This Healthy Pantry Meal Plan is designed to help you cook more efficiently, using fresh, dry and frozen pantry items.
Stocking a healthy pantry can make weekday cooking easier. It just requires a little planning. This week’s pantry meal plan will hopefully help reduce the amount of time it takes for you to make dinner during the week, whether your kids are home on break, or you’re just looking to simplify weekly meal prep.
I’ve put together this weekly pantry meal plan to help you get healthy and delicious meals on the table for you and your family. This is a flexible healthy meal plan so feel free to swap in your favorite healthy recipes. You can also search for more breakfast recipes, dinner recipes and more in my recipe index.
For more pantry recipe ideas, check out this post, click here.
Pantry Meal Plan Prep
One trick that can help reduce cooking time during the week is batch cooking. Batch cooking means prepping ingredients in larger quantities (e.g., browning ground turkey, roasting chicken), as well as doubling recipes (use in other recipes, or freeze for future meals).
This week’s menu suggests cooking a large batch of ground turkey that can be used in multiple recipes. In addition, this menu suggests roasting/grilling a large batch of chicken which can be used in two other recipes during the week.
- Brown 4 days worth of ground turkey (for Tacos, Bolognese sauce, and Turkey Taco Mac and Cheese)
- Roast or grill 3 days worth of chicken (olive oil, your favorite seasoning or herb mix, salt and pepper) – serve for dinner one night; reserve remainder for Chicken Burrito Bowls and Cold Sesame Noodles (if you use chicken on the bone, save the bones to make chicken broth)
- Make double batch of Taco Meat (use store-bought taco seasoning)
- Make double batch of Bolognese Sauce (freeze half; if you’re short on time, simplify by using jarred marinara sauce)
- Make double batch of rice (freeze half for next week)
This Week’s Pantry Meal Plan
Serve these meals with your family’s favorite vegetables/salads. Some of these meals naturally incorporate vegetables.
Day 1: Taco Bar – soft or hard corn tortillas, taco meat, shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes or salsa, guacamole, shredded cheese, sour cream
Day 2: Roast Chicken or Grilled Chicken, roast or grilled vegetables (e.g., cauliflower, broccoli, red bell peppers, sweet potatoes, potatoes)
Day 3: Pasta with Bolognese Sauce
Day 4: Make your own Chicken Burrito Bowls – shred or cut up grilled chicken; serve with rice, black beans (heat up with a little taco seasoning if you like) salsa (use jarred), guacamole, shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, sour cream
Day 5: Tomato Paste Pasta
Day 6: Turkey Taco Mac and Cheese (use Annie’s boxed macaroni and cheese)
Day 7: Cold Sesame Noodles with Chicken – add fresh red bell pepper slices, julienned cucumber
Leave a Reply