Whole Story

This January, we are focusing on stocking your pantry for healthier meals and a healthier budget.

If you haven’t entered to Win Pantry Staples for a Year, head over to that blog post now and then come right back. When you pick up the items on our $50 Pantry Stock Up list (see below), you’ll be ready to add a few fresh ingredients, herbs and spices to be able to cook 14 of our favorite recipes. We’ll feature all of these recipes individually in these “From Our Pantry” posts throughout this month.

This time we’re talking Oats. (You can see our earlier post on Soup, Chili and Stew here.) With oats in your pantry, breakfast is just a pot away. These days, it would be hard to find someone who hasn’t heard about the benefits of whole grains, especially oats!

They are an especially comforting, nourishing way to start the day, providing stick-to-your-ribs good taste along with good nutrition. For our Pantry Stock Up, we’ve called for rolled oats, which are whole oat groats that have been steamed and run through rollers to flatten them out. They are thicker, heartier and chewier than quick cooking and instant oats, which are flaked.  

The old-fashioned rolled oats stay with you, keeping you satisfied longer. Here are a few ways to cook up oats for breakfast using your pantry staples along with a few other ingredients.

Simple Oatmeal This basic dish cooks up in about 10 minutes using pantry staple of oats and soymilk. You can substitute water, milk or another preferred non-dairy milk if you like. Dress up this classic cold-weather breakfast with a topping of applesauce, nuts, fresh or dried fruit, honey, maple syrup or brown sugar.

Overnight Oatmeal No time to cook in the morning?

No worries. Simply mix the ingredients together and refrigerate overnight.

Enjoy it cold or warm the next morning.

You’ll use pantry staples of oats and soymilk plus a bit of lemon zest, vanilla extract, chopped nuts and dried fruit.

Oatmeal and Apple Pancakes These nutritious and delicious silver dollar pancakes are a great way to get your oatmeal.

With only five ingredients — oats and applesauce from your pantry staples and eggs, butter and syrup from your fridge — they're simple to make any day of the week.

Here’s the complete Pantry Stock Up List (download the pdf) that gives you all the pantry ingredients needed for these three recipes and 11 more.

• 1 lb black beans
• 1 lb lentils
• 1 lb quinoa
• 2 lbs brown rice
• 3 (32-oz) boxes vegetable broth
• 1 (32-oz) box chicken broth
• 1 lb rolled oats
• 2 cans cannellini beans
• 1 can black beans
• 1 lb orechiette pasta
• 1 lb pasta, your favorite kind
• 1 jar unsweetened applesauce
• 1 (32-oz) box unsweetened soymilk
• 1 (32-oz) box unsweetened almondmilk
• 1 (5-oz) can tuna
• 3 (15-oz) cans diced tomatoes
• 1 package no-oil sundried tomatoes
• 1 jar pasta sauce

We priced these in our 365 Everyday Value® line and the list came in around $50. We encourage you to visit our bulk department and keep an eye out for sales for even more value.

Do you have a favorite recipe using oats that comes together easily with help from a well-stocked pantry? Please share in the comments.