Recipes Using Basic Pantry Staples

Not every meal has to be some big fancy production. Sometimes I find myself opening the pantry and looking at the contents and drawing a blank, especially in today’s climate. So I thought I’d share a list of recipes using basic pantry staples.

Like many, lately I’ve been cooking: breakfast, lunch and dinner, and snacks, every day. It’s a lot. And then when I go to pick up a basic pantry staple, say a can of diced tomatoes, I just hold it for way to long before figuring out what to do with it, so I hope this list helps (if anything, I hope it sparks some ideas for some great pantry recipes). Last comment before we dive in – it’s all about flexibility and adaptability and what you have on hand (if you have rice – not quinoa, know that they’re interchangeable in recipes, same with walnuts/pecans/most nuts and nut butters, things like that) so lets dive in:

RECIPES TO MAKE WITH A CAN OF TOMATOES

• Make it into soup (tomato white bean noodle soup, or classic tomato soup from The Kitchn )
• Make it into pasta sauce or pizza sauce
• Use it as a pizza topping (sausage and kale pizza with tomatoes)
• Use it as a sauce to make a slow cooker pot roast (slow cooker diced tomato pot roast recipe or oven baked fire roasted tomato pot roast here – could also substitute chicken instead of pot roast and just don’t cook it as long)
• Make it into salsa (recipe for restaurant style 5 ingredient salsa)
• Make mussels in a tomato sauce or this sauce works so well with shrimp in it!
• Use it as a sauce like in this 5 ingredient green beans beef and tomatoes
• Make your own ketchup!

RECIPES TO MAKE WITH PASTA

• Pretty much all pasta/noodles are interchangeable, so use rigatoni or penne or linguine or whatever you have
• Good basic pasta formula is pasta + sauce + protein + cheese (pasta, marinara, chicken/ground beef, Parmesan)
• 5 Ingredient baked chicken parmesan pasta – just put everything in a baking dish and put in the oven
• 5 Ingredient healthy pasta -with turkey sausage and swiss chard or spinach
• 5 Ingredient stovetop mac and cheese – kid approved!
• 5 Ingredient carbonara pasta – I could legit eat a whole pot of this!
• Chicken feta tomato pasta – this is the first meal I cooked Nick!
• Pepperoni pasta salad in a jar – healthy and tastes like a pizza pasta salad (good even if you don’t have pepperoni)
• Japanese pan noodles – vegetarian, can be made with all kinds of different noodles
• Italian herb pasta salad – with a yogurt dressing (this is good cold and you can use whatever vegetables you have)
• 5 Ingredient cheesy beef and egg noodle casserole – can be made with any kind of noodles
• 4 Ingredient chicken sausage pesto tortellini – easy and oh so good
• 5 Ingredient Instant Pot chicken alfredo – easy made in one pot and so good
• Instant Pot chicken spaghetti casserole – so comforting and family favorite
• 5 Ingredient Instant Pot spaghetti and sauce – one of my all time favorites to make in the Instant Pot
• Instant Pot sausage and sweet potato soup with orzo – use any kind of pasta in place of orzo, just break it up a little
• Healthy kids mac n cheese – a great kid friendly recipe
• Chicken broccoli alfredo pasta freezer meal – something I always have in my freezer

RECIPES TO MAKE WITH RICE (OR QUINOA OR GRAINS)

• One pot sausage and rice casserole
• 5 ingredient slow cooker chicken and quinoa
• A good one if you’re craving a healthy version of bar food – this 5 ingredient slow cooker buffalo chicken and quinoa is full of protein and tastes like chicken wings
• One pot Thai shrimp and quinoa
• Asian ground turkey and rice bowls
• Instant pot lemon chicken risotto – so good and can be made with regular rice, I’ve done it successfully with Jasmine rice, so good!
• Red coconut curry with chicken and vegetables and rice
• Freezer to slow cooker Jambalaya
• Chicken enchilada casserole

RECIPES TO MAKE WITH CORNFLAKES (OR CEREAL)

• Use cornflakes (or other relatively non-sweet like rice cereal or chex) crushed up as a breading for chicken or pork, like this unfried cornflake chicken(this has long been a favorite)
• Make ‘no bake’ cookies by melting butterscotch chips (or chocolate chips or white chocolate chips) and the mixing with cornflakes or other non-sweet cereal) and then spooning onto parchment paper or nonstick surface and allowing to cool, then enjoy (a recipe was in my cookbook, adapted into butterscotch peanut butter clusters and shared by another blogger, my son makes these all the time.)
• Chex snack mix -banana foster chex mix or chocolate turtle chex mix
• Rice Krispie treats – like these 5 ingredient rice krispie treats
• Another cereal dessert treat (would work with Cheerios) are these salted honey blondies
• If you have milk (or a milk alternative), obviously an easy breakfast (or dinner sometimes – no judgement) is cereal and milk

RECIPES TO MAKE WITH A PACKET OF RAMEN

• 5 ingredient ramen with a fried egg – a different and so so good way to make ramen
• 5 ingredient beef and pepper ramen
• Peanut butter ramen with roasted broccoli from How Sweet Eats

RECIPES TO MAKE WITH A CAN OF BLACK BEANS

• Super easy idea is a can of beans and rice or a grain on the side (dollop some hot sauce or spice up your beans with some chili powder)
• Quesadillas- one of my favorite restaurants serves this black bean and cheese taco, I’ve remade it at home and use just plain (drained) smashed black beans on a tortilla with garlic salt, and then cheese on top and another tortilla, and then cooked in a pan with a little butter. So so good.
• Chili – slow cooker chili is such a good one, also make a lot and good to freeze for later
• Make them into burgers -sweet potato black bean burgers
• Use them in enchiladas – 5 ingredient shrimp and black bean enchiladas
• Make them into burritos like these 5 ingredient black bean burritos
• Savory black bean pie – not even joking when I say this is one of Nick’s favorite recipes I make. It’s so good.
• If you want to try something neat, try using black beans in sweets like these black bean brownie muffins from Ambitious Kitchen, or use a can of black beans and brownie mix to make black bean brownies from Skinnytaste. I know someone who swears by these brownies and makes them for her kids all the time.

RECIPES TO MAKE WITH A CAN OF CHICKPEAS OR WHITE BEANS

• Chickpeas are a great source of protein and there are so so many recipes using them that are sweet and savory, chickpeas and white beans can be used pretty interchangeably
• Greek chickpea salad in a jar 
• Chickpea curry from A Couple Cooks
• Chicken and leek and white bean skillet – use an onion instead of a leek
• Chickpea blondies from Ambitious Kitchen – I’ve made these before and they’re actually quite good
• 5 ingredient white bean artichoke dip
• Chickpea zucchini burgers
• Steak with white bean leek mushroom potato hash
• White bean tomato soup with parmesan
• This one is a recipe made with chickpeas and black beans – called the whole bowl with tali sauce it’s a really good vegetarian recipe even my non-vegetarian husband loves. Based on a dish that has been described like eating a ‘hug’

RECIPES TO MAKE WITH A CAN OF TUNA

• Tuna is a great protein that can go on bread for a tuna melt or in pasta (it’s definitely something I don’t use nearly enough
• Make a quick tuna salad with chopped up pickles and a little bit of mayo, serve with crackers/pretzels or toast or my favorite version of tuna salad: tuna salad recipe with pickled celery
• I make this tuna noodle casserole from Cooking Light
• Easy canned tuna pasta – I’m making this this weekend!
• An awesome list of recipes using canned tuna from Ambitious Kitchen

RECIPES TO MAKE WITH PEANUT BUTTER (OR NUT BUTTERS)

• Peanut butter can be used for sweet and savory dishes
• Nut butters are pretty interchangeable so if you have almond butter or peanut butter you can interchange them
• 20 minute baked spicy peanut ginger chicken
• Peanut butter sea salt cookies (I have this super awesome recipe in my cookbook, shared by another blogger here)
• Thai peanut salad dressing recipe from Gimme Some Oven
• Granola bars – like these almond butter granola bars and peanut butter banana granola bars
• Energy balls – like these oatmeal cookie energy bites or peanut butter pretzel energy bites
• On top of toast – nothing like a classic pb&j or almond butter and bananas (I only had pb&j when I was like 20 so I love them lol)
• If you’re looking for super decadent try this 5 ingredient peanut butter nutella bars

RECIPES TO MAKE WITH NUTS

• We like making ‘snack mixes’ – basically trail mixes – like this banana tuxedo chip mix or this Wisconsin trail mix
• Can be crushed and used as a topping for fish
• Can be crushed and used as a topping for chicken like in this 5 ingredient pecan buttermilk chicken
• Can be candied and used as a salad topping (like for this spinach salad or this soft boiled egg spinach salad)
• In bread like these fruit and nut bread rounds (like the Starbucks ones)
• In cookies (like these 5 ingredient pecan snowballs)
• You can get really fancy and make a cinnamon sugar pecan challah braid

RECIPES TO MAKE WITH HONEY

• Honey and maple syrup can be interchanged pretty easily, so keep that in mind
• You can make a spicy honey to go over chicken/potatoes. Just like in this sheet pan hot honey chicken potatoes and broccoli (can substitute potatoes for sweet potatoes and broccoli for other veggies like cauliflower or bell peppers or carrots)
• If you want to get fancy – iced salted honey latte or iced maple latte
• Drizzle it on some toast – ricotta pear honey toast (I’ve made this recipe recently with toast/almond butter/slice of apple/dash of cinnamon and drizzle of honey) or drizzled on some biscuits
• Honey goat cheese appetizer
• In a sauce like this slow cooker honey mustard chicken

RECIPES TO MAKE WITH OATS

• Obvious is oatmeal (all you need is oats and water)
• Overnight oats (pumpkin overnight oats or vanilla overnight oats)
• Grind it up to use as ‘flour’ – oat flour (someone told me this morning that she makes waffles out of ground up oats, apple sauce, cinnamon and vanilla extract
• Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies or oatmeal raisin cookies from Quaker Oats
• Oatmeal cookie energy bites
• Make breakfast cookies
• Make 5 ingredient jam crumb bars
• Homemade granola is so so good
• Make bread (the best whole wheat honey oat flax bread – I’ve been making this once a week!)

Some more ideas for easy recipes to make with pantry ingredients:

• Bowls: we love making ‘bowl’ meals where it’s essentially a protein (chicken, salmon, beans), a sauce (teriyaki, a vinaigrette, bbq sauce, marinar, etc.) a vegetable (can be as basic as frozen broccoli or canned tomatoes or as fancy as pickled vegetables) and then grain (brown rice, quinoa, couscous, pasta, etc.). If you want to get fancy you could add a unique seasoning. Here are some of my favorite bowl recipes: 5 ingredient jerk chicken, 5 ingredient Greek chicken bowls, sesame salmon bowls, 5 ingredient Hawaiian chicken bowls, 5 ingredient vegetarian sushi bowls, air fryer falafel bowls, Instant Pot Asian shredded beef bowls, Asian ground turkey and rice bowls
• Sheet pan meals: so easy and all on one pan! Often times we make something with freezer ingredients (like sweet potato fries in this balsamic meatloaf sheet pan meal). Some favorite sheet pan meals include: hot honey chicken with potatoes and broccoli, sheet pan pork chops with sweet potato and fennel, sheet pan pizza.
• Tacos: I love making unique tacos, because throw some spice or seasoning on it, and almost everything can be made into a taco (or quesadilla). Some examples: 5 ingredient salsa chicken tacos, 5 ingredient slow cooker pork carnitas tacos, the best ground turkey tacos, Korean beef bbq tacos, sweet chili fish tacos, chicken pineapple salsa tacos

I’d love to hear from you, are there any pantry ingredients you’d like recipes for? I also shared recipes to make with canned food.