It's a great way to stretch a meal, especially if you have some ravenous teenagers or toddlers! in the house. Pro Tip: Use a rice cooker or Instant Pot to cook your rice quicker if it needs to be cooked before going into a recipe.

Oh pasta, you are our love language! We think it's safe to say that you're the love language of many Freebs, too! This pantry staple is another one that will go with just about anything and it's cheap and easy to keep on hand. Pro Tip: When you're cooking pasta, don't use oil in your water for boiling.

A lot of Freebs keep canned pasta sauce on hand as it pairs naturally with pasta. It's a pantry staple that is pretty cheap to stock up on and can go in lots of different things! Pro Tip: Pasta sauce is basically canned tomato sauce and some seasonings, so stock up on tomato sauce and you can easily make your own pasta sauce in a pinch!

Tomatoes are another pantry staple that a lot of Freebs keep on hand! Whether they're canned tomatoes, or tomato paste or sauce, there are so many different recipes you can make with them! Don't be afraid to doctor your tomato sauces with fresh herbs, garlic, cheeses, or thickeners to get the results you want.

You can even combined tomato sauce with paste for a slightly different take that uses up both ingredients. Now that you have some ideas about how to use up those delicious canned and jarred tomato soups, sauces, and pastes, let's talk beans! Whether they're canned or whole, beans are good for so many things!

Eat them plain, add them to meat to bulk up the meal, add them to a soup…. Those are just a few of the reasons that beans are one of the top pantry staples for the Freebs!

You can even use your leftover canned beans in easy peasy dishes like my tamale casserole! Beans are a delicious filler and add protein and other nutrients!

These soups are so good to have on hand. They go with pretty much anything and can really help to take a few ingredients from being a random assortment of items to a casserole in no time!

Pro Tip: It is beyond easy to make your own cream of chicken soup if you keep broth on hand — just add milk, flour , and a little seasoning!

Genius, right!? These are an obvious pantry staple! They can be boiled, baked, fried, mashed or microwaved.

We keep a lot of canned goods in our cabinets. Canned beans are great in a pinch for time with cowboy chili or Tex-Mex nights. Canned it is! Although the priciest item on the list, a good quality olive oil makes a difference to both taste and health. Buy olive oil stored in thick, dark-colored glass bottles.

A manufacturer knows the quality of their oils, a true quality olive oil should be stored in dark glass. Bigger flavor molecules!

Kosher salt is a healthier alternative to table salt without the additives that regular salt have. Freshly ground pepper is better in flavor and aroma which is important for a staple ingredient in so many recipes. Tomato paste is super concentrated and inexpensive. During my SNAP challenge week , the first thing on my list was a small can of tomato paste.

It can be made into pasta sauce or substitute anything that calls for tomatoes. Popular in Mexican dishes, cumin pairs with well with chicken and ground meat for a quick and easy meal. Any soup, stew, casserole recipes that call for a splash of stock can be easily substituted using bouillon cubes which are small and do not need to be refrigerated.

Curry powder is a popular, all-purpose Indian staple. It can be used to make soups, stews or to enhance meat, and vegetables. I love Kraft. A delicious BBQ sauce can rescue many protein-laden dishes that call for tang and flavor.

Canned tuna is versatile and can be eaten straight from the can or made into tuna salad instantly. Best bang for your buck is a carton of jumbo eggs. Eggs may expire but it will take up to 30 days in the fridge which makes them great protein staples.

Freshly ground meat is also the easiest to cook and can be frozen for later. Make chili, tacos, rice bowls, hamburger patties, meatballs etc. I love the thought of fresh but not everyone can make consistent grocery runs.

Frozen corn and broccoli make quick and healthy sides. The shelf life of whole garlic bulbs lasts up to 6 months! Unpeeled cloves will last up to 10 days. Garlic is expensive and adds a lot of flavors, a lot of recipes calls for garlic. Garlic powder can be purchased as a lazy substitute. Onion has a month shelf life if left in a cool, dark and dry place.

They also pack a lot of flavor to each dish. It is the queen bee in our kitchen, along with garlic cloves. We have 2 spice carousels, one was a gift and the other one we bought second hand from a garage sale. The best place to buy spices is Dollar Tree.

Rosler makes hauling back groceries less back-breaking. Soapy will be reading this so feel free to leave comments on your own favorite pantry items for a frugal pantry stock! Tomatoes also freeze well! Either whole or diced or roasted. Consider that especially when your garden is at its peak.

I would add celery to that list as I use it in making stews. Onions, carrots and celery is your mirre poir for all basic stews. Yes, celery is a great pantry staple, for sure! Never heard of strained tomatoes but canned tomato products of any kind are handy to have, I think.

This is one of my favorite ways to save on cheese too. Great list! A tip on keeping garlic longer — I buy the 3 packs of bulbs from Aldi and immediately put them in a small ziplock kept in the freezer.

It keeps a long time that way!!! Ready to mince, etc. I also keep Panko bread crumbs in the freezer as I use them in a variety of recipes. Lime juice gets used in marinades, etc. and lemon juice is frequently used as well, not only desserts, but certain salad dressings too.

Final note, this is not going to work for everyone, but try to hunt out whether or not there is a good local butcher shop in your area. Or at least within reasonable driving distance. I make a few trips a year and stock the freezer with various meats.

Got a great deal on those and they worked just fine for recipes that called for bacon bits or a bit of chopped bacon — just froze them and pulled out what I needed. I never knew you could freeze garlic!

That is totally going to change my life. Thank you! And I started keeping my bread crumbs in the freezer too. Lesson learned. Freezing lemon and lime juice is so smart! I wish I could find a local butcher shop that has that kind of price on chicken!

So glad you are finding the blog interesting and helpful! It makes the work that I put into it so totally worth it when I get comments like that. There are two grocery stores near me different companies that every so often but always at different times!

have chicken leg quarters for anywhere from 39 to 59 cents a pound. so, 4 to 6 dollars for 10 pounds of those which I take home and bake and debone. I use the bones ad skin along with veggie scraps to make broth and usually enough chicken meat to make 2-cup packs that I stuff n the freezer.

It gives me a frugal break from my usual rotisserie chicken per week for much less broth and meat. It does take some work the day you buy but it saves so much money!

And I love how you use every last bit of it. Such a great money saver! Your email address will not be published. Skip to primary navigation Skip to main content Skip to primary sidebar Home Welcome! Pin Share Cheap Pantry Staples.

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Canned Meat Stock Peanut Butter

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Inexpensive pantry staples - Pasta Sauce Canned Meat Stock Peanut Butter

It's a pantry staple that is pretty cheap to stock up on and can go in lots of different things! Pro Tip: Pasta sauce is basically canned tomato sauce and some seasonings, so stock up on tomato sauce and you can easily make your own pasta sauce in a pinch!

Tomatoes are another pantry staple that a lot of Freebs keep on hand! Whether they're canned tomatoes, or tomato paste or sauce, there are so many different recipes you can make with them!

Don't be afraid to doctor your tomato sauces with fresh herbs, garlic, cheeses, or thickeners to get the results you want. You can even combined tomato sauce with paste for a slightly different take that uses up both ingredients.

Now that you have some ideas about how to use up those delicious canned and jarred tomato soups, sauces, and pastes, let's talk beans! Whether they're canned or whole, beans are good for so many things!

Eat them plain, add them to meat to bulk up the meal, add them to a soup…. Those are just a few of the reasons that beans are one of the top pantry staples for the Freebs!

You can even use your leftover canned beans in easy peasy dishes like my tamale casserole! Beans are a delicious filler and add protein and other nutrients! These soups are so good to have on hand. They go with pretty much anything and can really help to take a few ingredients from being a random assortment of items to a casserole in no time!

Pro Tip: It is beyond easy to make your own cream of chicken soup if you keep broth on hand — just add milk, flour , and a little seasoning! Genius, right!? These are an obvious pantry staple! They're great to have by themselves as a side or added to a recipe.

Pro Tip: To improve the flavor of canned vegetables, first rinse them in a colander under cold water. Then add to your recipes as usual. Whether it's beef, chicken, or vegetable, broth and stock are great pantry staples to keep on hand! Just buy the biggest carton or whatever is cheapest that you can find if you use it a lot.

Be sure to refrigerate it after opening so it doesn't go bad! Pro Tip: I like to buy Better Than Bouillon from Costco. It's amazing and lasts a while! Oatmeal is such a versatile pantry staple!

It can either be eaten on its own or easily goes into so many kinds of recipes, from early morning breakfast to dessert. Did you know that an ounce package of Old Fashioned Quaker Oats contains roughly 26, rolled oats? That's a lot of oats! Canned chicken, tuna, salmon, ham, and beef are all great ways to keep meat on hand without having to worry about the electricity going out and your meat ruining!

These pantry staples are so versatile and work in a lot of different meals. Pro Tip: If you're cooking the canned meats in a recipe, make sure you don't add it in until the very end. Your goal is to heat it up, not cook it and dry it out!

Alright, well there you have it! The top 10 pantry staples according to you fabulous Freebs. If you're just getting started, you might find that these are excellent staples to build up in your pantry so you can shelf cook like a pro! For a more comprehensive list of what to stock in your pantry, check out our pantry staples post on our shelf cooking site!

Just a little bit can make a lettuce salad, tuna salad sandwiches or refried bean quesadillas so much yummier! And we love these White Pizza Grilled Cheese Sandwiches!

FROZEN VEGGIES Often much cheaper than fresh veggies, the other handy thing about frozen ones is that they last much longer! I use them a lot as a side dish and also in recipes like my Easy Chicken Pot Pie , Cheesy Ham, Potato and Green Bean Bake and Easy Vegetable Beef Soup.

CHICKEN Probably the cheapest kind of meat there is and super versatile too! A few chicken recipes that we enjoy: Herb Roasted Chicken and Potatoes , One Pan Chicken and Rice , Creamy Crockpot Mexican Chicken and Homemade Shake and Bake Chicken.

In casseroles or soups, I often can get by with using less than the amount called for. A few ground beef recipes that we really like: Crockpot Tamale Pie and Super Easy Sloppy Joes.

It helps me be frugal because I can buy in bulk when food is on sale becoming less and less, it seems, these days , portion it and freeze for later. Yes, I love stocking up and freezing items that are on sale too! Such a great way to save.

I so agree with you. We have worn out many vacuum food sealers over the years. Our son upgraded so he can vacuum seal whole chickens raised on his property. We opted for a slightly smaller model and use it daily. when canning diced tomatoes can I pressure can them in stead of water bath?

If so how long to pressure can? Yes, you can definitely pressure can them! As for how long, it will depend on your pressure canner and altitude. I would look in the instruction manual that came with the pressure canner and go by what it says there.

I would follow that. Tomatoes also freeze well! Either whole or diced or roasted. Consider that especially when your garden is at its peak. I would add celery to that list as I use it in making stews. Onions, carrots and celery is your mirre poir for all basic stews.

Yes, celery is a great pantry staple, for sure! Never heard of strained tomatoes but canned tomato products of any kind are handy to have, I think. This is one of my favorite ways to save on cheese too. Great list! A tip on keeping garlic longer — I buy the 3 packs of bulbs from Aldi and immediately put them in a small ziplock kept in the freezer.

It keeps a long time that way!!! Ready to mince, etc. I also keep Panko bread crumbs in the freezer as I use them in a variety of recipes. Lime juice gets used in marinades, etc. and lemon juice is frequently used as well, not only desserts, but certain salad dressings too. Final note, this is not going to work for everyone, but try to hunt out whether or not there is a good local butcher shop in your area.

Or at least within reasonable driving distance. I make a few trips a year and stock the freezer with various meats. Got a great deal on those and they worked just fine for recipes that called for bacon bits or a bit of chopped bacon — just froze them and pulled out what I needed.

I never knew you could freeze garlic! That is totally going to change my life. Thank you! And I started keeping my bread crumbs in the freezer too.

Lesson learned. Freezing lemon and lime juice is so smart! I wish I could find a local butcher shop that has that kind of price on chicken!

So glad you are finding the blog interesting and helpful! It makes the work that I put into it so totally worth it when I get comments like that. There are two grocery stores near me different companies that every so often but always at different times!

have chicken leg quarters for anywhere from 39 to 59 cents a pound. so, 4 to 6 dollars for 10 pounds of those which I take home and bake and debone.

I use the bones ad skin along with veggie scraps to make broth and usually enough chicken meat to make 2-cup packs that I stuff n the freezer. It gives me a frugal break from my usual rotisserie chicken per week for much less broth and meat. It does take some work the day you buy but it saves so much money!

And I love how you use every last bit of it. Such a great money saver! Your email address will not be published. Skip to primary navigation Skip to main content Skip to primary sidebar Home Welcome!

Pin Share Cheap Pantry Staples. Cheap Pantry Items:.