🏡 How I Make From-Scratch Food Convenient Before the Pantry Challenge
Hey friends — we’re heading into pantry challenge season, and if you’ve ever tried to cook almost entirely from your home-preserved foods, you know one thing:
From-scratch is wonderful… but it isn’t always convenient.
And if it’s not convenient, you’re less likely to use it.
So before we start cycling through the pantry, freezer, and storage shelves, I like to do a little prep work to make real food just as easy as anything from a box.
Here’s what I focus on.
🌾 1️⃣ Make Fresh-Ground Grains Practical
I love grinding whole grains fresh — wheat berries, oats, buckwheat — because of the nutrition and flavor. But let’s be honest:
Grinding flour at 6:30 a.m. when the house is asleep?
Not ideal.
So instead of grinding only when I need it, I batch-prep.
🥣 What I Do:
✔️ Grind flour in larger batches
✔️ Turn it into baking mixes (muffins, pancakes, pizza dough, etc.)
✔️ Add dry ingredients ahead of time
✔️ Store in the freezer or vacuum-seal and keep cool
Freezing freshly ground flour helps preserve most of the nutrients. Vacuum sealing and storing it cool and dark also slows nutrient loss significantly.
Now instead of:
Grind → measure → mix → bake
It becomes:
Grab mix → add wet ingredients → bake
Convenience = usage.
🥕 2️⃣ Turn Freeze-Dried Food Into “Grab & Go” Meals
Freeze-dried foods are amazing for long storage — but that can actually make them harder to use.
When everything is sealed in large bags with oxygen absorbers, it feels like “emergency only” food. So we avoid opening it.
To fix that, I portion it out.
🍲 What I Make:
✔️ Soup blends (chicken base, taco soup, beef stew, veggie mix)
✔️ Pre-mixed jars of vegetables + spices
✔️ Ready-to-dump meal starters
Now instead of opening a giant bag for a cup of carrots, I grab a jar and pour it straight into broth.
Instant, shelf-stable convenience.
And during the pantry challenge, that makes a huge difference.
📋 3️⃣ Create a Master List (Not Just an Inventory)
This step changes everything.
An inventory tells you how much you have.
A master list shows you what you have.
When you sit down and list every ingredient — canned goods, freeze-dried foods, grains, meats, sauces, beans — your creativity opens up.
From there, you can:
📝 Build a meal plan
📱 Use meal-planning apps
🤖 Even use AI tools to generate ideas
🧠 Or simply brainstorm new recipes yourself
My goal during a pantry challenge is to create new meals using what I already preserved — not just repeat the same five dishes.
But creativity doesn’t happen at 4 p.m. when everyone’s hungry.
It happens when you plan ahead.
🧂 Why This Matters
We often think of convenience food as something you buy.
But convenience can absolutely come from home-preserved food — it just requires preparation upfront.
Canning full meals in jars.
Creating soup mixes.
Making baking blends.
Pre-planning menus.
That prep work is what makes scratch cooking sustainable long term.
🔥 The Real Goal of a Pantry Challenge
It’s not just about saving money.
It’s about:
✔️ Rotating through stored food
✔️ Avoiding waste
✔️ Stretching creativity
✔️ Breaking food ruts
✔️ Honing real kitchen skills
And most importantly — proving to yourself that your pantry can truly support your household.
🌿 Final Thought
Convenience isn’t the enemy.
Unplanned convenience is.
If you prepare your from-scratch foods to be simple and accessible, you’ll actually use them — and that’s the whole point.