The great pantry challenge
Here’s how to eat every last item in your kitchen—without a trip to the store!
One day last March, Crystal Paine, a Kansas mom of three, wanted to save some money by going a few extra days without a trip to the grocery store. So she headed to her pantry, found shelves full of food she hadn’t used, and got cooking. It was eye-opening to see how well her family could eat without several (expensive) trips to the store. So now, they take on the challenge of eating what they have for eight to ten days at a time almost every month. “I think my frugal nature carried over to my pantry,” Paine says. “I didn’t want to let things go to waste.”
Paine is onto something: By making an effort to eat through the things they’ve already bought, families across the country are becoming much more aware of what they consume. In the process, they’re saving money, getting creative in the kitchen, and teaching their kids an important lesson about avoiding wastefulness. Are you up for the challenge?
Getting started
If the thought of eating through your pantry seems more idealistic than practical, think again. It doesn’t have to be hard. Here, some common reasons you might resist—and the simple reasons you can still go for it.
- “I just don’t have the time.” Cooking with what you have doesn’t necessarily take more time—especially since fewer ingredients often means less time. “It’s all in the planning,” says Anne Marie Carver, an Arlington, Virginia, mom of one. Before you begin the challenge, spend 15 minutes taking inventory of your cupboards and freezer. That way, when it comes time for dinner you can hit the ground running. And don’t limit yourself to handling one night at a time: If you whip up double batches of minestrone and rice soup one night, you can refrigerate the leftovers for lunch the next day.
- “What happens when I run out of basic food and still have three boxes of mac and cheese left over?” You can make the challenge fit your needs—even if it means “cheating” a bit. Try eating through your pantry with only one trip to the grocery store: You can make a supermarket run in the beginning to stock up on the basics (milk, eggs, bread), or try eating what you have at home for a few days and visiting the store when you’ve gotten desperate but still have half the pantry to go. This works especially well if you plan menu ideas in advance based on what you have.
- “Pantry meals are, well, boring.” In fact, your cupboard boasts tons of opportunities for interesting dishes. Try dressing up pasta with roasted red peppers, artichokes, and anchovies, or give a spicy kick to refried beans with cumin and chili powder, suggests Carver. Got a bag of tortilla or bagel chips on hand? Crush them up as a garnish for soup or whirl them in the food processor and use in place of bread crumbs. Forcing yourself to get creative will help you see your pantry in a whole new light.
Making it fun
Involved your kid to make the pantry challenge exciting for the whole family. Some fun ways she can help:
- Get her opinion. When deciding on meals, Carver makes sure to get input from her 4-year-old daughter. “We consult every day. I find that when she’s involved in the process she’s much less likely to be fussy at dinnertime—even if it’s just a matter of going to the pantry together,” Carver says. Using up the last of the black beans from the back of your cupboard? Ask your kid if she thinks they’d work better as a soup, dip, or taco filling.
- Play a game. “We put on my daughter’s little apron and make it a game to see what’s hiding in the pantry,” says Carver. Try using Pantry Hide-and-Seek as a nutritional learning experience for your kid. Help her create a balanced meal by finding a whole grain (like whole wheat pasta), a protein (like canned tuna), and a vegetable (like canned tomatoes). Then talk about why those foods are all good choices for a meal.
- Cook to compete. If your kids are too old for hide and seek, try a cooking competition. Assign a night to each family member and put that person in charge of coming up with a creative dinner plan. (Bonus: Tweens and teens can probably cook some of the meal on their own.) When the pantry challenge is over, vote on which meal your family liked best—and remember it for next time!
Culinary inspiration
Add balance and variety with these meal ideas, which rely on cupboard and freezer staples most families have on hand.
Breakfast
| Got these? | Make this | Here’s how |
|---|---|---|
| Frozen fruit, sugar, whole wheat bread, nut butter | Open-face nut butter sandwiches with fruit compote | In a medium stockpot, heat frozen fruit with a few tablespoons water, plus sugar to taste. Simmer until soft. Toast bread, then spread with nut butter. Top with warm compote. |
| Oats, nuts or seeds, raisins, powdered milk, brown sugar | Baked oatmeal | Place oats, nuts or seeds, and raisins in shallow baking dish, then pour reconstituted powdered milk over top. Sprinkle with brown sugar, cover with foil, and bake at 350° until oats have absorbed most of the milk. |
| Frozen ground turkey, onion, potatoes, dried thyme or sage | Skillet hash | Thaw turkey, then brown in a skillet with olive oil. Remove turkey from pan; sauté diced onions and cubed potatoes with thyme or sage until soft. Add turkey back to the pan to heat through. |
Lunch
| Got these? | Make this | Here’s how |
|---|---|---|
| Garlic, canned diced tomatoes, vegetable stock or bouillon, white beans, pasta | Pasta e fagiole soup | In a large stockpot, sauté garlic for 1 minute, then add tomatoes and vegetable stock or bouillon. Bring to a boil and add white beans and pasta. Cook until pasta is al dente. |
| Potatoes, canned chili, shredded cheese (optional) | Chili-stuffed baked potatoes | Top baked potatoes with chili and shredded cheese. Place under the broiler for a few minutes or until cheese is bubbly. |
| Spaghetti, frozen veggies, peanut butter, soy sauce, honey | Peanut noodles | Cook spaghetti and frozen veggies according to package directions. Combine peanut butter with soy sauce and honey to taste, and thin with water to desired consistency. Pour over hot pasta and veggies. |
Dinner
| Got these? | Make this | Here’s how |
|---|---|---|
| Frozen chicken breasts (or tofu), cornstarch, crushed cornflakes (or another crunchy cereal), ketchup | Crunchy chicken or tofu fingers with dipping sauce | Dredge thawed chicken pieces or tofu first in a water-cornstarch mixture, then in crushed cornflakes. Bake or pan-fry until golden and serve with ketchup for dipping. |
| Spaghetti, garlic, jarred tomato sauce, canned tuna, canned olives or capers | Mediterranean-style pasta | Cook spaghetti according to package directions. In a medium stockpot, sauté garlic for 1 minute, then add tomato sauce, tuna, and olives or capers. Cook until heated through, and pour over pasta. |
| Onion, garlic, black beans, vegetable stock or bouillon, sweet potato | Black bean soup with sweet potato cubes | In a large stockpot, sauté onion and garlic until translucent. Add black beans and stock, then simmer for 10 minutes. Transfer half the black bean mixture into a blender and blend until smooth, then return mixture to stockpot. Serve soup in bowls garnished with cooked sweet potato cubes. |
-Marygrace, KIWI staff writer
Tags: cooking, food, nutrition, pantry, pantry challenge
Share This Article:
3 comments
Just read about this and am going to try it! It would be awesome if there was a website where you could put in the ingredients you have and have some suggestions pop out.
Hi Amanda! I actually love using the ingredient-search feature on allrecipes.com. Just search by ingredients instead of recipes at the top of the site and it’ll give you some great ideas. Good luck with your pantry challenge!
[...] One aspect of menu planning is to save money. By starting every weekly menu plan with a pantry inventory, a person can fill up quite a bit of their menu without having to buy anything. Flour, frozen fruit, peanut butter, jelly, eggs, bread, and milk are all common staples in many households. All of these items can make one or two breakfasts or lunches. Fruit with scrambled eggs and toast can be one breakfast, while peanut butter and jelly sandwiches work for a quick lunch. Homemade biscuits with fried eggs and fruit could be the next day’s breakfast. So every meal plan should start by creating meals from foods already on hand. (Source: Kiwi Mag) [...]
Leave a Comment