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Sometimes deciding what to have for dinner is as simple as seeing what you’ve got.

I often find it becomes easier when you can actually see the elements in front of you and then the ideas begin to surface.

This particular evening I hadn’t a clue what dinner was going to be. The cupboards were looking pretty lean and our only fresh ingredients were a relatively sorry looking bunch.

Urgency of the lifespan of an ingredient can help with the decision making in these situations, along with other lifestyle considerations. On this occasion an assessment of all known variables and the direction became clear.

The veg we had lingering around was in greater urgency of being eaten than the half bag of rocket I found. The sweet potatoes were easily the oldest thing around and it was really a case of tonight being a visit to the last chance saloon. A green pepper rattled around the salad drawer, carrying a few scars of neglect and a nugget of cauliflower was showing floppy symptoms. To top it off were some sugar snaps that had begun to curl at each end.

This team of forgotten rejects clearly belonged together so they formed a pile on the kitchen side. They would require a bit of surgery to make them presentable but they had potential for something.

All that really remained was the half bag of rocket which wasn’t really an obvious addition to team veg. Instead it really suggested a plan B which was to accompany a favourite cupboard staple……pasta and sauce.

Pasta and sauce is an old favourite that can always be turned to in a tight spot. The core ingredients we use, pasta and passata along with some chilli, paprika and maybe some wine are dry store staples we always have around. The only fresh ingredients that are needed are onions and garlic and they should really form part of a kitchen infrastructure (now available in jars or prepped in bags for the freezer).

The pasta dish was a good support meal but due to recently reviewing our carb intake, was being kept as a cautioned option, ideally to be eaten strategically when a full sized portion could be allowed.

This meant that it was really back to the ensemble of veg adorning the kitchen side and some way to make them desirable. Nutritionally speaking they would be a reasonable collection but I have to admit they didn’t get me excited about dinner.

They say you can’t polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter.

Sometimes you need that philosophy, especially when you are freestyling with random bits and bobs of ingredients to hustle a meal. Often things can turn out much better than you expected but sometimes you just have to be satisfied with the goal of it being edible.

In the end I concluded that a veg curry of sorts would be the best solution. The base would carry the flavour and could be rustled up from a variety of cupboard staples. A handful of lentils would add a bit of protein and then the veg could just offer the substance of the meal.

I had some balls of flatbread dough in the freezer so could add a bit of jazz with a peshwari naan.

In the end that didn’t sound bad…. “Lentil and veg curry with peshwari naan”.

The cupboards had spoken and by the time it landed on the plate, this turd didn’t need any glitter.