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HAVING A CUPBOARD stocked up with all sorts of essentials is probably the biggest gift you can give yourself.
Why?
Because on one of those days (which are most of the days, to be fair) that you don’t feel like being a gourmet chef and whipping up a meal that incorporates tiny amounts of fifty different ingredients, you can head to your well-stocked pantry and with a few carefully selected items make a meal out of some of the staples plus whatever you have left in the fridge.
You won’t believe the difference having a couple of tins of tomatoes in the cupboard will make to your evening.
To help you out we’ve rounded up a list of items we think should be on hand at all times.
Let us know in the comments below if you have any items your pantry can’t manage with out.
Eggs
Eggs are a great staple to keep on hand at all times. From whipping up an omelette or scrambled egg in the morning (or in the evening), to making something more fancy like huevos rancheros (using our other cupboard staple favourite, a tin of tomatoes) you can pretty much have a complete meal using eggs and very little else.
Tomatoes
More specifically – tins of tomatoes. They’re a great thing to having hanging around in the back of the press – you can use them in myriad ways, from pasta sauce, to soup, to bulking up a stew, to huevos rancheros (above). There’s no limit to their versatility.
They last for ages, and there’s more lycopene in cooked tomatoes than raw, so they’re even more healthy than the raw ones – and you don’t have to worry about them turning to sludge in the fridge.
Win win.
Tins of beans – chickpeas, bortelli, haricot…
Beans are a great source of protein and can be added to lots of meals instead of, or in addition to, meat in various dishes. Like the tinned tomatoes they keep for ages, and can be whipped up into something delicious with relative ease.
Throw a tin (open it first…) into a soup or stew, add chickpeas to a stirfry for extra protein or blend them up into hummus for an tasty, healthy snack.
Lentils
You might not have had lentils since your mam made you eat them as a child and you’ve had PTSD ever since, but you really should give them another chance.
They’re a great source of protein for any days you don’t feel like having meat, and they’re the basis of a lot of Indian dishes. So if you like Indian food such as dahl, then you should definitely have these little guys on hand.
Spices
Having spices on hand can take a meal from blah to bling in no time at all.
Adding depths of flavour to a meal is really simple with the addition of a few well-chosen spices and you can experiment as much as you like to find the combination that best suits you.
People often shy away from spices, afraid that they don’t know what they’re doing and will ruin a dish, but add a little and taste then add more as necessary and you’ll be grand.
Cooking is all about experimentation after all.
Pasta
Dried pasta is great to have on hand – again, it keeps for ages and can be used in so many ways.
You can make a sauce out of the tin of tomatoes you always have on hand now and throw it over some cooked pasta, or it’s easy to make a minestrone soup with the tomatoes and a tin of beans (and other ingredients of course). You can even make a baked casserole with it, and top it with loads of cheese… Delicious.
Rice
Rice is another carb that’s handy to have around- as it’s dry you don’t have to worry about it going off like potatoes are apt to do.
You can use it as a side in innumerable dishes from curry to stir-fry, or you can make it the basis of a meal itself such as biryani.
Leftovers can be turned into salads or sautéed with a little soy sauce and served as a brand new dish the next day.
Stock cubes
Stock cubes are little bundles of flavour that can be added to almost every meal – from soups, to casseroles, and stews. You can even mash up the stock cube with a little oil and spread it over a chicken to add flavour before roasting.
They will liven up almost any dish you can think of adding them to, and are the jumping off ground for getting more adventurous with flavour in your cooking.
You know that scene in Fr Ted where Dougal is told not to push the big red button and he gets that look in his eye? That’s the urge I’m feeling right now.
Haha! Yes, I’m experiencing the same reaction here.
I’m going to slowly leave this article now, and lock my phone away for its own safety.
You took the words right outta my mouth!
Its utter bollo……..
Iv just tried it and my phone seems fi8iiijjhhhhhhggghnjj@#####=========_
I don’t believe it. I’ll have to check this for myself
“hey buddy, can I borrow your iPhone there for a second”
Why would you??
Because I’m a non-conformist!
Surely if you have an iPhone you are ?
Why would you post the how to recreate a bug that bricks a phone? The mind boggles!
So that people won’t do it.
People are stupid. More have obviously tried this since it has gone public.
Why would anyone set their phone to that date anyway ? More to the point why would anyone buy an iPhone !
No way! I simply have to try tha
Why change the date to 1970 bet before this no one was dreaming of changing to 1970
You know a bunch of idiots reading this are now going to change the date on their phones to see if it works why post this article ?
so idiots can be punished.
Idiot tax, like the lotto.
Unix based OS doesn’t like being told it is existing before Unix time started. Not really a surprise, is it?
A few weeks ago, I kept on getting blank emails from that date, how strange.
You know a bunch of idiots are going to do that to OTher people’s phones…..
That is an excellent suggestion
Why would you ?
I tried it on my phone, nothing happened. Buy then I have an android phone, and I don’t have to worry about this shite.
Why I why would anyone in their right minds buy an iPhone. It will be interesting to see how this latest cynical update which detects repairs will affect sales. I reckon an enormous amount of iPhone users have had to have screens replaced. Apple’s continuing 1 year warranty is a disgrace, no other company would get away with it.
2 year warranty under European consumer law
Furthest the date goes back on an iPhone is 1982
Repair shops need the cash, 10% of the population are lunatics so seems like a good marketing ploy. Don’t press button scenario.
Mental note, An IPhone is not the phone to use on my time travels .
Well you’d be buggered pre cellphone towers anyway.
Good man Quinton. Excellent article as always.
Even more bad news from Apple, last week we were told getting your iPhone fixed from a 3rd party vendor will also render it useless. Cheap parts, cheap labour making them, over priced and generic pieces of shit…. And the sheeple keep on buying them….
The Y2K bug was way ahead of its time
Why would anybody even feel the urge to do that? Although, a lot of those feckin’ hipsters have iPhones I suppose.
One little observation here… Why in the name of Jaysus woukd anyone want to set their phone to January 1st 1970… I Mean it’s not as if it’s Oct 26th 1985! I could understand the back to the future fans giving that a go!
Anyone know if there is a jail break for iOS 9.2 ye?
Eh, why would you do that?
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