I have saved us from buying more food, or from eating out numerous dinners this week by simply cooking creatively from what I had on hand. Have you ever had one of those weeks where every day you said, “I need to go to the store today” and then you reach the end of the week and you still have not gone? It has been one of those weeks for me.
But I have been pretty surprised by how many nice meals I’ve gotten out of my stores in the pantry, refrigerator, and freezer! I once went to a funeral of a friend’s relative (who had lived a long and fruitful life), and several people shared how she was able to create these yummy and filling meals out of bits and pieces from what she had on hand to serve not only her family, but guests as well. I thought it was a beautiful example of a lady who used the resources she had on hand to welcome people into her home for a warm meal. I was really inspired by her example of love and giving through how she cooked for people. So often it is easy to feel that when one is on a limited budget we are limited in giving. She didn’t let that stop her!
But back to my week, necessity is the mother of invention and this week, with me just going grocery shopping tonight (finally), I was inventing a lot of new-to-me meals out of what I had on hand. I found 3 quarts of fish stock in my freezer, which I defrosted, and then made into a lovely soup with leftover quinoa, onions, celery, canned salmon, and seasonings. For another meal, random rice pasta I found in the cupboard was combined with the fish stock, miso paste, and tamari for a gentle soup (served with some meat on the side that needed to be used up). Another night I made a quick meal out of the last couple chicken thighs (leftover from when I made chicken teriyaki) some vegetables, and soaked grains.
To tell you the truth, I’ve gone through long periods of time in the past where I just kept basics on hand without a real meal plan, and then would just “make-up” dinner that day. Perhaps not the best planning ever, but we actually ate really well during that time period and I was so aware of what I had on hand, I didn’t really waste food either. This week was such a good challenge for me because I realized that I can too often go running to the store for more food when I have enough on hand to make a great meal, if I just thought outside the box a little.
All to say, I have been thinking about this topic while I used up what I had on hand, and thought I’d share a few ideas of how I make this work for me, when needed. But I’d also love to hear any tips and successes you’d had with “cooking from your pantry” too. So share below!
Here are my ideas.
Try to keep some of the basics on hand all the time
When cooking from the cupboard it is helpful to have basics on hand. We ran out of some of our family’s basics this week, such as rice, but we still had enough basics on hand, such as onion, celery, quinoa, frozen foods, canned seafood, etc. that we were able to make do. There have been times when I’ve tried to make a decent meal out of the cupboard and come to the conclusion I just didn’t have enough on hand. The more you keep “on hand” the more likely you can create a meal easily.
Some of the items I find most helpful in creating a last minute meal:
- Homemade Stock (I can make a soup out of almost any pantry item when I have a rich, nutritious, delicious stock on hand).
- Frozen or canned seafood: Because frozen salmon can be defrosted fairly quickly, they are almost as convenient as canned. Other seafood items (like frozen Mussels) can be cooked quickly as well.
- Precooked Grains: This last week, one of the smartest things I did was make a large pot of soaked quinoa. I was able to turn it into many other meals. Having it on hand made that so simple!
- Frozen grassfed ground beef: You can actually cook frozen ground beef straight from the freezer. This is how I do it. First, I make sure that all of the wrappings are off, and then I place in a covered pan, and add about ½-3/4 cup of water to the pan. I get this water simmering slowly, and cover the pan. I then keep breaking off the cooked meat, here and there, as it defrosts and starts to cook. At the end, I turn up the heat to evaporate the rest of the moisture, and then season the cooked meat. We add it to pasta sauce and serve over noodles for a quick meal.
- If you have can dairy, cheese, yogurt, kefir, and milk, you can make a wide-variety of delicious meals too. I think about how the Swiss village that Dr. Price visited. Their almost daily lunch was a piece of rye bread and a slab of homemade (nutrient dense) cheese. How simple is that? The thing I miss most about dairy when off of it is not only the taste, but also the pure simplicity of it.
- And if you have eggs on hand, there are a wide variety of simple (and complicated) last minute cupboard meals you can make with them right there.
Think outside the box
But besides actually having at least some basic items on hand that you can use for the meal, the thing that I have found the most needed is the ability to think outside the box and my current recipe collection. As much as I am experimenting all the time with recipes, I STILL often don’t see meal possibilities right under my nose. Looking at what you have on hand with an open mind, and considering how to combine them or use them in a meal is a great creative practice that just may result in a meal for dinner.
A relaxed attitude may also be needed
Sometimes my last minute, cooking from the cupboard meals aren’t the best examples of a well planned meal (I know, who would have guessed, right?) The main dish may not match the ethnicity of the side dish, but it’s okay. We have a pretty relaxed attitude about that sort of thing around here. And sometimes it may have been better if I had gone to the store and gotten some ingredient or another, but as long as it tastes good, we are good too.
Granted I don’t know if all of my “cooking from the cupboard” meals would win me an Iron Chef title (Okay, I know they wouldn’t), but they fill my family’s tummies with nutritious fare. Plus, by not buying food out, we save money too. And that’s a win in this household!
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Thanks, Kimi, Great post! Very inspiring. Am in the middle of trying to do this on purpose. With the Lord’s help and reading inspiring post like this one, I will accomplish what I need too.
I do a lot of canning, because we live several hours from town. I have lots of different homemade soups and stews canned as well as meatballs in spaghetti sauce for either a pasta dinner or quick meatball sandwich, beef dip meat is canned, as well as chicken and pork. We do have an advantage as I have a cow and chickens so all our eggs and dairy is taken care of, and we have lots of meat in the freezers from raising our own meat, which not everyone can do. I buy wheat berries by the 50# bucket and use a Wondermill to grind my own flour as I make all of our breads, cakes and baked goods from scratch as well.
But it does make it possible for us to only go to the store every 3-6 months. The only thing we run out of is lettuce, but I vaccum can it in half gallon jars and it lasts for 6 weeks that way. Everything else, like celery, mushrooms, etc. I dehydrate.
Kim, I have never heard of vacuum canning lettuce! Wonderful idea! I vacuum can dried fruit and jerky but what are the steps to do lettuce?
While I am trying to reform, I never used to meal plan. That meaup withnt I was always coming up with new meals (sometimes odd ones). One of my tricks was to look in my pantry for a few main ingredients, then use the ingredient search on allrecipes.com to find what I could make. If I had 75% of the ingredients in a recipe, I figured that was good. I’m not sure if that’s advice or a confession.
When you say vacuum seal, do you mean, using a FoodSaver machine? Also, do you use the bags or the canisters or both?
Thanks for the tip of adding water to cook frozen ground beef! I’ve always just thrown it in the pan dry, and it sticks.
This is a great post. At times I’m really good at getting creative in the kitchen, and sometimes I’m not. My favorite quick soup is tomato soup (which we had tonight). I simmer about 3 cups of bone broth (beef or chicken) with 2 – 24 ounce jars of crushed/strained tomatoes for 15 minutes. Add a stick of butter and either fresh or dried basil, and salt to taste. That’s it! I stir a little raw cream into the bowls when serving. It’s so quick, and really good. Add a sandwich or salad on the side, and dinner’s done. 🙂
I tend to meal plan for a week or two, then put off grocery shopping for a while and try to get by with what I have. Often I’ll stop by the store just to get fresh produce and dairy. One of my must-have staples is tortillas. So many things you can put in them. And i have to have cheese- add it to everything or have it as a snack! Anyways this post is very inspiring and reminds me that I want to periodically get through all the food in my cupboards and not feel like I need to keep overstocking them!