7 Easy and Delicious Pantry Clean Out Meals

To start out our pantry challenge 2023, we took an inventory of everything we already had at home. Looking through our fridge, freezer, and dry goods storage is what led me to create the following pantry clean out meals for my family.

1. Hawaiian haystacks

Add three to four cups of chicken broth or water. Next, add a can of cream of chicken soup. Season this with some salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and half of a yellow onion.

After the mixture is combined, add in about one and a half pounds of chicken.

Put that in the crock pot, put the lid on, and turn it on low for four to six hours or high for two to four hours. When it's all done cooking, shred it up, and then serve it with some rice.

You can top it with any toppings that you like. We really like pineapple, tomatoes, and peanuts.

2. Pulled pork sliders

This is one of my favorite go-to meals. We pretty much always have some sort of buns, corn, and barbecue meat in the house.

Right now, I have some pulled pork that was in the freezer. So we're just thawing that out in some warm water and toasting the buns in the air fryer with a little bit of butter.

Put the meat in the microwave with some butter, salt and pepper, bind it all together, and we'll have a nice little slider and some corn on the side. Super easy. Dinner should come together in about five or ten minutes.

3. Spaghetti

Take half of a yellow onion with some oil in a pot, and heat that up while the water is boiling. Let that saute for a few minutes before adding in the rest of the ingredients.

Next, add in one fifteen-ounce can of tomato sauce then some spices. Stir it all in, and then add in the next few ingredients including one six-ounce can of tomato paste and a cup of water.

Stir well, then add a half tablespoon of sugar to cut down on the acidity from the canned tomatoes, and a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce.

Cook rotini pasta, then add it into the sauce and stir it around. If you have any cooked ground beef, put it in with the sauce. Serve with breadsticks.

4. Quinoa bowls

First, chop up some carrots and onions into small chunks. Then, rinse and drain chickpeas, and put everything into a nice big bowl and give it a good drizzle of olive oil. Stir everything together and add in some seasonings like salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder.

Pour it out onto our sprayed cookie sheet and make sure everything is in an even, flat layer. Pop it into a preheated 450-degree oven and bake for around twenty to twenty-five minutes.

Stir the vegetables and chickpeas around halfway through just to make sure everything is cooking evenly.

Tonight, I made a lime and sour cream sauce with some salt and pepper to go on top as well as some feta cheese.

5. Potato soup

Chop two stalks of celery, a cup of carrots, and four or five medium-sized golden potatoes. Put all of that into your Instant Pot.

Add in some ham, sausage, or bacon and three cups of chicken broth. Then, season it with some salt and pepper.

Next, you'll add about a teaspoon of thyme and a tablespoon of parsley. I also add about a teaspoon of onion powder and then three cloves of garlic.

Give this a nice stir to make sure that all the potatoes are covered by the water or broth base. Then, put the Instant Pot lid on and cook this on manual pressure for three minutes. You can let this naturally release for five to ten minutes, or you can go ahead and do a quick release.

Lastly, add in a cup of milk or cream.

6. Pork and sausage casserole

Brown up some ground pork and diced onion. While that cooks, thinly slice a couple potatoes and boil them for about five to seven minutes, drain them, then season them with some salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Put the boiled potatoes mixture into a greased nine by thirteen pan, and then top them with the meat and onion mixture as well.

Next, make a roux with some butter, cheese, milk, flour, and some of the starchy potato water. To do this, heat three tablespoons of butter and a fourth cup of flour in a pan. Stir this until it gets nice and golden brown. And once it's at that coloring, add in one cup of the reserved potato water and one cup of whole milk.

Add in about a half teaspoon of garlic powder, a half teaspoon of onion powder, and a half cup of shredded cheddar cheese and stir until it is all the way melted and combined.

Then, take your sauce and pour it over the pork and potato mixture. Top the rest off with another half cup of cheese and about another half cup, cover it, and put it into a preheated 375 degree oven for about thirty minutes. Uncover and cook for another five to ten minutes.

7. Pot roast and mashed potatoes

For the last pantry challenge, chop up an onion, trim the fat off of your meat, and season with garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper. Heat up oil in your Instant Pot, then put the roast face down and cook for about five minutes per side.

Add two cups of beef broth, then put the lid on, and cook on manual pressure for fifty-two minutes.

Pantry clean out

Pantry clean out

I make a lot of pantry challenge recipes, so we save both time and money eating at home. If you have other clean pantry ideas for me, go ahead and leave those down below in the comments.