Need some simple, real food meals you can make from your pantry stash? Here are our top favorites, plus how to make your own list based on what you have in your kitchen.
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Cooking from your pantry is both fun and frustrating. It’s always a good idea to use what you have and reduce food waste. We clean out those corners of our pantry and freezer so we use our money wisely.
However, when you’re also trying to eat healthy, it’s easy to feel limited and frustrated during a pantry challenge. How do we make healthy meals while shopping just from our pantry and freezer stash?
What you really need is recipes that will help you use what you have and avoid food waste. I shared 3 rules to help you make your own recipes (or find ones that you know will work for you) here.
But if you just need a list of recipes that already follow those rules, we got you covered. These recipes have served us well over the years, and I want to share them with you below.
These recipes all follow my 35-ingredient rule. You only need around 35 ingredients to make budget-friendly real food meals. Get the printable list below and bring it with you the next time you grocery shop!
5 Simple, Clean Eating Pantry Meals
These recipes all follow the 3 healthy pantry rules, and we use them all the time (especially the last few weeks, thanks to #coronavirus quarantine and flattening the curve.)
- Hamburger Vegetable Soup (watch a video on how I substitute the ingredients here!)
- Cajun Beans & Rice (with optional sausage!)
- Egyptian Lentil Soup (watch the video here!)
4. Italian-Something-Or-Other
We make this all the time because it’s delicious, full of comfort food and budget-friendly ingredients, and you can use what you have.
This is not a real recipe, so skip it if you need a recipe, but here is what I basically do:
- Cook pasta (or spaghetti squash, eggplant, or zucchini noodles)
- Make sauce (open a can, make cheap, clean pizza sauce, or use odds and ends for slow cooker marinara)
- Brown meat (or use leftovers from make-ahead beef or chicken)
- Cook extra veggies (optional – try, spinach, peppers, onions, shredded squash, maybe stir in leftover pumpkin puree to the sauce)
- Shred cheese (or use cashew cream if you’re dairy-free!)
- Use a filler cheese, if you have any (cashew cream, ricotta, cream cheese, whatever)
Preheat the oven to 350 F, and layer it all like lasagna: a little bit of sauce in the bottom of a 9×13-inch pan, pasta, veggies, meat, filler cheese, sauce, pasta, etc. Top with shredded cheese.
Bake for 20-30 minutes, until heated through. Serve with a salad or steamed or roasted veggies.
That’s it. This looks very different every time I make it. Some versions are healthier than others. But it is delicious – I mean, it’s hard to beat, pasta, sauce, meat, and cheese.
5. Taco-Something-Or-Other
Does anyone not like tacos? I can’t even pretend there is anything authentic about the following mess. But it is delicious, flexible, and uses what you have.
We usually serve this meal buffet-style.
“Here are all the ingredients, kids – make it whatever you like.”
Some of us make burrito bowls, some of us make a salad, for some of us, it’s nachos or tacos.
Serve any combination of the following. At our house, the first 5 ingredients are the most important:
- Beans (usually our go-to cumin beans, sometimes just leftover black beans)
- Lettuce (or shredded cabbage)
- Salsa
- Sour cream or plain yogurt
- Tortillas (flour, corn, or chips)
- Rice (try homemade Mexican rice!)
- Meat (ground beef, usually with lentils stirred in to make it stretch, chicken, etc.)
- Shredded cheese
- Cheap & simple guacamole or diced avocado
- Lime juice
- Black olives
- Green onions or cilantro
No one complains about these leftovers. Sometimes I even toss them all together with broth and make Taco Soup.
Simple Pantry Side Dishes
- Bread Made without Yeast
- Budget-Friendly Salad
- Spring Mix Salad
- Simple favorite salad dressings
- Baked Summer Vegetable Medley
- Cheapest Macaroni & Cheese
Simple Pantry Meal Breakfasts
- Baked Oatmeal
- Egg-free baking tip here!
- Overnight Oatmeal for a Crowd
- Toast & Spread
- Egg & Cheese Muffins
- Pumpkin/Butternut/Sweet Potato Bread (or Muffins!)
- Cheap Smoothies
- Healthier 1-Bowl Banana Bread
- 5-Ingredient Homemade Sausage
More Recipes to Cook Through Your Pantry Stash or Freezer Stash:
- Easiest Bread
- Non-Crumbly Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
- Cinnamon Roll French Toast Casserole (for stale bread)
- No-Bake Energy Bars
Avoid the Grocery Store with Pantry Meals
Whether you’re trying to clean out your kitchen, save money on a really tight budget, do a spending freeze, or you’re avoiding the grocery store for quarantine and coronavirus issues, I hope these pantry meal ideas help you!
If you need more budget-friendly, clean eating dinner ideas, plus ways to stretch meat further and make every cent count, Check out Dinner for a Dollar: Real Food Recipes for Under $1 a Serving.
Bonus: if you have everything in the 35 Ingredients List, you can make nearly every meal in Dinner For a Dollar!
Pantry meals will help you save money and eat healthy. You will avoid food waste, learn to use what you have, and learn to do it well!
What About You?
What are your favorite pantry meals?
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