I tasked my wife with reordering the haphazard aggregation of canned goods in our larder. In addition to sorting by type (soup, vegetables, Thionite, etc.) the job was also to mark the “expiration date” in Sharpie on the top since those micro inkjet printed numbers serve nobody with eyeballs older than age 35.
A reasonable question from her was “What food is too old?” So I mentally rolled the dice and replied “Anything over 5 years out of code.” That yielded a pile of cans. None were bulging so likely safe to eat but just… what? I hate to waste food and if you’ve ever been backpacking at 12 miles/day you understand that pine needles are fair game when you’re really hungry.
So I took this as a challenge.
Here is what I tossed together: a small can of spinach, half cans of sliced carrots and cut green beans, cream of chicken soup, two cups of rice, a cup of shredded cheese and some salt and pepper. Mixed into a Pyrex dish and put into the toaster oven for an hour and change.
Outcome: mixmash vegetable casserole.
Conclusion: fantastic.
Utility: endless. And learn how to cook if you don’t already. Cooking a tasty meal is on THE list.