Clearing Out the Pantry

Tips & Tricks

There are days when I walk to the fridge, open the door, look at the food I already knew was in there, think to myself, "There's nothing to eat," close the door, and walk away—only to do the exact same thing five to ten minutes later, hoping more food will magically appear.
It never works, although I wish it did.

In this week's Tips & Tricks article, I'll delve into clearing out your pantry and using the ingredients you already have. We all have those items tucked away in the dark back corner of our pantry—likely because we forget they're even there or we don't know what to do with them!

To remedy the common occurrence of forgotten pantry food, we can do a few things. First and foremost, pulling everything out of the pantry and laying it out will help us get a clear idea of what we're working with. Jotting down a quick inventory of your ingredients before putting them back into the cupboard will help you actually remember what you have.

Just knowing what’s in your pantry might not be enough. You might’ve already known you had a mountain of chickpeas hiding in there, but you haven’t known what to do with them. I implore you: just look up whatever ingredient you don’t know how to use in your cooking. I know this is often the hardest part of working with new ingredients—it’s yet another step in the planning, buying, preparing, cooking, serving, and cleaning up of a meal. However, if you take just five extra minutes while planning your meals for the week, you might be surprised by how many things you can do with just one new ingredient.

When we know what food we have in our pantries and learn how to use it, we don’t have to continue the dreaded cycle of walking to the fridge to find nothing. Instead, you’ll save money by using ingredients you already have on hand, you’ll learn something new, you might find a new favorite food, and you’ll likely use healthy ingredients to help balance your diet.

That said, I’ve compiled another Pinterest board full of recipe ideas based on the food box I received from the Switzerland County Food Pantry on Thursday, October 30, 2025. These recipes coincide with the second Food Is Medicine lesson taught that day and are linked below.

Recipes

If you come up with any recipes I do not have posted, please feel free to share them with me!

Happy Food, Happy Health

Hailey Dornbusch

Published on 11/3/2025

Ingredient-Based Recipes
Cornbread Mix
  • Breading/Batter 
  • Healthy Corn Blueberry Muffins
  • Creamed Corn Cornbread
Wheat Chex Cereal
  • Cereal
  • Trail Mix
  • Breading/Batter
  • "Granola"
Oranges
  • As is
  • Side dish to breakfast
  • Dessert
Ground Beef
  • Beef Cowboy Beans
  • Tacos
  • Bulgolgi
  • Red Sauce w/ Meat
Orange Juice
  • As is (water added to reduce sugar content)
  • Orange cake
  • Orange chicken
Canned Beans
  • Refried beans
  • Cowboy Beans
  • Bean Salad
Carrots
  • Cabbage Carrot Salad
  • Carrot Cake
  • Carrot Cake Cookies
  • Carrot Zucchini Bread
  • Juiced/Smoothie
  • Roasted Side Dish
  • As is.
Potatoes
  • Sauteed 
  • Twice baked
  • Stir Fry
  • Homemade French Fries
  • In Soups
  • Potato Soup
  • Roasted herb potato side dish
  • loaded potato
  • potato pancakes
Taco Seasoned Elbow Noodles
  • Homemade hamburger helper
  • taco bowl base
  • elbow noodle chili
  • Side dish as is. 
  • Southwest pasta salad