice with cinnamon and sugar.