March 23, 2020
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We all need easy dinner ideas that can help us get healthy meals made for our families. But there are times where you don’t have much left to eat, or maybe you can’t make it to the store for another week.
How can you make a meal plan with pantry staples and ingredients you already have at home? Easy.
Today we are going to talk about easy pantry recipes you can make for your family and how to meal plan using only pantry staples and the items you already have on hand.
If you’ve been stocking up on pantry “ingredients” but you’re not quite sure what to do with them now that you’re home, that’s okay! You’re not the only one. Everyone else is experiencing this overwhelm too.
Right now, so many of us are cooking with what we have on hand. Instead of choosing our favorite recipes for the week, we’re reaching into the back of the pantry for those random ingredients and cans that are mysteriously appearing.
The first step is to assess the ingredients you have on hand before you make one. more run to the grocery. Except, how do you decide what to cook for the next two weeks?
It’s time to make a meal plan. Wait, don’t click off the post just yet. I’m going to show you how.
Unless you want a done-for-you solution. That’s where the Pantry Staples Meal Plan comes in. It’s a plan I created for our Classic Meal Plan members during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Pantry Staples Meal Plan includes simple and delicious breakfast, lunch, and dinner recipes made with pantry staples. Meaning, the ingredients are going to be easy to find, limited perishables, and most of which you probably already have hidden away in your pantry, fridge, or freezer.
Let me show you how it works.
Pantry Staples
To start, you’ll find your shopping list. This list will look very familiar if you’ve already been using the MOMables meal plans. But it does have one huge difference. Before heading to the store, make sure you look through your kitchen and check off the ingredients you already have on hand!
I made this meal plan with accessible ingredients that can be found in most kitchens, so there’s a good chance you won’t have to go to the store at all.
Or, you can schedule one quick curbside pick-up for the last few essentials, and then you’ll have everything you need for the next two weeks!
The recipes in this plan are also very versatile, so you’ll find lots of simple swaps you can make, so that will help you work with the ingredients you have on hand. This will save you lots of money, and help you with your social distancing so you can avoid busy stores.
Meal Plan for Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Dinner usually gets all the attention when it comes to meal planning, but you can also plan for breakfast and lunch! This will help manage everyone’s expectations throughout the day and save you time having to figure out three meals a day.
Say goodbye to things like “what can I have for lunch?” or “there’s nothing in the fridge for breakfast!” With the printable meal plans, everyone in the family will know what to expect for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Planning for three meals a day also helps eliminate food waste. In the Pantry Meal Plan, reuses leftovers in another recipe, or as a “hot lunch” day so nothing is thrown out and goes to waste.
The goal is to eat everything you have on hand so that you save time in the kitchen, money at the store, and reduce the number of trips you have to make to grab more groceries. My Pantry Meal Plan helps you accomplish this, with delicious recipes your whole family will love.
In this meal plan you’ll find recipes like:
- Banana Blender Muffins
- Overnight Oats
- Homemade Biscuits
- Broccoli & cheese Loaded Potatoes
- Pulled Pork Taco Bowls
- American Goulash
- Meatball Subs
- Spanish Chicken and Rice
Feeling hungry yet? Grab these recipes & everything else you need here.
Meal Prep Tips
Many of us are working from home and have found ourselves “cooking all day long.” There’s also that feeling that “as soon as I finish cleaning the kitchen from lunch, it’s time to start dinner!”
I get you completely. That’s why the Pantry Staples Meal Plan includes detailed meal prep instructions for both weeks.
Prepping ahead or cooking the same ingredient for multiple meals will save you time in the kitchen because ingredients will be ready to be used when it’s time to make the next meal.
Making pancakes? Double the batch on the weekend, toast them mid-week for a quick breakfast.
Being more efficient in the kitchen is exactly what you need to help you balance work and homeschooling.
The pantry meal prep guide includes clear instructions for each day of the week, so you’ll never fall behind or forget to prep something for the next meal.
Ready to check it out? See full details of the Pantry Staples Meal Plan here!
The best part is that the Pantry Staples Meal Plan will not have you eating “rice and beans” daily for two weeks. But just in case you bought bags of beans and are wondering how to cook them, below you’ll find how to cook dry beans so you can use them in your recipes.
How to make a meal plan
If you want to tackle the task of making a plan for 2 weeks for your family, this is how you do it:
Step 1: assess the foods you have on hand and write down everything that needs to be eaten -yes, even that pound of ground beef that’s been in the freezer for six months.
Step 2: write down simple recipes your family will eat with those ingredients. This means that if you have twenty bags of pasta, you’re definitely going to think of a few pasta meals to include in the plan.
Step 3: combine ingredients to create the recipes. So you have pasta, bacon in the freezer, and some eggs and Parmesan cheese in the fridge. These “random” ingredients become my Spaghetti Carbonara, for example, because it’s easy to make and with basic ingredients.
Don’t have bacon? That’s ok! Skip it. See how easy it is to make in this video:
Step 4: Make a shopping list. You don’t have to have all the ingredients to make your meals. You can easily swap some of the missing ingredients for something else; and when that’s not the case, write those down in a shopping list.
Step 5: Shop, prep, eat! This is the easiest point. Once all your ingredients are at home, you can just execute your plan.
Of course, if the thought of making your own plan is overwhelming, the Pantry Staples Meal Plan is all done for you. And, it’s full of suggestions on how to swap ground beef, chicken, or turkey with beans; so you’re all set!
Pantry Staples Meal Plan
Ingredients
- 1 pound dried beans
- 1 yellow onion quartered
- 2 bay leaves optional
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Spread beans onto a large baking sheet and pick through to remove and discard any small stones or debris and then rinse well.
- Soak the beans using one of these two methods:Traditional soaking method: In a large bowl, cover beans by 3 inches with cold water, cover and set aside at room temperature for 8 hours or overnight.Quick soaking method: In a large pot, cover beans by 3 inches with cold water, cover and bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute, remove the pot from heat and set aside, covered, for 1 hour.
- Drain the water from the soaked beans and transfer the beans into a large pot.
- Fill the beans pot with cold water, making sure to add about 2 to 3 inches of water above the beans. Add the quartered onion and bay leaves, if using, and bring to a boil. Skim off the foam and discard.
- Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until beans are tender, for 1 ½ hours.
- Drain beans (if desired), discard onions and bay leaves and season with salt and pepper.
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