A healthy dinner is possible even if you think your pantry is bare and your fridge is empty.ย This No Recipe Pantry Dinner can be made by anyone!
Okay.ย Here is the story.ย I don’t cook during the week unless I have a recipe deadline.ย I use a meal delivery service called Go Methodology as when you cook for a living sometimes you just don’t want too.ย Anyway my parents were coming back and I had no food in the fridge AND we had to get dinner on the table.ย I had condiments and some staples in the pantry so I had make do.
How to make a No Recipe Pantry Dinner Happen
The key thing to making a healthy meal on the fly is to have a stocked pantry meaning try to have the following items on hand at all times:
- pasta
- rice
- cans of beans
- stock
- nuts
- lots of spices
- onion
- garlic
All these ingredients make a great starting point when you have no where to go.ย I knew I had one box of pasta left and thought about what I had to make a dish.ย Then remembered we still had some anchovie paste and capers and magic we have a sauce!ย I’ve made it a few times before with other variations, but this time I used dried cherries (to counter balance the salty anchovy) and pecans for crunch.ย Normally I make this with fresh parsley, but didn’t have any this week so did a mix of cilantro and dill.ย In cooking it’s totally okay to experiment.
I made this with my toddlers help and it comes together so fast that we had time to play after cooking.
Side Dishes
So side dishes are optional, but we needed to use up some veggies that have been sitting in the fridge for a week.ย I roasted some radicchio, portobello mushrooms and endives. Some kale was also starting to wilt away and an easy way to turn it into a dish is to massage it with some vinegar and olive oil.ย That was also mixed into the salad and topped with lots of dill.ย I tell you olive oil, salt and pepper goes a long way.
Then I had a peak in our potato drawer and saw we had some sweet potato so I also roasted them as a second side dish.
Amiee Song’s Sweet Potato Fries
Sadly this is not my recipe, but it’s so good you guys have to make it.ย You can see it made step by step by Amiee herself in her Instagram Stories.ย It’s super easy with pantry staples.ย All you need to do is cut the sweet potatoes into large wedges and coat in olive oil.ย Then season with salt and pepper.ย This time I used some Tumeric Salt.ย It adds a little something something.
Dinner is Served
So there you have it, a pantry dinner with no recipes.ย With a little digging around and some creativity a healthy quick dinner can happen!ย I made it with a toddler helping me and with a play in between.
Now let’s eat!ย For other meal plan ideas you can have read this post from last year.