Pantry Challenge: 6 Delicious Pantry Clear-Out Meal Ideas

Today, I'm showing you my pantry challenge before and after. I hope this gives you some inspiration and some pantry challenge recipes. Let’s get started.

I’m just making the pasta the normal way – salting the water, waiting for it to boil, and adding the pasta.

I'm sauteeing the asparagus in a pan using a little salt, pepper, oil, onion powder, and garlic powder. If you like it a bit more spicy, add chili flakes or crushed red pepper.

I’m making garlic bread with my new Instant Vortex Plus air fryer. This one has a window and it’s amazing. I set it for two minutes and added some butter and garlic powder to the bread.

Once the noodles were done, I drained them and added in my sauce, salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning. Then I added in the cooked, drained ground beef.

2. Beef and barley soup

Instead of barley, we’ll use farro. I’m going to make it in the Instant Pot on the slow cooker function.

Ingredients:

• Stripped beef
• Farro (grain)
• Carrots
• Onions
• Potatoes
• Garlic
• Celery (from the freezer)
• Bay leaves
• Seasonings (salt, pepper, thyme)

My pot is on saute and I’m adding a little olive oil. After it heats up a bit I will add in the meat. I used two bags of beef just to get it out of my freezer.

I added salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. I let it cook for a little bit until it browned.

I made some room for the veggies in the pot. I added celery, carrots, and chopped onions.

Then I added two chopped golden potatoes for texture. You can shred the potatoes, too.

I added 6 teaspoons of beef broth powder plus 1 cup of water.

I added two bay leaves and a half teaspoon of thyme, salt, and pepper and stir.

The lid is on and I’m slow cooking it on high for three hours.

An hour before it’s done, I’ll add in the farro – it takes about 20 minutes to cook. I added in a cup but that’s just what I had on hand.

3. Brownies

We’re getting rid of our last egg for this recipe. This is a Duncan Hines mix that’s very fudgy. It was made with butter, egg, and milk.

4. Teriyaki meatballs

I’ll use the slow cooker function in my Instant Pot.

Ingredients:

• 2 dozen frozen meatballs
• ¼ cup soy sauce
• ½ cup pineapple juice
• ⅓ cup of beef broth
• ⅓ cup of brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1-2 cloves minced garlic
• ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients (except for the meat). My pineapple juice was frozen so I just added it to the Instant Pot to thaw out.

Put the meatballs in the pot and then pour in the sauce.

Cook on low for three hours or warm all day but keep an eye on the meatballs so they are not burning.

We had a side of asparagus to use up the vegetables. I just sauteed it in oil and seasonings. I also made rice.

5. Sausage risotto

I wanted to clean out my deep freezer for this meal. I also made some garlic bread as a side.

Ingredients:

• 1 package risotto from Trader Joe’s
• 1 package sausage

Directions:

Dice the sausage and brown it in a pan.

Make risotto per the package’s instructions.

Pour the sauteed sausage in with the risotto and mix.

6. Honey garlic chicken

This last dinner is a crockpot recipe. I usually make this with chicken thighs but we didn’t have any so I used these breasts.

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ pounds of chicken
• ½ cup soy sauce
• ½ cup honey or brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of onion powder
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• Salt and pepper

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients (except for the chicken) to make the sauce.

Add it all together in the crockpot and cook on low for four hours. (You can take the chicken out when it’s cooked and shred it, then return it to the pot.)

Pantry challenge

So, even with all these pantry-challenge recipes, I barely made a dent in my pantry, fridge, or freezer.

I’ll have to do more pantry challenges to really clear out the food. Let us know what pantry meals you make to clean out your kitchen by leaving a comment below.

Next, check out my Easy Beef and Chicken Crockpot Meal Ideas.