Super Easy Mix & Match Empty-Your-Pantry Casserole Recipe
OMG! This easy casserole recipe guides you through using the ingredients you have to make your own dinner casserole even if you haven’t been to the grocery store in awhile. This simple casserole idea is the ultimate pantry recipe and gives you the solution of what to make for dinner. Create a quick and tasty casserole customized for your family even if you aren’t a great cook!
Empty Your Pantry Casserole Recipe
When I am falling short on groceries the first thing I think to make is an easy casserole. I love this mix & match ingredients casserole recipe. It is so versatile. You can make it with almost anything from the fridge and pantry.
This is a great way to use your leftovers and a great easy dinner recipe for beginners!
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What’s A Casserole?
If you’ve never made a casserole you’re in for a treat. A casserole is a meal cooked in a deep dish that is usually hearty and a saucy, creamy, or cheesy dish. A lot of times there is also a meat and carb ingredient, though you have exceptions like sweet potato casserole.
Casserole Ingredients Needed for Base
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup water
- 1-2 Tablespoons of oil (bacon grease, olive oil, or sour cream, etc.)
- Pinch of salt
- Pepper or spices to taste
pick one option from each category below:
1. Sauce: Pick a Sauce For Your Casserole
- Can of cream of mushroom soup, condensed — undiluted
- Can of ounces cream of celery soup, condensed — undiluted
- Can of ounces cream of chicken soup, condensed — undiluted
- Can of ounces cheddar cheese soup — undiluted
- Can of diced tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano — undrained
- Caramelized onions or mushrooms in beef broth
- 1 Cup of Sour Cream
2. Vegetables: Pick a Vegetable to Add
You will need 2-3 cups of veggies. Choose from Green beans, sweet peas or corn, Asparagus tips, chopped spinach, frozen veggies, even kale or cabbage will work.
3. Protein: Pick a Meat or Protein Source
Use 1-2 cups of meat or protein. Some of our favorite easy meat/protein ideas are:
- Canned white tuna in spring water — drained and flaked
- Chopped cooked chicken
- Diced cooked ham
- Chopped cooked turkey
- 1 pound ground beef — browned and drained
- Lentils
- Beans
- Tofu — I will often cut into cubes and brown it first
4. Starch: Add a starch of your choice
- 2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
- 1 cup uncooked regular rice
- 4 cups uncooked wide egg noodles
- 3 cups uncooked small pasta shells
Or… cover with mashed potatoes, hash browns, biscuits, or a pie crust for a meat pie variation.
Related: Make your own egg noodles
Optional Ingredients to Make Your Casserole Recipe Even Yummier
- 3 ounces canned mushroom slices — drained
- 1/4 cup sliced black olives
- 4 1/2 ounces chopped green chiles
- 1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper — or green
- 2 cloves garlic — minced
- 1 1/4 ounce taco seasoning mix
- 1/4 cup chopped onion or scallions
- 1/4 cup chopped celery
Choose a Topping for Your Casserole Recipe
- 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1 cup herb-seasoned stuffing mix
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- Gravy
- 1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese
- 1 cup round buttery crackers — crushed
- 1/2 cup fine dry breadcrumbs
How to Make a Casserole
- Combine sour cream, milk, water, salt and pepper with your sauce choice (omit sour cream and milk when using tomatoes).
- Stir in vegetable, starch, protein, and, if desired, extras.
- Spoon into a lightly greased 13 x 9 inch baking dish.
- Bake, covered, at 350 degrees F for 1 hour and 10 minutes.
- Uncover and sprinkle with toppings; bake 10 more minutes.
Empty-Your-Pantry Casserole
This recipe is adapted from the Mix and Match Casserole from CDKitchen
Ingredients
Sauce Starter:
- 8 ounces sour cream
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
Choose 1 Sauce:
- can of cream of mushroom soup, condensed -- undiluted
- can of cream of celery soup, condensed -- undiluted
- can of cream of chicken soup, condensed -- undiluted
- can of cheddar cheese soup -- undiluted
- can of diced tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano -- undrained
- caramelized onions or mushrooms in beef broth
Choose Vegetable (2-3 cups worth):
- green beans
- sweet peas
- corn
- asparagus tips
- chopped spinach
- frozen veggies
- kale or cabbage
Choose a Protein
- canned white tuna in spring water -- drained and flaked
- chopped cooked chicken
- diced cooked ham
- chopped cooked turkey
- 1 pound ground beef -- browned and drained
Choose a Starch (skip if choosing a starch-based topping):
- 2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
- 1 cup uncooked regular rice
- 4 cups uncooked wide egg noodles
- 3 cups uncooked small pasta shells
Choose 1 or 2 Extras:
- 3 ounces canned mushroom slices -- drained
- 1/4 cup sliced black olives
- 4 1/2 ounces chopped green chiles
- 1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper -- or green
- 2 cloves garlic -- minced
- 1 1/4 ounce taco seasoning mix
- 1/4 cup chopped onion or scallions
- 1/4 cup chopped celery
Choose a Topping:
- 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1 cup herb-seasoned stuffing mix
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese
- 1 cup round buttery crackers -- crushed
- 1/2 cup fine dry breadcrumbs
- gravy
- mashed potatoes
- hash browns
- biscuits
- pie crust
Instructions
- Combine sour cream, milk, water, salt and pepper with your sauce choice (omit sour cream and milk when using tomatoes).
- Stir in vegetable, starch, protein, and, if desired, extras.
- Spoon into a lightly greased 13 x 9 inch baking dish. If using a starch-based topping, add it now.
- Bake, covered, at 350 degrees F for 1 hour and 10 minutes.
- Uncover and sprinkle with toppings; bake 10 more minutes.
This recipe was originally inspired from Mix and Match Casserole Recipe via CDKitchen.
More Easy Casserole Recipes from Kids Activities Blog
- One of my family’s favorite casserole recipes is King Ranch chicken casserole…mmmmm!
- Try our easy chicken enchilada casserole recipe next time you want something new to try!
- Try our Mexican chicken casserole with rotel!
- Another family favorite meal is tortilla bake casserole.
- Classic tater tot casserole is hard to beat for comfort food or try my family’s favorite Taco tater tot casserole! <–can y’all tell we live in Texas?
- Grandma’s green bean casserole recipe is a must even if it isn’t a holiday meal.
- Need an easy solution? Check out our easy no bake tuna noodle casserole recipe!
- This easy breakfast casserole works later in the day too.
- Mmmmm…let’s make chicken noodle casserole!
- Here is a collection of 35 family casserole recipes that you will love.
- Check out all the casseroles in our easy dinner ideas for kids!
How did your empty the pantry casserole recipe turn out? What did you add to your casserole recipe?
This sounds so good! My husband is a vegetarian, has anyone tried it with black beans or chickpeas instead of the proteins listed? I think I’ll try it this week!
Erin, I have had casseroles like this with beans or with tofu chunks that were very, very good!
Here’s a vegetarian just-mix-and-bake recipe made from shelf-stable ingredients that’s ideal when you don’t have time for shopping or cooking but can have the oven on for an hour.
My vegetarian versatile recipe for using up leftovers is Lentil Rice which has several flavor variations.
This looks great for times when I think I have “nothing” to cook! 🙂
.-= Alicia´s last blog ..Menu Plan Monday (3/22/10) =-.
It’s kinda like going to Genghis Grill, only comfort food style. 🙂
I found you through WFMW 🙂 This recipe looks delicious and is right up my alley! I have a tendency to find a recipe I love, be out of different ingredients and so I start replacing here and there so it’s nice to find a recipe that encourages that 🙂
I love your formula… will definitely have to try it soon!
Yum! Looks like a chicken ala king casserole! I love all of your different ideas. Perfect for when I haven’t made it to the grocery store in a while.
Visiting from The Mommy Club linky.
My former housemate made casserole almost every time it was her turn to make dinner, yet they were all different. Now I understand how she did it! 🙂 It is possible to choose a bad combination of ingredients, but most of the time her creations were delicious…and she rarely had to go shopping to get dinner on the table; sneaky!
Looks good. 🙂 Here from TT&J
That is so cool! How long do you cook it? I bet it can even work in the slow cooker too!
My friend and I were looking at your recipe yesterday, it is an awesome recipe! My friend said ” if you can’t make a meal from this recipe then you just can’t cook”, I agree! Hope you are having a great week end and thanks so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday.
Come Back Soon!
Miz Helen
This sounds frugal, fun, and delish and is very similar to what I did last night. Fro the protein i used cut up chicken breasts, for the sauce I used a can of cream of broccoli soup and some milk, for the vveggie I used some thawed broccoli florets, and for the topping I used prepared stovetop stuffing. i also added about a cup of grated cheddar for an “extra” and baked it about an hour. So good!
This is the kind of recipe to put inside the cupboard door for the times you need to pull supper together quick.
This is completely awesome! I skipped grocery shopping yesterday so guess what my family will be eating… for like the next week? 🙂
I love cooking for the ingredients you have on hand! Great “recipe”!
What a great recipe…I imagine anyone could make this on any given day!!
WOW!.. This is another deliciously-looking recipe. It’s more healthy because it’s veggie. Thanks for sharing it.
Great Idea! We’re working on leftovers tomorrow. Love the idea of covering in mashed potatoes – we often have those leftover.
YUMMY!!! If only, I weren’t the only person in the house who would eat casserole.
So glad to find this awesome recipe! I googled ground beef pantry recipes and there you were! We get food from a local church when money is scarce. I used ground beef, sloppy joe sauce, tomato sauce, ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar, canned corn and great northern beans, celery, onion, sweet peppers and cheddar cheese. I’m going for a baked bean hamburger casserole. 90% of the ingredients are from the churches food program. Thank God for them and you
Hi, Michelle! I am so glad that you found us! We have lots of yummy recipes! I hope you enjoy this casserole, that sounds SO good! 🙂
This recipe did not work as written. I used a can of diced tomatoes for the sauce choice and so omitted the sour cream and milk, as advised. A lot of the pasta was still crunchy and the food was too dry. I think you should use another cup of water in place of the milk, instead of just omitting the milk.
This was good and tasty. I’m not too excited to review it. It was good but not great. Something about it just needed something extra…something more. It just was not very exciting.
Hi. Clara! Thanks for your feedback! The cool thing about this recipe is that you can tweak it to fit your preferences (or what you have in the pantry). Let us know if you add anything different and yummy to it!