My allergies are telling me that spring has offically arrived, and I have the urge to organize my pantry. Listen in to this episode for my favorite seasonal shortcut ingredients and the recipes I love to feature them.
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Hi everybody. I'm Kelsey Nixon and this is Kitchen Prescription, the podcast you listen to when you don't know what to make for dinner. Today is episode seventy nine, Spring Pantry Refresh. It feels like we are smack dab in the middle of spring, and my allergies won't let me forget it. But aside from my allergies, the other things reminding me of spring are blossoms on the trees, the warmer weather, longer days, maybe a little bit of an itch to spring clean or tidy up some of the systems in my life. So today we're going to chat about tidying up specifically your pantry for spring, and focusing on a few shortcut ingredients I like to keep on hand or in my pantry that turn into quick and easy spring dinners that save me on extra busy nights. Now, when I say pantry, it's inclusive of your dry pantry, your fridge, and your freezer, because to me, anything that lives in the pantry is something like that stays there for a while, right, that's not going to go bad immediately. So obviously we have things in both the fridge and the freezer that can stick around for a while, but I'm excited to kind of walk you through some of those ingredients. But before we really get into it, what I want to do is start this podcast the way we always do by giving you three ideas of recipes you could throw on your meal plan for the week. We can almost all agree that the hardest part of making dinner is simply deciding what to make, So hopefully by sharing a few ideas with you guys every week, it helps with your decision fatigue a bit. I swear that mapping up my meals in advance has single handedly been the most pivotal part of me getting dinner under control in my house, and I think it's one of the most valuable habits you can develop. So with that, this is what we're making this week. First recipe. We are making these keen waspyed potato with a lime basil vinegread. And what you really need to know here is that lime basil vinegread is out of this world delicious, so so good. For the past year, I've tried to eat a salad most days, like almost every day for lunch, and I have just fallen in love with the simple salad dressing that I make at home, so I'm constantly kind of switching things up here and there. And I have kind of a traditional basil vinegrete, but I swapped the acid like the vinegar and the recipe for lime juice, and oh jeez, it's so good, you guys. There's sweet potatoes in this, there's black beans. I add pickled onions to this as well, and that quinoa that you add to a salad to make it heartier is awesome. In quinoa, I believe, more than any other grain, has the most protein per serving, So I like that aspect too. When I don't want to do like a traditional protein, I can add quinoa, and that with the beans makes this a little bit more filling and substantial and kind of hits more of those things that are important to me when it comes to creating like a well rounded meal. Those are good. It's really easy to deconstruct for my kids, which is always super important to me. Next, I'm doing a slow cooker recipe these Greek shredded pork ptas, and I love this recipe because the shredded pork is kind of like a bulk protein that I can use for lots of things. So obviously I'm going to use this to make the pedas, and I'm going to make like a yummy yogurt zatziki sauce and a little cucumber salad to go with it. But I can use the leftover shredded pork for other recipes, which takes me to my third recipe. I'm going to make these ginger pork and rice bowls with pickled edgies. And the traditional way that the recipe is written, like the way I wrote it initially, is with ground pork, but since I'm going to have leftover shredded pork, I'm just going to slightly modify the recipe so that I don't have to make something completely new, so I put that on the menu. Sometimes I'll do that when I want to take advantage of kind of getting it two for one meal where I make the bulk of something one time and look, we're going like with a Greek flavor profile, but then by just adding a few slightly different ingredients to that same meat, I get something totally different with that ginger pork and rice, which is kind of the Asian flair. So that's what's on my plan for the week. Hopefully that helps you as you begin to think about what you're going to plan for the upcoming week. You can find and print all of these recipes and re spee Club individually or in our weekly meal plan with our easy to follow shopping list that's broken down by recipe. The difference between Recipe Club and a standard food site or blog is that it really is designed to be a simple dinner system that you can return to over and over again as you manage the ebbs and flows of your life. You'll never see any ads or long blog posts or drawn out stories about asparagus, just the recipes, simple resources, and the meal plans you need to help you get dinner on the table. So really love the resource and it helps me so much manage this very big part of my life, which is feeding me and my family. Okay, let's jump into the back half of the podcast and chat about giving your pantry a spring refreshing. So we moved into our current home just about a little over a year ago, and at that time I spent a lot of time getting my kitchen in order. I knew I was going to be working from home, and it just was important to me to set up like smart systems. In fact, if you scroll back through my Instagram feed, you can see how I broke down every single cupboard and cabinet drawer in my kitchen to show you the essentials that I rely on every single day. But one part of the series that I included was my pantry, naturally, and it was time for me to give that a bit of a refresh. Now, just like I talked at the top of the episode, when I say pantry to me, it includes three things. The fridge, the freezer, and the dry pantry, So keep in mind, and that's what we're going to reference here. We just in that dry pantry, we had one too many loose bags of half eaten chips in random snacks that my kids once loved and have since decided they no longer like, and I just needed to clean it out. So in doing so, I made sure that I was stocked up on a few ingredients that turn into quick and easy recipes for this springy time of year. And I couldn't help myself from thinking everyone knows about these, right, maybe we need to record a podcast episode to make sure you've got some of these spring staples on hand that really do turn into the easiest dinners. So let's get into it. If you are feeling the poll to really organize your pantry. In Recipe Club, you'll find a complete guide to organizing your fridge, freezer, and pantry that will walk you through the simple steps you could take to do this over a weekend, including all of the products I swear by, how I like to label things, how you put actual systems in place to make sure that the new organization will work and it will benefit the dynamic of your household. But regardless of whether things are physically organized, let's talk about the few ingredients that you should really have on hand this time of year, or at least the ones that are working well for my family. So let's define what I mean by shortcut ingredient. Basically, here are the stipulations that I require for an ingredient to be considered a shortcut ingredient. It needs to be something that lasts a long time, or a shelf stable that can easily initiate an idea for dinner that doesn't require many other ingredients, meaning nothing runs the risk of expiring too quickly that I'm gonna forget about. I'm going to break them down into some category. So we're going to do it? What five here? Maybe six? Or I'm gonna talk about a sauce I keep on hand, a condiment I keep on hand, a protein, a grain produce, and something canned. And we're gonna start with sauce. So sauce for this time of year. Pesto. Ooh how I love my pesto. And if you're wanting to know, my favorite of all time is the Kirkland brand pesto from Costco. I think it is great if you're not a Costco shopper. I really like the walnut kale pesto at Trader Joe's that's in the refrigerated section, not the jarred pesto. It's not as good, but that's another one I really like. But I feel like we do weird big spaghetti fans here, Like I make a lot of pasta. My kids love spaghetti, but I tend to rely more on that jarred Marinera in the fall and winter months, and I like to switch things up with pesto in the spring and summer. It kind of just feels like a nice way to mix up spaghetti nights. And sometimes I will add like a splash of heavy cream to pesto. So I'm literally putting like pesto in the skillet with a little bit of cream and a little bit of lemon and some parmesan, and I make it into a sauce and it's delicious tossed with spaghetti. It can also be a great marinad for meat. It could be a great spread on a sandwich, especially if you combine it with a little bit of Mannis to make an aoli. Or it can be a base for making a springy vinegarette or sauce. Like you could take a tablespoon of pesto, put it in a mason jar, add some red wine vinegar, add a little bit of olive oil, add a shalat and salt and pepper, and shake that baby up and you got yourself a pesto vinegrette, which is going to be dealish. So Pesto's awesome. I love it. I do tend to use it more in the spring and summer. But if I look at it, I know, oh I can do you know, roasted turkey sandwiches with a little pesto aoli, And that's going to feel more exciting than the grilled cheese sandwiches that we've been had in rotation. Or I'm going to do this pasta dish with the pesto cream and lemon. Or I'm going to do Oh, I've got some chicken tenders in the refrigerator that are raw. I'm going to add some pesto and a squeeze of lemon and marinate those and serve it with rice and sliced tomatoes. You see what I mean? Do you see how like the one ingredient just kind of initiates some ideas. So that's a pest it does for me. The condiment Greek yogurt. Now this I realized this is like pretty generic and most of you are not opening your fridge looking at Greek yogurt and saying, oh, now I know what to make for dinner, but maybe you should be. So here's a couple of things beyond building your yogurt parfe in the morning that you can think of Greek yogurt when it comes to dinner. It's great for marinating meat. It really is, like, especially if you have like chicken or pork, you take a couple spoonfuls of Greek yogurt and some sort of spice, Like I love my Cavender's Greek seasoning and a squeeze of lemon. I know, guys, I bet you can't guess what produces I'm on a lemon cack, and I'm kind of always on a lemon cack. But that to marinate some chicken in so good. And then guess what that exact same thing, the yogurt, the Greek seasoning, the splash of lemon, the salt pepper. That can be a sauce as well. That's a delicious yogurt sauce to serve with the chicken. You grill after it's been marinating, and you make some sort of grain, whether it's couscous or rice or quinoa or whatever, and you do a little salad of cucumbers and tomatoes and you got your yogurt sauce. Guys, that is not hard, especially you do it once to be're like, I got this. Think about yogurt when it comes to marinads. Think about those really simple sauces you can pull together. You also can use Greek yogurt as a base for creamy dressings if you're doing grain bowls or salads. But that is something to think about. Or oh my gosh, I just did this. I just did this hummus bowl. Talk about opening your fridge and being like, what are things I always have in here? Hummus and Greek yogurt. You take some shredded chicken, rotisserie chicken, some sort of green a big old dollup of Greek yogurt, a big old dollup of hummus, some cucumbers, some tomatoes. You got yourself a hummus bowl delicious. Some beans for some white beans in there? Yum? All right. Protein cubed panchetta. Now this is something you probably don't have in your fridge, but I have had a package or two of this in my fridge for the past cup couple of years, honestly because it's the easiest way to add a quick protein element to a dish that satisfies the likes and dislikes of everyone in my family. I use it so often for topping pasta dishes, or I'll throw it in a fritat. It's one of the main ingredients in my five ingredient for Tata. I fed my veggie one. That's so yummy. Oh it just made it. That really is such a good recipe. If you're a messpeak club and you've not made the veggie for Tata. Promise me you'll do it this week. It's so good. But what it is is it's like it's panchetta that's been diced really small, and so you can just toss it into a skillet and it crisps up and maybe like I don't know, two to three minutes, and it's got like eleven grams of protein in it, and it's salty and a little bit fat like it just it's rich. It's so nice. So it's great sprinkled over like a little like creamy pasta dish or on a salad like I have a lemon basil pasta salad. I actually just made it this week and I put that on top of it. It's just nice. It's like a it's like a fancy bacon bit, guys. I have bought it at all sorts of different grocery stores. I do get mine most often at Trader Joe's because it's the cheapest. It's like three twenty nine for a package, I think a five ounce package. But I've also bought it at Albertson's. I have bought it at Pavilions. I have bought it at Kroger. I've bought it at Walmart, So just if you haven't used that product, you might really like it. It's really easy to use. It's similar to bacon, but it's already cut and I actually think I prefer it's less fatty, and so I kind of prefer the flavor better too, So Cube Panchetta love it. For the grain quinoa. I already mentioned this earlier because I genuinely am on a kick. I am loving Keenwah lately. I love all the protein it hasn't it, So that tends to be the grain I'm reaching for most right now. Also because it cooks so fast. It cooks in like under ten minutes. I mean that in couscusert, I mean all these grains. Nothing takes really that long to cook. Maybe a wild rice or even brown rice. But I feel like in the fall, I do a lot of farrow, and I've been doing a lot of just straight like either white or brown rice lately. And now I'm on my Quenwok kick, So that's when I'm reaching for the most. My best tip there, And you could do this as a side for you know, your grilled chicken or whatever, or you could add this to any sort of bowl, a buruta bowl, a salad bowl, your hummus bowl, and it's just going to bulk it up a bit. But when you cook it, you can cook the quin wat in just straight water. That's probably how the package directions are going to tell you to do it. But I almost always like to cook my grains, especially quenoat in broth that could be broth or stop chicken broth, beef broth that it just it adds extra flavor and so keep that in mind. And it's just the one to one swap. So if it calls for a cup of water, you do a cup of broth or stock, and it's so yummy produce. I know, shocker lemon. I have a reputation for loving lemons, and I won't apologize for it. I'll admit that I have. I can't I can have a heavy hand with lemon, but my goodness, I love it when I see lemons in my pantry. I know that I can make a quick catchio pepe, which is a five ingredient pasta dish. It's an recipe club a chicken pacata, which is a really basic lemon pant sauce, or the simplest of all. I can make air fryer salmon, squeeze a little lemon over the top, or shrimp. It's great with shrimp too, and it is so fresh and light, and hey, make that yogurt sauce. Make that yogurt sauce to go on top of your salmon. It's gonna be so good. Okay, And finally canned, this one feels a little bit more or out of left field. Coconut milk. I have loved adding a can of coconut milk to like basic ramen, or let's say, like Costco has a couple of curries. I'm trying to suky I think it's Suki is the brand Suki's curries. She's got like a mango one and a ticket masala. But sometimes they will get that into stretch it. I will add a can of coconut milk and like some cherry tomatoes, you could throw some broccoli in there, and that ends up being a really quick meal for me. Noodle bowls when we're rice bowled out, or I have a coconut corn chowder recipe that I usually have everything on hand for and that's so great for kind of a chili spring day. So canned coconut milk definitely one I'm reaching for often. I also, if you're a Trader drove shopper, there's a five ingredient recipe and recipe club for veggie coconut curry and it you know it uses. They have a jar of Thai yellow curry sauce. I use a can of coconut milk. They have a sterfive veggie blend rice and I think I throw Cilantro's that a fitth ingredient. But that's a really easy meal that I will reach for often. Also, I want to make sure that if you are in the club, you know that we have a search by ingredient function, so that when you click on any of these ingredients or really most ingredients you can think of, it will pull up a list of recipes that incorporate that ingredient. So even if it is marinerosauce, it a list all of the recipes and recipe club that use marin Ao sauce, or a rotisserie chicken, it'll have all of our rotissery chicken recipes listed, or coconut milk or you know, pesto, And so that's a really nice way if you're meal planning and you're looking at what you have on hand first, which is what I recommend. Then you can have some ideas for what I've got six jars of marion aiosauce. I gotta start cooking through this. What can I make with marinarosauce? And then we've broken it down for you that way. So all right, Finally, let's finish with the weekly gimme five. This is five things that made my life easy are more enjoyable this week. First up, kid knives. Now, I have taught a handful of cooking classes lately for kid or youth groups in my community, and I always find myself pulling out these awesome kid knives that are so cheap. They're like ten dollars and they have like twenty five thousand reviews. But they're a great way to get kids comfortable with using a knife in the kitchen when they're just beginning to tackle some basic knife skills. I find that they are best with soft things like strawberries or even cucumbers, and like less great with things like sweet potato. But when my kids want to help me, or when I'm holding a class with kids, I will pull these out and they're so great I've been so happy that I've had them for these classes. So they are these nylon knives. They're in nylon, they're white, but I think the actual material is nylon. So next, magnetic measuring spoons. I traveled this past week. I did a little girl's weekend with friends from college, and we stayed at an Airbean be And you know how when you're cooking it's at an Airbnb kitchen and it's so frustrating. Well, this one in particular was missing measuring spoons. They had a few loose ones rolling around on a drawer, but they were the most unhelpful sizes. It was like an eighth of a teaspoon and like some random one and a half tablespoon size, And I'm like, I just ate a tastepoon. But it made me realize how much I really do love my magnetic measuring spoons that all stick together. And it made me think that all measuring spoons should be magnetic. I am sure that they would have not lost all of those other ones if they had a magnetic function. So this is another really popular item on Amazon. Great stocking stuff for great housewarming gift, great you know, thinking of you present magnetic measuring spoons. They're the best. Speaking of this group of friends that I spent a couple of days with. You know how when you're with some friends and someone walks out or sits down at the pool and everyone says, hey, where did you get that? Well, this happened with a friend and a swim cover up. It was so chic and so cute, and she immediately went into how it was so affordable and the best part is that it dries so quickly and it's great on any body type. And I'm pretty sure every single one of us bought this like right away. So best swim cover up. I'll share it on stories, do you guys can see it? And then I'll also go out in my give me five email that goes out on Fridays. And this same friend, who was just on a roll, she that night came out for dinner in these really cute white legged white pants now a white pant depending on where you live. It's not typically something you're gonna wear all year round, but these were so cute. They were like the perfect wide legged with without being too wide leg or too skinny. And she's like, you, guys, they cost twenty eight dollars. They're from Target. They're Universal threads. They were a nice thick material, and I'm pretty sure we all added those to our cards as well because she looks so great them and it's a great way to try I mean, I love it when, especially when I'm going to invest or buy a piece for my wardrobe that I know I won't use all year round, that's a nice way to try out a trend or maybe before I invest in a really expensive pair of something, I try the trend first and something that's a little more affordable. So these are so great. And then finally, this was another Target find that had nothing to do with my friends, but they I found these spring entertaining pieces. They're like these baking dishes. They had one in a nine x thirteen and one in an oval dish, and they come with carriers, but like stylish carriers, so it's like they've kind of got gold medal and then little wood handles and it makes it so easy to transport dishes, and also if you're having people over, it just makes things look a little more put together. It's almost like a holder for the dish. Love them. I think they're like thirty something dollars each. I got two of them because I thought I'm going to use these so much, so I'll also link to those both on Instagram. I have a Gimme five highlight where you can see all of the previous Gimme fives, and then I send out my Gimme five email on Fridays. That's it for today. Make sure you are subscribed to the podcast so that you never miss an episode. This podcast is always meant to be a quick twenty to thirty minute listen while you map out your own meals for the week, and so that I can support helping you set up a simple dinner system. Next week, we'll be doing Kitchen Office Hours, a monthly episode I do where I answer your questions about anything having to do with the kitchen or cooking, and please feel free send me questions this week. You can email me, you can send me a DM. I'll be compiling those questions and I always look forward to those episodes. Thank you so much for listening today. I'm so glad you guys are here. Until next time, happy cooking. I'm Kelty and look forward to chatting with you next week.