What to cook with what’s in your fridge

Most meal plans start with a recipe and then send you to the store. That is backwards if the fridge already has chicken, half an onion, and a lemon that will not last the week.

The useful question is what can I cook with what I already have? Not "what looks good on a list."

Look at the fridge first

Open it and name the things that will go bad soon: spinach, yogurt, a bell pepper, leftover rice. Those are the ingredients that should decide dinner, not the other way around.

Then look at the pantry for the long-lived partners: canned tomatoes, beans, pasta, rice, eggs, soy sauce, spices. Dinner is usually one perishable plus two staples.

Match, don't browse

A recipe that needs eight new ingredients is a shopping list wearing a chef hat. A recipe that needs one lemon is a real weeknight.

That is the loop PantryZero is built around:

1. Log what is already on the shelf.
2. See recipes scored against that list — Make Now, Almost There, Inspiration.
3. Plan the week from the ones you can actually cook.
4. The grocery list is only the gap.

It is the same judgment you would do by staring at the fridge, except the scoring is not limited to the three dinners you remember.

If the fridge is really empty

Cook from dry goods. 20-minute tomato chickpea skillet, garlic spaghetti, and red lentil soup are pantry dinners on purpose. Eggs plus a can of tomatoes is shakshuka. Leftover rice is fried rice.

Add those staples once. After that, "what's for dinner" is a ranking, not a brainstorm.

Try it

Create a free account, add five things you already own, and see what scores. The grocery list should stay short.