5 Easy Weeknight Dinners That Use Up What's Already in Your Pantry

They’re so quick to make, too.

By
Micah Siva, RD
Micah Siva
Micah Siva, RD
Micah Siva is a trained chef, registered dietitian, recipe writer, and food photographer, specializing in modern Jewish cuisine. She runs Nosh with Micah, her personal blog.
Learn about Simply Recipes' Editorial Process
Updated October 28, 2025
Micah Siva
Two bowls of soup with a tomato base and pasta accompanied by bread

Simply Recipes / Micah Siva

I keep a stocked pantry. Maybe it’s from my upbringing, maybe it's that I write and test recipes for a living, but I find myself with odds and ends, half-empty boxes of funky pasta shapes, an array of condiments, and a spice drawer that seems to grow by the day. With that in mind, I’m going to focus on pantry meals this week, using canned tuna, pasta, lentils, and an almost-empty peanut butter jar.

I do this once a month or so, trying to make space for new products that catch my eye. While my friends go online shopping for clothes or home decor, I’m scouring social media for the next hot food products. Food shopping is my vice, but I guess it could be worse, right?

Join MyRecipes to save, search and sort recipes all in one place! To start saving, click on a recipe below, then tap the heart 🩷 icon.

  • Sweet and Sour Cabbage Soup

    Sweet and Sour Cabbage Soup in a Large Pot with Some Raised Up Using a Wooden Spoon, and Surrounding the Pot, a Kitchen Linen and a Stack of Bowls with Utensils

    Simply Recipes / Micah Siva

    Every year, I wait for it to get cold enough to make this exact soup. My grandmother, a first-generation Canadian, would make us a cabbage soup during winter months, using winter produce as a guide in the kitchen (we ate a lot of beets and cabbage!). Every time I make it, I think of cooking with her in the kitchen before sitting down for a meal together. Her recipe was passed down from her own mother, and I know I’ll be passing it down to my son.

  • Pasta with Cauliflower

    Pasta Cauliflower Tomato Parmesan
    Elise Bauer, Sheryl Julian, Lisa Lin, and Sally Vargas

    Sitting in my fridge beside a head of cauliflower is a jar of anchovies. I rarely use them because my husband thinks he hates them. Little does he know that I actually sneak them into some dishes (sorry!). Cauliflower and anchovies just fit. I’ll be adding some pitted kalamata olives and pine nuts to this dish, and using spaghetti in place of elbow macaroni. This is a new pantry-friendly dish on my weeknight rotation!

  • Roasted Chicken and Sweet Potatoes

    Overhead view of a bowl of roast chicken and cubed sweet potatoes

    Simply Recipes / Shilpa Iyer

    "Boneless, skinless chicken thighs are a staple on our weeknight family dinner menu. They’re quick to prepare (just 20 minutes in a hot oven) and reliably tender and flavorful. Plus, they are affordable and pretty difficult to overcook. What’s more, they’re also great for leftovers," says recipe developer Shayma Saadat

  • Best Tuna Melt

    Grilled tuna sandwich cut in half and stacked on top of each other. The bread is toasted and tuna, melted cheese and tomatoes are visible in the filling.

    Simply Recipes / Sally Vargas

    If there’s one thing I always have in the cupboard, it’s canned tuna. Long before it became trendy, I was cracking open a tin of fish for dinner as a kid, dipping crackers and celery in tuna salad while I watched cartoons. I recently saw that my local Costco started selling a popular oil-packed (read: flavor-packed) tuna in olive oil and I stocked up, so now I’m making tuna melts on repeat.

    Continue to 5 of 5 below

  • Sheet Pan Chicken Caesar Salad

    Two salad spoons used to mix sheet pan caesar salad

    Simply Recipes / Sara Haas, RDN

    Halloween is here! Before we head out to trick-or-treat, I want to make sure our bellies are full of something nourishing, delicious, and easy. That means I stocked up on bagged lettuce, quick-cooking chicken cutlets, and pre-made dressing. The only thing that makes Caesar salad better is homemade croutons made with the crusty sourdough bread that is getting staler by the day on my kitchen counter. Now off to spook the neighborhood with my 2-year-old Elmo!

Explore More: