Pantry Cooking | Cooking What's Already There - Week 1

I know.

A long title. But I was so proud of buying minimal from the store and cooking what I already had awaiting in my cupboard!

I have been so blessed to receive food from local pantries around my neighborhood. I was overwhelmed with food. My single focus was to cook what I already know how to. But sometimes, that requires to get extra ingredients from the store.

However, I decided to connect with my roots and heritage hearing my mom and sister say "there's plenty what you already have".

So I decided to be frugal and go for it. Here is my first weeks pantry cooking recipes and the links for the recipes!

Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

This was fairly easy. I owned a bag of an edamame vegetable mixture (not the traditional pot pie mixture) but it was quite tasty! I added some green beans to the mix. I also had 3 frozen biscuits in the freezer at the time. I cut those in half to make the crust of the pot pie. Needless to say, this was my pre-prepared lunch for the week and it was gone by Friday.

Recipe: https://spaceshipsandlaserbeams.com/chicken-pot-pie-casserole/

Crack Chicken Quiche

Ok, I bought a pie crust from the store for $1.50 but I had several dozen eggs that needed to be cooked! What better way to get those gone fast than to make a quiche. I baked some of the chicken leg quarters for the meat and voila - breakfast for that entire week!

Recipe: https://www.plainchicken.com/crack-chicken-quiche/

Breakfast for Dinner

A favorite past time! I always keep grits, I had eggs and cans of salmon. Perfect for a couple of nights during the week.

Savory Baked Chicken, Collard Greens and Rice

Not pictured, because it was gone before I thought about the picture, this traditional meal can never go wrong. I received a bunch of collard greens from the pantry the previous week. I froze them and pulled them out this week. I made some white rice in my cupboard and also made McCormick's Bag Seasoning Chicken with the leg quarters I had.

Apple Turnovers

This recipe will definitely be in rotation! I did not have cornstarch, so I went to buy $1.50 jar from the store. I had everything else in my cupboard. They were so delicious!

Recipe: https://afarmgirlskitchen.com/southern-fried-apple-hand-pies/

Check us out below making the apple turnovers!