I do like this idea as a daily or weekly challenge.
Might need to be constrained with a standardized list of pantry items.
this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2026
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This is an international group. Different areas with different pantries.
If I had the time and wanted to be fancy about it I'd maybe make some flatbread, or better yet crackers. Maybe some savory herbs in it.
Then just slice cheddar and snack.
Cheese biscuits if you have enough butter. Yum.
Cheese biscuits. Cheese bread. Bread with cheese. Noodles with cheese. Cheese pizza. Quesadillas. Depending on your pantry (salt, fat, leavening agent, liquids), there are so many options.
My dummy brain went "well I'll just eat the cheese as it is then make some bread with the flour" lol. Could make cheesy bread as others mentioned. Maybe cheesy rolls? Rolls with a chunk of cheese inside.
Cheesy bread
The first thing that came to mind of cheese naan.
Mac and cheese!
Make a Bechamel sauce, stir in grated cheddar until it's properly cheesy, add a pinch of nutmeg and white pepper. Pour over macaroni, add more grated cheddar on top, and bake.
If I had aged Gruyere I'd mix that with the cheddar.
Is macaroni really the right word for that in this context? I'm pretty sure you don't have a elbow noodle extractor. Pappardelle, Tagliatelle, Fettuccine?
I think this needs a seasoned breadcrumb topping when you boil it.
I assumed a basic pantry for my other ingredients
The reason I made the distinction there is because I can totally accept macaroni noodles as a basic pantry item. But I was thinking make the pasta because you have the flour. I can see the confusion here. You're going to take pre-made elbows and use the flour for the cheese roux. I get it. I just wasn't seeing it at the time.
By the way, I have elbow macaroni in my pantry right now. About 2 lb worth. They are sealed up in mason jars to prevent the pantry moths from getting in.
I have never made pasta before and while I want to give it a go, I don't think I'd start just for mac and cheese.
If you have a pasta roller, it's a snap! 400g flour, 4 eggs, little oil, little salt. Form into a dough, it takes a while to come together. It's a difficult dough to work. A mixer can help. 8 minutes or so of kneading. Rest the dough an hour, roll out into sheets, and then either use the noodle attachment or cut it into noodles by hand. It honestly only takes like 15 minutes of actual hands on effort and 90 minutes of total time.
My wife has made spaetzle from scratch before. It might be one of the easiest pastas to form - just squeeze the dough through a coarse strainer for finer pieces or out of a piping bag for more coarse pieces. And a disposable plastic bag with a corner cut off works as a piping bag. I think a nice cheese sauce would work perfectly.
Just scratch made mac and cheese.
Not OP, but I would have thought a basic pantry included staples like rice, cheap dried beans, and pasta (probably elbows or shells, since they're pretty versatile).
I'd also do mac & cheese, the same as theirs, but with different seasonings: a little sauteed, minced onion or a dash of onion powder; a tiny bit of mustard for creamier cheese sauce; and a dash of black pepper.
PS: This is great! I hope you do these regularly.
More is the plan. That's why I did 001 instead of 1.
Yes, a basic pantry would include those items. Picture yourself somewhere between 1850 and 1870 living on the prairie what's in your kitchen. What can you get access to? You definitely have sugar and yeast. You probably have cinnamon. You don't have saffron or caviar. But you have all the starches like rice, bean, potatoes and flour to make pasta. You definitely have milk and butter, but you definitely don't have 9-month aged parmesan.
An Italian kitchen in 1850 would!
Does this basic pantry have eggs? Cuz if I have 1 egg, I can make fried cheese with the flour and cheese.
I suppose I could do it without the egg, just making a simple flour water dough to encase the cheese. 🤔 Take less time than making a quesodilla. And probably better anyway since that isn't corn flour.
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I don’t know shit about cooking. Could you melt the cheese in a pot and then add some flour to thicken it up like a fondue texture? Then cut up some Vienna sausages into 1/4 chunks and put a toothpick in each one. Then you can dip the sausage bites into the fondue.
I think you need a little bit of wine to make that work but yeah. I can see it. I'd probably also make some crusty bread. You already have the flour. All you need is some salt yeast and water.
Crusty bread with beer or wine cheese fondue sounds really tasty
Broccoli cheddar soup, using the flour to make a roux + a cup of milk mixed with chicken broth. Ideally with some crackers to crumble on top... Probably would take me 20 minutes or so to make. Not sure on cost exactly -- maybe ballpark of $3 or so? I have everything on hand to make that right now, actually, except the crackers. (I suppose I could make crackers with the flour, but that's more trouble than I'd normally want to go to cooking just for myself.)
Ohhhh I've been craving cheesy zaatar manouche 🤤
Vareniki, absolutely!
You only need to add salt and water to these ingredient and you've got tastiness!
Of course it gets better with potatoes, onion, and maybe mushrooms?
It's weird how I think tasty Chinese dumpling soup but when I think of Vareniki I'm picturing soggy pierogies and sadness. Maybe I spent too much time in Ohio. I should fix this.
Made soggy they are pure sadness.
You need to have very precisely the least possible amount of water that still enables all the flour to become a (very very firm) dough.
And then you need to hold the dough in one hand and pummel it with your other hand's fist while talking with your friends or whatever.
These done properly, and your vareniks will not ve soggy!
And then, of course, don't overboil them!
Pot pie; flour goes into a shortening crust, cheese melts into a creamy veggies/choice-of-meat-if-desired stew for the inside.
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