Pantry meals

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SouthCentralUS said:
Is there already a thread for using your pantry to make complete meals? I searched and could not find one.
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I don't think there is a thread that is for that, but what a great idea.

One thought that I have would be for a tuna and noodle casserole, made with a can or two of tuna, macaroni or noodles, a can of cream of something soup, onions and peas. I add milk to the soup, but in an empty pantry situation, you could add powdered milk that has been reconstituted, or evaporated milk, or even broth.
 
My 'goulosh" is a pound of ground whatever meat (beef, chicken, turkey, .....! Whatever beans I have in a can, pork and beans, ranch style beans, etc.,.....rotel, green chili's, rice, maybe pasta?! It's just a free for all! Make some garlic bread and let the magic begin!! I can't even believe I just said that,🤔😉. Brown the meat, throw it all in the crock pot for about 4 hours.....
 
Pearl said:
My 'goulosh" is a pound of ground whatever meat (beef, chicken, turkey, .....! Whatever beans I have in a can, pork and beans, ranch style beans, etc.,.....rotel, green chili's, rice, maybe pasta?! It's just a free for all! Make some garlic bread and let the magic begin!! I can't even believe I just said that,🤔😉. Brown the meat, throw it all in the crock pot for about 4 hours.....
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In my family, goulash is made with a pound of ground beef (cattle ranchers), a pound of macaroni, canned tomatoes (sauce, paste, crushed, whatever you have, nothing exacting about this), onions. Brown the ground beef in a large skillet, drain and add the onions. Add the tomatoes and macaroni and some water. Cover and cook until the macaroni is cooked. We never had corn in ours while growing up, but I have added corn as an adult. I like to get veggies in.
 
i am using up old stuff and what i grew,canned,froze etc. to keep away from going out among the zombies and keep clear of the plague right now...sooo i wanted coleslaw..no cabbage so fell back on old recipe..turnip slaw

elks version
2grated turnips
grated carrot to eye
chopped shallots
1 grated apple
celery seed

dressing 2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
a couple dashes italian salad dressing

goes good with pinto beans and cornbread...sorta between coleslaw and type of chow chow or maybe chutney.
 
i had stopped eating out before plague hit..i think last time was nov2019.disgusted by cost,lack of meals being edible to me and much more. so wanted lo mien type something another. so i had some left over hamburger crumbles..sooooo

boiled handfull of spaghetti noodles. drained and put in bowl.sprinkled with ginger and turmeric and tossed till evenly coated.

several shallots
double handfull kale
hamburger
dash of soysauce


sidenotes..i have read about using baking soda in boiling water to cook pasta in to make alkaline noodles.i might try that next time to get it closer to a ramen noodle thing

kale..yall seen kale i harvested from garden other day in garden thread.its been super cold and this stood up well. its interesting this kale is super tough to touch.i think its going to last a long time in refrigerator.i just slice it thin and even use stems.i usually cut stems out but am leaving them in so far. even larger ones.
 
We just had goulash last night, but I used this recipe.....

Chef John's American Goulash | Allrecipes



  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 2 pounds ground beef (I only used about 1/2lb)
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste
  • 2 tablespoons paprika
  • 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 quart chicken broth
  • 1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes (1pt home canned)
  • 1 (24 ounce) jar marinara sauce (1qt home canned)
  • 1 cup water
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce (substitued worechestershire sauce)
  • 2 cups elbow macaroni
  • ¼ cup chopped Italian parsley
  • 1 cup shredded white Cheddar cheese (Optional) (I had Italian mix)


  • Step 1
    Heat oil in a pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and ground beef. Cook, breaking the meat into small pieces, until browned, about 5 minutes. Cook and stir until liquid is evaporated, 3 to 5 minutes more. Add garlic, salt, black pepper, cayenne, paprika, Italian seasoning, and bay leaves.
  • Step 2
    Cook and stir until flavors come together, about 3 minutes. Pour in chicken broth, diced tomatoes, and marinara sauce. Rinse out the jar with 1 cup water and pour into the pot. Add soy sauce, stir, and bring soup to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium and simmer to let flavors intensify, about 30 minutes.
  • Step 3
    Increase heat to medium-high and bring soup to a simmer. Add macaroni; simmer, stirring occasionally, until just barely tender, about 12 minutes. Check for doneness after 10 minutes.
  • Step 4
    Remove goulash from heat. Discard bay leaves; stir in parsley and Cheddar cheese. Cover and let rest for 5 minutes. Taste and season as desired.




ETA......I also added some leftover corn that needed used up.. I thought it kinda funny Weedygarden had mentioned adding corn
 
I sliced a bunch of kale in strips and froze it, and it's held up decently...have dumped the bag in a crock pot twice when making a thick soup. I dehydrate everything, so I always have a good selection of quick junk to throw together, and if I want meat, I just add some canned meat or leftover. I've got a ton of meals in a jar recipes that I've made and stored in mylar. So many recipes online for those. I found one today on youtube that I just sent to my nephew, he's just starting out with storing meals. It was on Rose Red Homestead, and called Dry Mix Burrito in a Jar.
3/4 cup fast beans (that could be cooked, dehydrated black beans or pinto beans, or whatever beans)
1/4 cup white rice
1/4 cup dehydrated onion
1/4 cup dehydrated bell pepper
1 Tablespoon dehydrated Rotel or just some dried hot pepper
1 Tablespoon taco seasoning
1/2 Teaspoon salt

Add 2 cups of water, bring to a boil, cover and simmer 20 minutes. Can add cooked hamburger
I would also add a pulverized bouillon cube (beef or chicken)

Looks pretty good, she made it online. Wrapped in flour tortillas.
 
We have a small property about 3 hours away and plan to spend some time there, a few days at a time, beginning in the Spring. It is located about half way between 2 communities, both population less than 300, but the property is way off the road. The next large town is population about 4000.

We have not eaten out in a few years, so when we ordered breakfast at McD's and it was $5 for a sausage biscuit, I was floored. A hamburger for lunch at the other drive through was $10. I guess the rest of you knew this, but we just don't eat out.

Having said all that, I plan to make meal kits to take on our trips. There are no buildings on our land and we don't own an RV so we will be using a campfire.

I plan to take pints of home canned beef, pork, chicken, vegetables, etc.

When I get it down on paper, I will post what I plan to have in the meal kits.
 
This year we canned a bunch of quart "quick meals". We ended up canning split pea soup, Lentil soup, beef stew, chicken soup and the list goes on and on. We can't eat out and I didn't want to have to buy another freezer. Most of the meals are easy enough to make, just dump the quart in a sauce pan and heat. The potato leak soup has to have dairy added to the pan. Each quart gives 2 people 1 meal, might have enough leftover for 1 lunch.

I used my wife's favorite recipes as a guide and adjusted to make 7 quarts, split up the ingredients and then cold packed them into the canning jars, the beef products were with covered with hot beef stock (we make a bunch of that first) everything else got chicken stock. Then they went into the pressure canner.

The legumes were soaked and fully expanded before making the soup. We made a version of chicken noodle soup, I just vacuum packed the egg noodles in a quart jar and then put them in a big sauce pan with a quart of the chicken vegetable soup heat until done..... If it needs more liquid we add a pint of chicken stock.

The assembly line:
P_20210828_124151_p.jpg


Ready for the lid:
P_20210828_124138_p.jpg


It might seem like a lot of work, but it gives us a lot of low salt options that are ready in 30 minutes.....
 
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UrbanHunter said:
This year we canned a bunch of quart "quick meals". We ended up canning split pea soup, Lentil soup, beef stew, chicken soup and the list goes on and on. We can't eat out and I didn't want to have to buy another freezer. Most of the meals are easy enough to make, just dump the quart in a sauce pan and heat. The potato leak soup has to have dairy added to the pan. Each quart gives 2 people 1 meal, might have enough leftover for 1 lunch.

I used my wife's favorite recipes as a guide and adjusted to make 7 quarts, split up the ingredients and then cold packed them into the canning jars, the beef products were with covered with hot beef stock (we make a bunch of that first) everything else got chicken stock. Then they went into the pressure canner.

The legumes were soaked and fully expanded before making the soup. We made a version of chicken noodle soup, I just vacuum packed the egg noodles in a quart jar and then put them in a big sauce pan with a quart of the chicken vegetable soup heat until done..... If it needs more liquid we add a pint of chicken stock.

The assembly line:
View attachment 79086

Ready for the lid:
View attachment 79087

It might seem like a lot of work, but it gives us a lot of low salt options that are ready in 30 minutes.....
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Really not bad in the work! Saves work later and makes a bunch! Great idea!
 
We always bring lunch on a road trip. If we stop for something, it's an ice cream cone. Grandkids know me well enough that we won't go through a drive thru for food.
We do, though, from time to time bring them out to dinner, but it's more like at an IHOP type place, and not on a road trip. There is taco meat in a can, and there's premade taco shells in a pinch.
 
Looking back we canned 14 quick meal things this summer, most things we canned 7 and then ate one as a "test". If it passed the test we made another batch or 2.
We canned:
Turkey chunks (pints)
Venison (pints)
Venison Sloppy Joe filling (pints)
Meat Loaf (pints, heat in skillet and add glaze)
Chili (quarts)
Lentil Soup (quarts)
Split pea soup (quarts)
Beef vegetable soup (quarts)
Beef Barley soup (quarts)
Minestrone soup (pints)
Venison stew (quarts)
Chicken vegetable soup
Chicken Noodle (2 quart pack with 1 chicken 1 egg noodles (dry))
Potato Leak soup (quarts, have to add dairy in the sauce pan)
Chicken stock (pints)
Beef stock (pints)
When we were making the chicken stock we did 2 whole chickens at a time and removed the meat half way through.
The chicken meat was used to make casseroles:
Our casseroles are in 8"X 8" pans to make just enough for 2+ lunch the next day. We make them 4 at a time, eat 1 freeze 3:
Chicken tortilla casserole
Chicken Ritz casserole
Chicken and wild rice casserole
Chicken and broccoli casserole
Rigatoni with Italian sausage and egg plant casserole

We also canned green beans and other sides......

We planned each week what we were going to can and did 1 item usually starting on Thursday and finishing by Saturday night. On Sunday afternoon we planned for the next week... We were tired of canning by the time the summer was over..... But now we are starting to think about what we need to can this summer.....
 
great thread, im not much of a cooik, can use some new ideas.

when i dont want to cook i grab a can of cream of mushroom soup, some elbow macaroni and a can of tune , chicken or pint of grouind elk and make 'goop'. if im feeling frisky i might add a can of green beans.

a box of rice a roni wild rice and a can of chicken or pint of ground elk with green beans , thats nice and easy too
 
snappy1 said:
I thicken chicken vegetable soup with instant potato flakes to make pot pie filling. Of course, there is always fried spam in macaroni and cheese.
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All hail fried Spam!! 4 slices per can, fried, velveeta cheeze, on toast.

Sorry, got sidetracked. Spam and spaghetti, Mac and cheese, mashed taters, spam is a universal yummy :)
 
SouthCentralUS said:
I have decided that after Christmas I will try my hand at making meals similar to Mountain House meals in a bag. We have all kinds of fd vegetables and some fd chicken and beef. Will be doing some experimenting.

Just remembered the fd cheese.
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There are quite a few videos on YouTube of pantry meals that people have made from freeze dried or dehydrated foods and put them together in a canning jar. I am putting up just one.

 
Weedygarden said:
There are quite a few videos on YouTube of pantry meals that people have made from freeze dried or dehydrated foods and put them together in a canning jar. I am putting up just one.

Click to expand...

In the section about this video is a list of the 4 meals that were put together in jars along with the ingredients:

@girlnextdoorgrooming

@girlnextdoorgrooming​

@1:37 Potato/Sausage Casserole:
1 c. sausage crumbles
2 c. dehydrated hash browns.
1/2 c. Augusson Farms cheese powder
1/4 c Sour cream powder
1 Tablespoon minced onions
1 Teaspoon salt
1/2 Teaspoon black pepper.
Will be very peppery. Bake at 375F for 25 minutes with 5 c. hot water.

@5:21 Beef/Bean Stew:
1c. instant black beans
1c. freeze dried beef
2 Tablespoon Beef bullion
2 Tablespoon minced onions
1.5 Teaspoon minced garlic
1 Teaspoon thyme
4 Tablespoon diced tomatoes or 4 Tablespoon tomato powder
1 cup potato cubes
1 cup your choice of mixed vegetables
1/2-1 Teaspoon salt

Add 6-8 c. water & Simmer 25 min.

@9:35 Mac & Cheese:
2&2/3 c. macaroni
In a baggie put 2/3 c. cheese powder,
2 Tablespoon instant milk,
4 Tablespoon powdered butter,
1/2 Teaspoon black pepper,
1/2 Teaspoon salt.

Cook noodles as usual, add 2/3 c. water to powders and stir in.

@12:35 Chicken Noodle Skillet:
2c. noodles
1 Tablespoon minced onions
1/3 c. instant milk
1.5 Teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 c. butter powder
1/2 Teaspoon black pepper
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1/2 c. any vegetables
1/3 c. cheese powder
1 c. freeze dried chicken

Pour 3.5 cups water or broth into a skillet, bring to a boil, add dry ingredients, Simmer 15 minutes, cover and let rest 5 minutes.
 
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