18 Delicious Meals You Can Make With Stuff in Your Pantry

Anyone who has ever cooked regularly for any period of time knows of the following emergency situation.

It's 4:00 p.m. You haven't gone grocery shopping in at least a week. You don't have any meat or fish defrosted from the freezer. You have very little fresh food except for maybe the slimy dregs of a bag of greens that you probably shouldn't eat unless you want to suffer intestinal repercussions. You're starting to get hungry. And, if you have to feed a family, they too can begin to feel their stomachs grumble.

At this point, you can order delivery. But this comes with the delivery hangover—a bitter cocktail that leaves you feeling greasy, broke, and underwhelmed.

Or you can cook with a few pantry staples you likely have on-hand.

While the first option seems like the easiest option, it's really not. You can eat a better meal, faster, simply by combining a few ingredients in your pantry. And the meal you whip up will also likely be better for you, too.

Think of yourself as kitchen MacGyver, armed with a few tools and tasked with a herculean challenge. If you have your wits, you can put together a pantry meal without everyone exploding (figuratively, of course).

The 18 pantry recipes that follow are easy, healthy, delicious, and versatile. They will make cooking at home something to look forward to.