10 Pantry Staples for Frugal Meals

There are certain things that we always keep in our pantry. These items save us when we are pressed for ingredients to make meals with. Heather from Want What You Have has come up with a list of her favorite, inexpensive pantry items. These great items come to her aid when she is pressed for time or ingredients.

Rice: you can make several dishes with white, brown and wild rice.

Pasta: everyone loves pasta, it's filling and it's quick and easy to prepare.

Canned Tomato Products: toss diced tomatoes in with rice for a side with tacos, mix tomatoes and tomato paste to make spaghetti sauce, or crush tomatoes to make a base for soups. There are endless possibilities!

Canned Tuna: make tuna cakes, tuna burgers, tuna cheddar chowder, and tuna pasta salads.

Eggs: these are not for the pantry, but they are great to have around. Not only are they nutrient dense and high in protein, but they're a quick and easy staple meal. Make quiche or omelets.

Canned Beans: filling source of fiber that's quick to prepare and very versatile.

Dried lentils: lentils are filling, hold well in soups, and make a great meat substitute.

Bulgur Wheat: this quick-cooking form of whole wheat can be made into patties or used as a ground beef substitute.

Flour Tortillas: use for tacos, enchiladas, sandwiches, wraps and burritos.

Stove Top Stuffing Mix: great as a side, but also coats or tops oven friend chicken, meatloaves, salmon or tuna patties and casseroles.

What are some of your favorite pantry items?

Head over to My Favorite Pantry Staples for Heather's full article.

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Comments:

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Hello, We have found canned Mackerel, much cheaper to use than canned Tuna fish. The fillets need to be cleaned, bones removed and mashed up and mixed with dried or freshly minced onion(onion removes fishy taste, let it "marinate" for 15 minutes or longer) it can then be used any way tuna is used. Using one can of Mackerel (13 to 16 ounces), which cost from $.79 to $.99, I've made 6 big sandwiches(with bread of course) and also 12-15 fish cakes, or 12 fish cake sandwiches. It can also be used in casseroles, or in Curried Mackerel over rice. The Mackerel can be extended with hard boiled eggs, chopped, and mayonnaise, or yogurt and mustard added for Mackerel/egg salad sandwiches :)

Posted by L. Stephens on January 01, 2011 10:49 AM

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Be aware, canned Mackerel looks disgusting, so you will need to get past that if you want to use it. I tried this tip years ago, when tuna was very expensive. It was very fishy tasting and not a good substitute for tuna in my opninon. I ended up feeding it to my cats.

Posted by Claudia on January 03, 2011 9:39 AM

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Claudia, canned Mackerel is not so bad, when you are hungry. FYI, any good cook knows how to rid Mackerel of it's fishy taste,and not ALL canned Mackerel has a fishy taste, like I said, add chopped or dried onion, and or mustard and mayonnaise, and you now have a sandwich spread. The cats ate what you could have eaten, I guess you are so well off, being frugal is not a necessity.

Posted by l. stephens on January 27, 2013 2:38 PM

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