The greatest chefs didn’t get their recipes out of books. In fact, some of their greatest recipes happened quite by accident. You can achieve the same greatness in your own kitchen with the food already in your icebox. All you need is a few basic techniques.

For example, a whole chicken, seasoned and thrown in a slow cooker will be very moist and fall off the bone tender in just under a few hours. Add a few vegetables and you have a whole meal. If you want to make it even tastier, throw in some orange juice from the icebox and you will have a sweet and savory citrus chicken.

Frozen hamburger also has a wealth of possibilities. It can be mixed with pasta and a homemade garlic butter sauce to make a tasty treat reminiscent of a helper type of dinner, but classier. It can also be used for homemade tacos or meat in homemade nachos or salsa. Also, tortillas can be sliced and baked to make healthier corn chips or nachos.

These are just examples of recipes you can create from the items in your fridge or icebox. Really, the only limit to what you can create is your imagination.