It is so important to have Frugal Large-Family Pantry Staples For Quick Meals on hand! Not only does it save my sanity, but it also saves us money!
As a mom to several young children, I work hard at balancing convenience, nutritiousness, and value when making my grocery shopping list. Getting a whole food meal on the table every night is a top priority for me.
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However, so often my life is busy and chaotic. I end up throwing together last-minute dishes (or wanting to have my husband pick up fast food on his way home from work, ahem).
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Bags of dried beans in the pantry and huge packages of frozen meat in the freezer are helpful, but they still require prep time that I don’t always have. The answer? Canned foods! Canned beans are a pantry staple in our home, but there are so many other canned foods you should stock your pantry with.
Keeping these canned foods on hand will help with the nights you need dinner to (almost) make itself. I love that most canned foods have easy recipes on the back of their labels, too!
So, in addition to bulk dry goods or freezer staples, these are the canned goods you should keep on hand for Frugal Large-Family Pantry Staples For Quick Meals.
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Frugal Large Family Pantry Staples For Quick Meals
Canned Beans – Beans are available in several varieties, including Pinto, Black, and Garbanzo, and they are an excellent source of fiber and protein. I almost always find that Walmart has better prices for canned goods than the other stores in our town.
Canned Chicken – Whether you want to make a cold salad dish or a comforting soup, you’ll be glad to have this protein on hand.
Canned Beef – This is great in chili, stew, or chow mein. Add in some canned beans, veggies, and/or broth, and you have a simple and healthy whole-foods meal!
Canned Tuna – Another must-have at our house. My kids often use this for quick & easy lunches, but tuna can be added to pasta salads or casseroles for family dinners.
Canned Salmon – This is something that I keep on hand for topping salads when dinner needs to be super easy and quick, yet still healthy!
Canned Veggies – We love green beans, spinach, sauerkraut, and jalapenos (hey, it’s a veggie and we love adding them to almost everything). Stock up on your family’s favorites. You can even keep canned potatoes in the cupboard for quick mashed potatoes! Yum, now I am craving mashed potatoes with meat gravy (when I was growing up, my mom used home-canned venison for the gravy).
Canned Broth – We usually get chicken, but beef or vegetable broths are good, too. These are great for last-minute soups, gravies, and more.
Canned Milk – We keep canned coconut milk on hand for soups, curries, or Thai-inspired dishes.
Canned Fruit – And by fruit, I mean tomatoes! Tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, etc. Canned pineapple, peaches, and other fruits can be used in savory dishes, too.
Canned Preserves – Jams, jellies, syrups, marmalades, and chutneys are great to have handy as a quick topping for fish or chicken. Or for when you make breakfast for dinner.
Canned Sauces – Hot sauce, salsa… these will ‘spice up’ a dish easily! Pasta sauce is also an important staple at our house.
Canned Juice Concentrates – My mom always had home-canned raspberry juice concentrate stocked up for a delicious addition to our meals. This is especially nice for when friends come over, and you want to serve a few kid-friendly drinks.
Canned Soups – I wasn’t sure whether to add these to the list because, although they are frugal and convenient, they are not always nutritious (unless they are home-canned). But keeping cans of chicken soup on the pantry shelf is super helpful for when the family catches a virus.
So, now you know why I love being able to visit my local Walmart a couple of times each month to stock up on canned foods like Bush’s beans. They are part of my Frugal Large Family Pantry Staples For Quick Meals master shopping list so that I can make easy and healthy family dinners!
What canned foods do you keep on hand? Anything you would add to this list?
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We are big fans of keeping canned foods in our pantry – they are a lifesaver and definitely play into my philosophy of “semi-homemade” 🙂 I think most of yours are on my list. I like using beans to make ground beef or ground turkey go a little further and cut down on the calories of a meal 🙂
Yes, I think semi-homemade is totally legit! 😉
Our main canned foods we keep on hand are can chicken( a must for me, I do not like any other type sandwiches:p) ,pinto beans , black beans, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce ,tomato soup and Cream of Chicken soup 🙂 We use the beans in a quick chili and the kids like to use the soups in Preachers Hot Dish casserole or hamburger pie :):) We do keep some canned veggies on hand as well… mainly green beans. I think canned fruit like peaches would be nice to have on hand too….
I love chicken salad sandwiches, too!
Oh yes! I try to keep staples in our pantry as well. Ours are usually green beans like another commenter mentioned.
Green beans are one of my favorite canned veggies!
Sounds like we keep about the same canned foods around as you do. I don’t think I could add anything 🙂 we probably use green beans, black beans, tuna, chicken, tomato sauce and chicken noodle soup the most.
Good choices! 😉
I always have several cans of beans in my pantry. I love eating for almost every meal
They are so healthy!
I definitely try to keep everything I need to make chili on hand – it can be a quick crockpot meal when I have unexpected things come up! Thanks for the thoughts!
Chili is a hit here, too!
I love having a good store of food. However, now that I am feeding four instead of eight, I have had to learn to downsize.
Keeping “easy” foods like this on hand are a total lifesaver for me! Beans are one of my absolute favorites because I use them for so many different things. One of my favorites is to throw black beans in a lettuce salad. So good and an easy, inexpensive way to get a little extra protein.
Beans in salad – great idea!!
Canned goods and frozen foods are always on my fall-back list for when life gets chaotic.
Yes, it’s nice to be prepared for the crazy days!
I thought of something canned that you didn’t mention, black olives! 😀 Are they a veg.? And are they healthy? Lol, anyway, as I opened a can the other day I thought of your post 😉
Oh yeah! They probably are, lol.
Great post! I always make sure I have plenty of canned goods on hand. Black beans are our favorite.
Definitely a favorite here, too!
I stock up regularly on canned tomatoes; diced, stewed, crushed, sauce, paste. I also always have on hand red or green enchilada sauce, cream of mushroom soup, coconut cream, black olives, and Bush’s vegetarian baked beans (Kosher). I also can my own chicken and beef so that the makings of some sort of meal are always present even though the menu may get a bit repetitive by the end of the month!
I keep corn, peas, carrots, beats, every type of pickle my family likes and olives. (we go through about 8 big bottles of olives each month. I love pickled and plain beets. I would also put flour and cornmeal, yeast, baking powder and other baking needs in my list. I made a list of what I need for 1 week, 2 weeks a month 3 months 6 months and a year and when I can find anything on my list that is on sale I stock up on it. This came from when I was a young mother and needed to can everything I needed for the year. I also can/pickle okra, I can squash of any kind when I can get it at a great price and I do that also with all my vegetables, fruits and also small potatoes! Anything I can put up I will put up including all types of greens.
In addition to what you mentioned, I like to have canned hominy on hand. Though it’s corn, I think of it more as a grain/starch than a vegetable, and I add it to a yummy chicken and tomato Mexican soup along with canned beans of course! It really makes it a complete meal.
Also, we are blessed to have a local ‘dented can’t type discount grocery store where I can get the big #10 cans (gallon size) for a good price–some things are only about the same price as a small can at Walmart. We use our crawl space to store them so we can really stock up!