2 Easy Recipes I Made as Part of My Pantry Clean-out Challenge
I will do a pantry clean-out to make cheap, easy meals with what I have on hand. I woke up feeling under the weather, so I pushed through today, and now I want some soup. That's what I'm going to do. So let me show you what we've got left in the pantry.
Today, we're going to try to use up a few more pantry ingredients.
I'm going to do something with a box of au gratin potatoes, and I'm going to use a box of corn muffin mix.
Someone gave me the idea of turning my au gratin potato kit into a potato soup, and that sounds good to me right now.
I'm going to make this corn muffin mix, but I think I'll jazz it up with some stuff I found in the fridge. So, to turn this into soup, I'm going to need some chicken stock.
I've got two of these bouillon cubes that I have, and I'm trying to use them up, so I'll use two. Then I found this bag of bacon pieces I thought I could add.
I've got a bit of shredded cheddar cheese, and the recipe called for adding sour cream.
I don't have any sour cream, but I have this Greek plain yogurt and need to use it in the next couple of weeks. I still have quite a bit, so I'll use some. We'll turn this into a potato soup and see what it tastes like.
I thought these corn muffins would be good to crumble in or eat beside our potato soup. To jazz this up a little bit, I could add some of this cheddar cheese. I found one lone jalapeño pepper in my fridge. I will add it to this.
1. Corn muffins
I am going to follow the box directions. So I'll need an egg and a little bit of milk. So let's use it up.
The first thing I will do is get my corn muffins ready. I'm going to finely dice this jalapeno. I'll take the seeds out.
I think this will add some pizzazz to the muffins, and I'm using up this jalapeno right before it goes bad and using up that corn muffin mix. I wanted something to go with this potato soup.
I'll add a third cup of milk and add a little handful of cheese. Now, I have six muffin cups sprayed.
I'm going to pour this in.
We're going to put these in a 400-degree oven for about 20 minutes; then we'll give them a check.
2. Potato soup
Okay, so here's what I'm going to do with this. I'm going to take the potatoes. Now, I will add that I have this tiny bag of diced carrots here from my freezer to use up.
We're using up stuff from the fridge and freezer, too, where we can, so we're going to add that and the cheese sauce packet that came with the potato mix.
I will add two bouillon cubes because I have them to use up.
Anytime you can add stock or bouillon in soups or water, it's just going to add a ton of flavor.
So, I'm going to add two of these and four cups of water and stir this.
We're going to put this on the stove and heat it to boiling.
Here are the muffins out of the oven. I may have overfilled that one.
The soup came to a boil, and I've reduced it to a low amount. I'll let it simmer for about 30 minutes. Our potato soup has simmered for a while now, about 25, almost 30 minutes.
I'm going to add some final things to make this delicious.
I like pepper a lot, so I added pepper.
I did not add salt because there was that cheese sauce, and I know it probably had salt. I'm going to add some bacon bits and cheese, which will also be salty.
I'll add half a cup of plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream.
Use whatever you have on hand, or add a splash of milk or some heavy cream. I just wanted to add something dairy to make it creamier, so we'll do half a cup of plain Greek yogurt.
I will stir this and let it simmer for another 5 to 10 minutes to let that Greek yogurt return to temperature. This soup is so much creamier, and it will have the tang.
This would be good, just as is, but I added in a handful of cheese.
I'll stir that in. Now, let's add some of these bacon pieces, just a little bit.
I think our soup is just about ready, and this is going to be so comforting. All right, so here is that potato soup. It smells delicious, and I've got my jalapeno and cheese muffin, so let's taste it.
I love the taste of jalapeno pepper, and that's not even spicy when mixed with a corn muffin like that.
So here's my soup. Let's give it a taste.
I have never thought about taking an au gratin potato mix and turning it into soup, but how many of us have one of those kits in our cabinet from some sale or holiday or that we need to use? This is the perfect comfort food to use.
Make this soup if you have one of these gratin potato kits in your cupboard. I'm feeling under the weather, and this is hitting the spot. I'm using up things from my pantry, but I also used up some cheese that I had, some yogurt that I had, a jalapeño that I had, and milk in the fridge.
These are just things that I already had on hand. I didn't have to go to the store for anything.
Pantry clean-out
I hope I inspired you to make cheap, easy meals and to do a pantry clean-out. What is your favorite recipe using common pantry ingredients? Share your recipes in the comments below.
Next, check out my Quick and Tasty Vegetarian Freezer Meal Ideas.
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