I'm always on the lookout for the easiest and quickest possible recipes I can find. Its 4:30 and I did not plan AT ALL for dinner tonight. I have a ton of things in the freezer, but not enough time to cook them.
I do have a couple things I tend to keep in my pantry for this exact situation. I usually have tostada shells, can of refried beans, and always have lettuce and cheese. Well, I have everything but shells. I also will make chili mac which is just boxed mac and cheese and add canned chili. Well, I have no mac and cheese.
So I'm making spaghetti because I have cooked ground turkey in the freezer, noodles and sauce. Its not our favorite but it will do.
My question is, what do you keep in the pantry that you can throw together for last minute dinners? (and not just what you keep in there, but WHAT do you do with it?) Thanks everyone!
Egg noodles, cream of mushroom soup and tuna for a tuna casserole. Plain macaroni mixed with a can of stewed tomatoes with some parmesan sprinkled on.
Pasta always works as well as grilled cheese if I am totally out of stuff. unfortunatly, my husband wont eat either so tuna will work in a pinch!
Pasta
Rice
Veggies (canned if in a pinch)
a frozen pizza
pork n' beans
chilli beans
chicken breast
ground beef
tortillas
spaghetti sauce
Corn (frozen or canned)
Bowtie Noodles
Canned Chicken
Cream of Chicken or Cream of Celery soup
Cook noodles, add the rest with a bit of water added to the soup (about 1/2 a can)...enjoy!
Also works over rice if I don't have noodles...I always have one or the other. This is my go-to meal in a pinch...:)
I've been working on using up things in the pantry and freezer so that I can make space to clean and not have to throw out things that got pushed to the back and forgotten.
Yesterday, I made this in a 3 qt pot:
Egg noodles, cooked and drained. To that, I added
15 oz can of chicken breast chunks, drained and broken up.
butter, salt, garlic powder
Parmesan cheese
It turned out to be delicious and the kids asked for seconds.
I made rice, canned tomatoes, and canned mushrooms and breaded chicken patties in the oven the other night. Put some cheese over everything and tada.
I always have flour, cornmeal, baking powder, eggs, butter, and milk. I can have biscuits and eggs or cornmeal cakes any night of the week.
I keep pasta (spaghetti, linguini, rotini, gnocchi), canned tomatoes, canned beans (black, navy, red, garbanzo), anchovies, tuna, salmon, sardines, crab, onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, mustard, tomato paste, dried fruit, pappadams, dried mushrooms, rice (Jasmine, long grain, short grain, black, sweet, red, brown). And this time of year I have a vegetable and an herb garden. I make and freeze pesto in ice cube trays which along with a box of spaghetti and some veggies from the garden makes dinner in 15 minutes.
If you like stir fry or curry, keep the sauce mix in the pantry and then make a meal of pretty much any meat and veg. Vindaloo? Add potatoes.
If you have nearly any meat and pasta, there's a meal. Can of cream of mushroom or celery soup, some rice, and some tuna and there's a casserole.
Some long shelf life bacon, some spaghetti, some parmasan and an egg. Cook the bacon and spaghetti. Drain spaghetti and stir in the egg while it's still hot. Sprinkle bacon and cheese on top.
Rice, peas, carrots & eggs = fried rice. DH just made this & it is SO yummy!!
