Food Fight: Desperation Dinner Challenge

This contest ended on Monday, March 31, 2008, 5PM PDT. View the winners!

ABOUT THE CHALLENGE

CHOW readers: What do you whip up when the refrigerator is bare; when you haven’t gone shopping and the pantry holds the mere basics? What, in other words, is your desperation dinner, your go-to one-dish meal?

Publish your desperation dinner recipe on CHOW using our Member Recipes feature. CHOW editors will decide the top recipes and the winner(s) will be featured on CHOW. Voting may be a factor in selection of the best recipe.

Here’s what we’re looking for: a clearly written recipe for a delicious one-dish meal that takes under 60 minutes total time and uses common nonperishable items such as (but not limited to) dried pasta, canned or preserved goods, condiments, and/or grains. The recipe will be judged on taste, simplicity, and creative interpretation of the idea of a desperation dinner. We are not fans of highly processed food (so if you have a Hot Pocket in your freezer, wise-ass, don’t bother).

You can upload a photo, of course, and explain all your reasoning in the recipe intro. Read the fine print for all the rules.

Just click the Enter Your Own button. You’ll be able to enter your recipe into our database, publish it, and submit it for the challenge. Or, if you’ve already published your recipe on CHOW, specify which one you want to enter. Be sure to explain in the recipe intro why this is the winning desperation dinner!

Check out the winners of our last recipe challenge, macaroni and cheese.