We make StockNSpoon, so it appears near the end and is labeled as ours. The method below works with or without it.
What does 5 pm look like?
You open the fridge, look at it, and close it. You open the freezer. You open the fridge again, as if it might have changed.
There's food in there. Half a bag of spinach, some chicken, a lemon, a heel of cheese. But none of it looks like dinner, because ingredients don't come labeled as meals. Turning them into one takes a decision, and 5 pm is the worst time of day to make one. So you order in, or you drive to the store for a single item and leave with eleven.
The cost adds up. A Penn State study published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics estimated that the average US household wastes 31.9% of the food it acquires, worth about $1,866 a year per household (Penn State). Nobody knows how much of that is the 5 pm problem, but it's the same kind of food: bought with good intentions and never given a job.
What is the four-slot method?
Work in this order, because the first slot decides the rest.
- The clock item. What will spoil first? Look for open packages, soft vegetables, anything with a date this week. Dinner starts here, so what you'd otherwise throw out gets used first.
- The base. Rice, pasta, tortillas, bread, potatoes, couscous. Whatever you already own that can carry a meal.
- The vegetable. Fresh, frozen or canned all count. Frozen broccoli is a real vegetable.
- The finisher. Salsa, lemon, soy sauce, pesto, hot sauce, a handful of cheese, toasted nuts. This slot is what separates a plate of ingredients from a meal.
What can you make from common combinations?
| Clock item | Base | Vegetable | Finisher | Dinner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken thighs | Rice | Frozen broccoli | Soy sauce and garlic | Sheet-pan chicken and rice bowls |
| Eggs | Leftover rice | Frozen peas | Soy sauce | Fried rice |
| Black beans | Tortillas | Bell pepper | Salsa and cheese | Quesadillas |
| Half bag of spinach | Pasta | Canned tomatoes | Parmesan | Pasta with wilted spinach |
| Potatoes | The potatoes | Onion | Hot sauce and a fried egg | Skillet hash |
| Canned chickpeas | Couscous | Cucumber and tomato | Lemon and yogurt | Chickpea bowl |
None of these needs a recipe. They need a pan, ten to thirty minutes and a decision made before you're hungry.
Which habits make this work?
Decide at lunch. Spend two minutes around midday picking the clock item. By 5 pm the hard part is done and you're only cooking.
Keep a short list of backup staples. Rice, pasta, eggs, canned tomatoes and a bag of frozen vegetables mean slots two through four are rarely empty. Then the clock item is the only thing you have to think about.
Shop only for what's missing. If one slot is empty, buy that one thing. Don't buy a meal's worth of ingredients to fill a hole the size of a lemon.
What if the kitchen looks empty?
It usually isn't. Check the freezer, the back of the cupboard and the jars in the fridge door. Eggs plus nearly anything make a dinner. So do a can of beans and a tortilla. Breakfast for dinner is a legitimate answer to the question.
If you really are down to condiments, that's a shopping day, and the list should be short. Write down only the slot you're missing.
Why did we build StockNSpoon around this question?
We built StockNSpoon because we think a meal plan should start with the food you already own. A plan that starts from a blank page sends you shopping for things you may have, so it's only as cheap as its list. In our view, starting from the pantry is the only way to really build meals that save money, and it should be the basis of meal planning.
Here is how that works in the app. You add what you have to your pantry by scanning barcodes, or by taking a photo for items without one. StockNSpoon suggests dinners from the food you already have, with how long each takes and what's missing. You choose which meals it plans, from just dinner to every meal of the day, because most people don't cook four times a day. Every week it shows you how much you saved.
Two caveats. StockNSpoon doesn't deliver groceries or take orders. When something is missing, it splits the cart across Kroger, QFC, Fred Meyer, Walmart, Whole Foods and Amazon, and you send it to each store's own cart and finish the purchase there. And it's a paid app, at $4.99 a month or $29.99 a year, and you can try it free first.
You can also do all of this with a notes app and a list of what's in your fridge.
How do you try it tonight?
- Open the fridge and name the one thing that needs using first.
- Fill the other three slots from what you have.
- Write down only what's missing, if anything.
Frequently asked questions
What should I cook when I have nothing planned?
Start with the item closest to its date, then add a base, a vegetable and a finisher. The table above has six combinations to copy.
How do I use up food before it expires?
Make it the first slot in dinner, every time. Decide at lunch, so the item is picked before you're tired and hungry.
Do I need an app to cook from my pantry?
No. A short written list and the four-slot method are enough. An app helps if you want the list kept for you and what's missing split by store.
What if I only have a few ingredients?
Eggs, beans, canned tomatoes and a base cover a lot of dinners. Buy only the slot you're missing.