Take the Pantry Challenge - Rules and Recipes

Take the Pantry Challenge and use up the food in your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer. It will help you organize your kitchen AND save money too. 

When should you do it?

• After holidays to use up the special ingredients you bought.
• At the beginning of the year to save a little cash.
• Seasonally to keep everything in order.
• When you can't find anything in your pantry or freezer or you're throwing out expired food.
• To make room in your pantry/refrigerator/freezer for a healthy dinner plan.

You can even make this part of your monthly shopping routine!

Pantry Challenge Rules

You set the rules for YOUR challenge to eat the pantry clean. Here's what to cover:

#1 Set a time frame for the challenge.

If you've never done it before then try it for 7-10 days. Once you're a veteran, try it for even longer! 

My time frame: 7 days

#2 Decide if you will step foot in a grocery store.

If you are, what's your budget? There are many reasons to allow this. You may need certain products for special diets or for children. Or, you may want a little wiggle room for fresh items, like milk or fresh produce.

My goal: $20 

#3 Clean out your refrigerator, freezer, and pantry.

Work in sections (i.e. start with spices, dry goods, refrigerator and then the freezer.) Lift out everything. Discard anything that has expired. Donate or give away items that you definitely don't plan to use. 

#4 Make an inventory of what's left.

Simply make a list of everything you have on hand. Highlight or place an asterisk next to items that you need to use asap.

Tip: Use a marker to write the expiration date or opened date so it's easy to see.

#5 Create a meal plan.

This is the fun part and you should definitely get the family involved. Print out our free meal planner and follow the easy process to set-up a weekly meal plan using the food you have on hand.

Get creative. When things start running low, think about dishes you enjoy and whether you can substitute something you have to come up with a new favorite. For example, make chicken fajitas instead of beef. What's Cooking America's Baking and Cooking Ingredient Substitution Chart is also a great resource.

Recipes Ideas

Just because you're eating your pantry clean doesn't mean meals should be boring. Here are some recipe ideas that are easily customized based upon what you have on hand:

Breakfast

• Eggs - Make it a scramble and stir in vegetables or beans.
• Quiche - Use the basic quiche template and variation suggestions in Crustless Quiche to Make-Ahead and Freeze.
• Smoothies - Substitute different berries in our Simple Strawberry Smoothie recipe.
• Muffins - If you stocked up on baking supplies, make muffins! Do you have cans of pumpkin puree? Make one of these Pumpkin Muffin Recipes.
• Oatmeal - Load it up with toppings such as nuts and frozen or fresh fruit. Follow our directions to make steel-cut oatmeal in a crock-pot. 

Of course, use up any ready-to-serve items, such as frozen waffles or boxed cereal. 

Lunch and Dinner

• Rice Bowls - Make rice, quinoa, farro...or any grain base for a bowl. Add in protein, vegetables, cheese, dried fruit, nuts, seeds, crunchy toppings and drizzle with a little sauce. What sauce? Use salad dressing or use olive oil and vinegar.
• Soups - Many of these Soup Recipes are customizable by swapping out the protein. 
• Salads - Use those greens up early in the challenge so they don't go bad.
• Pasta - You can add just about anything to Pasta with Olive Oil and Garlic.
• Breakfast for dinner!

If you have:

• Ground beef - make crumbles for Gourmet Sloppy Joes or make Turkey Meatloaf Muffins (you'll need ground beef, chicken or turkey, cheese and breadcrumbs or oatmeal, onion and salsa.) 
• Chicken breast - my favorite sheet pan recipe is Mediterranean Chicken Bake. You can easily swap out the ingredients in this recipe.
• Beans - go meatless! Use them in place of meat in the ideas above.

Use up any frozen dinners and vegetables!

Snacks

Here are some healthy snack options

• Fruit
• Cheese and vegetables or crackers
• Energy Balls - Use any nut butter in this recipe. Swap Medjool dates for an equal amount of honey.
• Trail mix - Use nuts, cereal, dried fruit to make these.
• Healthy Veggie Muffins - these recipes call for only a few ingredients

Good luck and have fun!

Did you take the pantry challenge? Do you have questions or tips to share? Leave a comment below!