Pantry Meals:
Dinner for Desperate Days

We all have crazy days where we are looking for a quick meal solution that doesn’t require a trip to the grocery store. Here are Pantry Dinners to prepare in a pinch. All ingredients can be stored in the pantry or freezer or have a long shelf-life in the fridge. They all take less than 30 minutes to prepare, although the casseroles need oven time.

You can find the recipes for the meals here.

1. Pesto. There are several good brands of packaged pesto. Toss it with your favorite pasta. It is easy to dress it up with pine nuts or walnuts and parmesan cheese. Add rotisserie chicken and cherry tomatoes, if you have any on hand. In the summer, I grow basil in the garden, so I chop it up and toss it together with the packaged pesto. It makes it much more flavorful!
2. Linguini and clam sauce. Linguini, clams, sun-dried tomatoes, wine and pasta are all staples in our home. My husband and I love this dish. Our kids? Not so much.
3. Breakfast for Dinner. When the kids were younger we would dress up in our pajamas and have a great big country breakfast for dinner. Scrambled eggs, bacon and muffins or French toast, pancakes or some combination were always a hit. We still make the meal, but they no longer come to dinner in their jams!
4. Salad Supper. Make a Chef’s salad. Hard boil a few eggs, chop up some ham and cheese and pull a loaf of French bread out of the freezer. Voila! Instant dinner. Or toss left-over chicken, chopped pepper, Kalmata olives, croutons and Caesar dressing to create a Chicken Caesar salad.
   
   The frozen bread can be pulled out an hour before dinner. I slice it while frozen and either convert it to garlic bread or broil it. To broil, I spread butter, add garlic and onion salt and sprinkle with shredded parmesan (from the zip-package, not the can) and stick it under the broiler until its bubbly.
5. Quesadillas and chips and cheese. We almost always have tortillas and cheese in the fridge. The kids prefer plain cheese. My husband and I often add basil, guacamole or chicken. Melt cheese over taco chips and pull out the salsa and jalapeños. Chop up some fruit and dinner is served. Black beans and rice or refried beans are nice side dishes if you have them.
6. Pita pizzas. The fun thing about this is that everyone can have exactly what they want. I sometimes use a flavored oil for the base, add veggies and feta cheese. The boys prefer a pizza sauce topped with pepperoni or Canadian bacon and cheese. Easy to make and they take just a few minutes to bake.
7. Macaroni and cheese from scratch. If you love cheese, you should always have the ingredients for this. I combine cheeses, depending on what I have on hand. My kids like this as well as the blue box! (Kraft) My recipe.
8. A can of soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. It’s a classic.
9. Jarred spaghetti sauce. I buy organic spaghetti sauce. We like Seasons of Change Roasted Garlic and Balsamic Vinegar. It’s refreshing to read the label and be able to identify all of the ingredients. Kids always love this meal and since it is organic sauce I don’t have to worry about preservatives. I sometimes add Italian sausage which makes it taste like I slaved over a hot stove all day. Serve a bagged salad and garlic bread on the side and it becomes a restaurant quality meal.
10. Tuna-fish casserole. Our recipe calls for tuna, noodles, cheese and cream of mushroom soup. (I can’t help it, I live in Minnesota, where we are known for our dishes made of cream of something.) This is the ultimate comfort food and it tastes great with apple slices!
11. Pork chop casserole. I learned how to make this when I was in 4-H. We stock pork chops in the freezer and usually have all of the rest of these ingredients available. It’s a great winter dish.
12. Frozen salmon patties. My kids love these. I serve them on a bun with chips or fries and fruit or carrot sticks. We’ve also used the breaded fish fillets, a la McDonald’s filet of fish. But it’s not quite as healthy.
13. Frozen hamburger patties. In the summer, I love to have these available to grill at a moments notice. We pull a bag of frozen buns out of the freezer. Make a salad from the garden, grab a few beers and turn it into a picnic.
14. Frozen pizza. This is my kids all time favorite. If I have a minute to stop by Papa Murphy’s, I prefer take-and-bake pizza.

What’s in my pantry?
I am a big fan of menu-planning. If you are a little leery of that idea, the best alternative is a well-stocked pantry. Emphasis on well stocked!

Pantry: Tuna, lots of pasta, rice, nuts, sun-dried tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, cans of beans, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and paste, fruits packed in light syrup and soups, including chicken and beef broth. I also keep extra salad dressing which is a great marinade in a pinch!

Staples: vegetable, canola, olive oils, cider, balsamic and white vinegar, baking soda and powder, sugar, flour, spices, honey.

Fridge: Ham, cheese, tortillas, salsa, pesto, minced garlic, mustard, baby carrots, lemons, limes, apples, oranges, bagged salads. Plus the sauces in the door: worcestershire, teriyaki and soy sauce, pickles and olives. In addition to a whole range of dairy products: yogurt, butter, eggs, block cheese, grated and shredded parmesan and cream cheese.

Freezer: Bread, buns, tortillas, frozen pizza and ice cream, blueberries, raspberries, corn. Chicken, bacon, fish, steak, salmon and hamburger patties. Cheese. (Grated freezes better than block cheese.)

I found these suggestions on the website DesperationDinners.com. They recommend these four simple steps to Desper-ize your family’s favorite recipes:

1. Substitute high quality frozen vegetables for fresh.
2. To reduce simmer time look for cans of stewed tomatoes that have already added the seasoning. Since they have stewed it for you, it won’t need to simmer as long to add flavor.
3. Buy fresh vegetables and fruits that are ready to go. For instance, baby carrots, bags of broccoli florets, pre-washed spinach, sliced fresh mushrooms or fresh pineapple that has been cored and cut into rings.
4. Drop the side dish and add a salad instead. Use ready to eat salads. Embellish with olives, nuts, sunflower seeds, raisins or parmesan cheese.

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KAREN HENKE is a professional organizer and the owner of Come2Order. With a collection of 17 years work experience in design, space planning and organization, she now helps others come to order.

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