Low-cost pantry essentials -
Red lentils are really a style of split pea, and since they have been hulled before drying, they cook super fast. This dish only takes 10 minutes to prep and 40 to cook, so you can put it on as soon as you get home from work and have dinner ready for your family by the time you have changed and walked the dog.
Serve over rice for a complete meal. Need a great pantry dish for vegans? Look no further than this sweet potato chickpea curry, which is luxurious and satisfying enough to please even the meat eaters at the table. Serve over rice, or with naan or pita breads for sopping up all the spicy sauce.
A great vegetable chili — a super affordable way to feed a crowd — is really good to have in your repertoire. This recipe calls for fresh corn and tomatoes, but you can sub in canned versions when they are out of season or if you have them in your pantry.
This Asian-inspired rice bowl pairs equal amounts of rice and tuna by weight to ensure that the one-pot meal is a perfect balance of protein and carbs. Make a double batch and eat leftovers cold over chopped lettuce for a great lunch salad.
Taco Tuesdays get an affordable pantry makeover by featuring canned black beans cooked in a rich sauce of canned green salsa and savory spices. No time to pick up tortillas? Serve over lettuce for a taco salad, or pile into baked white or sweet potatoes. Fried rice is an ideal way to use up leftover rice, but this dish is so good, you will want to make rice fresh just to cook it!
This recipe features quick-cooking brown rice for a great texture along with plenty of vegetables in the mix, including frozen peas. If you want to up the ante with protein, stir in some scrambled eggs or strips of omelet at the end.
Having canned salmon in your pantry is a wonderful and affordable way to get more fish into your diet without breaking the bank. These patties come together start to finish in 25 minutes, making it a perfect after-work meal. You can serve with rice or potatoes, on top of a salad, or even put on buns for a version of salmon burgers.
Ask any Italian what they cook when they need something fast and easy out of the pantry, and chances are they will say spaghetti aglio e olio. Pasta in garlic-scented oil topped with Parmesan cheese can be a main dish or a side and is perfect in its simplicity.
The key is not to rush the toasting of the garlic: if it burns, the dish will taste acrid and unpleasant. We love to keep couscous in the pantry — needing only a steep in boiling water to bring it to life, it is the fastest carb to prepare.
Add in some canned and frozen vegetables and a punchy lime vinaigrette and you have a salad that eats like a meal. These soups are so good to have on hand. They go with pretty much anything and can really help to take a few ingredients from being a random assortment of items to a casserole in no time!
Pro Tip: It is beyond easy to make your own cream of chicken soup if you keep broth on hand — just add milk, flour , and a little seasoning! Genius, right!? These are an obvious pantry staple! They're great to have by themselves as a side or added to a recipe. Pro Tip: To improve the flavor of canned vegetables, first rinse them in a colander under cold water.
Then add to your recipes as usual. Whether it's beef, chicken, or vegetable, broth and stock are great pantry staples to keep on hand! Just buy the biggest carton or whatever is cheapest that you can find if you use it a lot. Be sure to refrigerate it after opening so it doesn't go bad!
Pro Tip: I like to buy Better Than Bouillon from Costco. It's amazing and lasts a while! Oatmeal is such a versatile pantry staple! It can either be eaten on its own or easily goes into so many kinds of recipes, from early morning breakfast to dessert. Did you know that an ounce package of Old Fashioned Quaker Oats contains roughly 26, rolled oats?
That's a lot of oats! Canned chicken, tuna, salmon, ham, and beef are all great ways to keep meat on hand without having to worry about the electricity going out and your meat ruining!
These pantry staples are so versatile and work in a lot of different meals. Pro Tip: If you're cooking the canned meats in a recipe, make sure you don't add it in until the very end.
Your goal is to heat it up, not cook it and dry it out! Alright, well there you have it! The top 10 pantry staples according to you fabulous Freebs. If you're just getting started, you might find that these are excellent staples to build up in your pantry so you can shelf cook like a pro!
For a more comprehensive list of what to stock in your pantry, check out our pantry staples post on our shelf cooking site! It even has a permanent spot on my weekly grocery shopping list. Frozen Veggies Frozen veggies are so much cheaper than fresh produce, and they allow you the flexibility of always having them on hand.
Broccoli, Green Beans, and Brussel Sprouts are three things you should keep stocked in your freezer to make it easy to add some healthy veggies to your meals without breaking the bank. I also like to keep several bags of mixed veggies in there too. I can easily make a quick Instapot Chicken Pot Pie with them along with a few other ingredients I always have on hand.
Or when you buy some delicious looking strawberries and you go to eat them only to discover that there was a moldy, rotten one in the middle ruining the whole batch?! I hate that! Buying frozen berries eliminates all the frustrations.
And usually they are cheaper than their fresh counterparts! Whether we are using them for a quick pancake topping, a quick milkshake or smoothie, we always have frozen strawberries on hand with our staple pantry items. This sounds like an odd staple, but we start nearly every dinner with these two items in our crock pot or frying pan.
Choose green peppers because they are your cheapest option over the other colors. Onions add great flavor to every meal, without adding much extra cost for the healthy pantry staples for families. We use lemon juice for cleaning, but there are so many recipes that call for it as well!
Lemon juice has a long shelf life, making it one of the best staple pantry items. This is a great base for making your own homemade salad dressings. Where you aware that half a cup of white vinegar can be used instead of laundry softener or as a replacement for Jet Dry in your dishwasher?
Who knew?! Coconut Oil Coconut oil has about a gazillion uses! It has a higher burn point than butter making it a great choice for frying anything when you cook. It has become one of our most used staple pantry items. No fresh ones, no frozen ones… then Onion Powder can come to your rescue!
I am constantly using this as a substitute for fresh onion! And I do the same with Garlic Powder! Baking powder is a must for baking from scratch! It is always on hand in my pantry. Baking soda is an important ingredient that can be used for cleaning and deodorizing around the home.
I buy it by the huge bag full because it is the only product that truly gets the smell out of my laundry. With three boys, all in sports, we have a lot of stinky clothing to use it on! Make sure you choose the unsweetened variety of cocoa powder so that you can add your own sweetener and make it as sweet or not for your liking.
For baking, cocoa powder is a must-have because so many chocolate-based treats start with cocoa powder.
As the panttry of living Low-cozt to rise, Loww-cost way you can cut down on Essenitals is Affordable culinary deals cook more meals at home. Online freebie promotions good news Low-cst anyone on a tight budget is that you can find many pantry essentials at affordable prices. From pasta and rice to beans and basic baking supplies, here are the top pantry items that are inexpensive and must-haves in the kitchen. There are many flavors to choose from, such as chicken, beef and shrimp. There are even spicy options for those who want something with more of a kick. Low-cost pantry essentials essemtials stock these Sample free food pantry staples? You should! Because these basic staples will help Low-cost pantry essentials make panyry homemade meals fast! Keeping your kitchen essetnials with cheap, basic pantry items is key to saving money on your grocery bill because it allows you to more easily make your own meals at home. So I put together this list of the top basic food staples that I try to keep on hand at all times.
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