30 Minute Pantry

Trends show the consumption of convenience frozen food products will continue to grow at a fast pace. This is an unhealthy trend, as most frozen food products contain large amounts of fat and salt and are void of important nutrients found in fresh fruits and vegetables. With a few key ingredients on hand, a fresher and healthier alternative meal can be whipped up in very little time.

Kitchen Staples: Onions, Shallots and Garlic

We all have favorite items to keep on hand in the fridge and pantry. Those foods that I always like to have at the ready are those that are the most versatile. With busy schedules being the norm, having a few key, fresh ingredients in the house makes it easy to whip up a quick and easy, yet healthy and tasty, meal.

Mushrooms, tomatoes, celery, carrots, garlic and onions can always be found in my vegetable bin. These ingredients can be tossed with almost anything; adding flavor and texture to sauces, soups, stews, grains and pastas. In culinary school, it seemed we started everything with a ‘mirepoix’ – two parts onion, one part carrot and one part celery. It was practically the first term we learned, after ‘mise en place’ – having everything in its place – before beginning to cook.

I think of mushrooms as a blank slate and love to sauté them with onions and garlic, add salt, pepper and parsley and watch them as they soak up all the flavors, turning brown and handsome. I toss them with rice or pasta for side dishes and use them raw, along with sliced tomatoes in salads.

Lemons, limes, oranges and apples are also handy flavor boosters. Use lemons to make a vinaigrette and seafood sauces; limes to toss with avocado, tomatoes and fruit to make salsas; oranges to stuff in a chicken cavity with onions, garlic and herbs for lots of extra flavor. Apples go well with pork and can easily be made into applesauce or chutney. For a quick dessert, what’s better than an apple crisp?

My favorite main dish foods are poultry and seafood, and out of these I find chicken and shrimp to be the most versatile. I always have a bag of shrimp and boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the freezer. They both cook up quickly and can be tossed into salads and pasta dishes, rolled in eggrolls, added to soups as well as prepared into a variety of dishes on their own.

Quick Ham and Egg Salad

Ham steaks last a long time in the fridge and, since they are already cooked, can also be added to salads and pasta to make a complete meal. Toss with chopped hard-boiled eggs, chopped celery, a little mayonnaise and mustard, and salt and pepper for a change from tuna salad.

I buy fresh cheese tortellini in bulk, package it in zipper plastic bags, then freeze it so I can grab as many as I need for a quick dinner. They can be topped with warmed spaghetti sauce, or with a simple basil sauce with diced tomatoes and red onions for a really quick meal.

With a little planning and a few fresh items in the house, along with a variety of grains and pasta in the pantry, there is no need to buy fast food or prepackaged frozen foods for those busy weeknight dinners. Remember what Julia Child said: "You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces - just good food from fresh ingredients."