15 pantry meals that need zero shopping.
The premise: you have a normally-stocked kitchen, you don't want to go to the store, and you don't want to "improvise something" from a vague TikTok. You want a real list of dinners you can make from staples in the next 30 minutes.
Here are 15. Each one assumes you have eggs, oil, salt, pepper, and one or two pantry-shelf items. If you can keep three things alive in a fridge, you can make any of these.
Eggs are the cheat code
1Soy butter rice
Cook rice. Stir in a pat of butter and a tablespoon of soy sauce while it's still hot. Top with a fried egg. Crack pepper. Done in 20 minutes.
2Spanish-style fried eggs over toast
Heat a generous pour of olive oil in a small pan with a smashed garlic clove. Fry two eggs in it; the whites should crisp at the edges. Toast bread, rub with the garlic, top with the eggs. Salt heavily.
3Tomato egg drop
Sauté chopped tomatoes in oil until they break down (5 minutes). Pour in beaten eggs, stir gently to scramble. Splash with soy sauce and sesame oil. Eat over rice or alone.
Pasta carries any night
4Aglio e olio
Cook spaghetti. While it cooks, slice four cloves of garlic thin, sauté in olive oil with chili flakes until golden. Toss pasta in the oil with a splash of pasta water. Parmesan if you have it. The most reliable 10-minute dinner ever invented.
5Cacio e pepe
Cook pasta, save a cup of starchy water. Toast cracked pepper in a dry pan. Toss hot pasta with a fistful of grated cheese, pepper, and a slow drizzle of pasta water until it goes silky. Serve immediately.
6Tuna and lemon pasta
Cook pasta. Drain a can of tuna in olive oil, mix with the zest and juice of half a lemon, salt, and a glug of fresh olive oil. Toss with the hot pasta. Italian-coast lunch in 12 minutes.
Beans turn into anything
7White bean toast
Smash a can of drained white beans with grated garlic, olive oil, salt, and lemon juice. Spread thickly on toasted bread. Add anything green if you have it.
8Black bean tacos
Heat the beans with cumin and a pinch of salt. Warm tortillas. Build with whatever's in the fridge that resembles a topping (cheese, leftover salsa, half an avocado, a lime).
9Chickpea curry, fast
Sauté onion until soft. Add curry powder and stir 30 seconds. Add tomatoes and chickpeas, simmer 15 minutes. Eat over rice. Better the next day.
Frozen is your friend
10Frozen dumpling soup
Boil broth, drop in frozen dumplings, simmer 6 minutes. Splash with soy sauce and sesame oil. Add any wilting greens in the last minute.
11Frozen vegetable fried rice
Heat a pan with oil. Crack eggs in, scramble, push aside. Add frozen veg, stir until hot. Add cold rice, break it up, mix with eggs. Soy sauce, sesame oil, done.
Single-pan dinners
12Sheet pan sausage and potatoes
Halve potatoes, halve onion, toss with olive oil, salt, pepper. Add sausages. 425°F oven for 35 minutes. Done. Can stretch with a sliced bell pepper if you have one.
13Skillet pasta with anything
In one pan: oil + garlic, then tomatoes, then dry pasta + 2.5 cups water. Simmer 12-15 minutes uncovered. The pasta cooks in the sauce. One pan, no draining.
When the fridge is genuinely empty
14Toast and butter
Don't laugh. Good bread, real butter, flaky salt is a perfectly respectable Tuesday dinner if you're tired. Add an egg if you have one.
15Olive oil ramen
Cook the ramen, throw the seasoning packet away. Mix the noodles with olive oil, smashed garlic, salt, and a soft-boiled egg. Add any green you have. Better than the original.
The point of this list: your kitchen has way more dinner in it than you think. Brimm just makes the inventory automatic. Photograph your shelves, swipe through 28,000 recipes that match what you have, including the cocktails. Free with 20 swipes a day.
Save this list. Pin it to the fridge. Next time you feel like ordering takeout, run through it once before you open DoorDash.