The Ample Pantry

Good morning! We are SOLD OUT of our Swiss Steak entree for tonight, thank you! We do still have our other daily entree of Chicken Marsala as well as 3 of our Baked Whitefish from yesterday available. We also always have our Hot Chicken Salad, Veggie Lasagna, and Baked Salmon made fresh every day! Please call 269-375-8300 to order, hope to hear from you soon! ☀️

From day one of ownership here at the pantry, I’ve been impressed with the work ethic, dedication, and knowledge that Andrea has garnered after working here for 28 years. She started at age 14 on a very part time basis, and the pantry has become her family, and her mission in service to the community. Rarely discouraged by obstacles in her path, after trying to pass before, she persevered and I’m proud to announce that this time she has PASSED the ServSafe Manager class and exam!Congratulations, Andrea! I never doubted you could do it! 🤩

Wishing you all a wonderful Labor Day Weekend! We’ve been busy packing your picnics, and hope you enjoy! We will be CLOSED all weekend and MONDAY. Thank you for keeping us so busy, we are SOLD OUT of our picnics! 😃🇺🇸⭐️

It looks like we are going to have summer weather hanging around to help celebrate Labor Day this weekend! 🌞😃 Let us pack you a picnic and spend more time enjoying being outside, choose from Baked Chicken Tenders or BBQ Ribs - both meals come with fresh cut fruit and veggies with dip, house made potato salad, rolls, and patriotic cookies and bar’s.

For dinner tonight we are serving Turkey Divan and Pork Tenderloin, and of course we always have chicken salad served hot or cold! Please call 269-375-8300 to order, hope to hear from you soon!

We have the honor of catering in a memorial service luncheon for a Vietnam Veteran tomorrow who passed away a few days ago. Sue Ellen was busy making these flag cookies to help honor his service to our country and his memory.

If you have been dining with us during the week for lunch you might have noticed the fresh flowers on each table. We want to thank our friends at Flowerfield Farmstead in Three Rivers for delivering these beautiful bouquets to us each week during the summer! They arrive at our doorstep and Emily breaks them into bud vase size arrangements for our guests to enjoy. As summer nears and end, this is one of the things we will miss the most!

The mini roses on the right are a gorgeous shade of deep purple, I had to ask Andrea if they were real! 💜💐 We serve lunch M - F from 11:00am - 2:00pm, indoor and outdoor seating, call ahead to reserve a table or our private room for a large group.

We normally peel a lot of potatoes for our mashed, twice baked, and augratin sides for our dinner entrees but the demand for our house made potato salad this summer may have pushed us over the edge. 😵‍💫🤣 Internal kitchen debate, does this potato look like Eeyore or Woodstock?

Shrimp Linguine and (Filet of) Beef Kabobs are on the menu today! 😃
In other pantry news, we have an opening for a Delivery Driver, dinners and lunches with flexible hours and schedule, drive our company vehicles, hourly rate plus tips! This is a perfect job for a retiree or anyone who is just looking to earn some extra money and serve the community. You will likely get to know your customers and form new relationships and have some fun being part of The Ample Pantry team. If you’re interested, stop in or give us a call at 269-375-8300 and ask for Dave or Melissa.

Beautiful blue sky today and crisp, cool late summer air. Otto’s Chicken and Crisp Country Acres green and wax beans for the pantry and fresh Sarkozy sourdough bread and Verhage cinnamon rolls for me! 👩‍🌾

The past couple of times that I’ve taken my family out to eat, what I have been served has tasted and appeared “less than” house made. It felt like it came off the delivery truck and was heated up in their kitchen and served. Here at The Ample Pantry, we make everything fresh daily and prepare our entrees from long standing recipes, and hand cut our veggies and fruit - we don’t receive them in a bag and pour them out - we wash, peel, cut, and chop! Being relatively new to this business, I’ve had every general manager that I’ve tried to find tell me that the pantry methods are way too labor intensive. But, that’s what sets us apart, that’s what has sustained us for 42 years. We take pride in the food we serve to our community!

Pictured here, Chicken Piccata hot out of the oven, one of our entrees for dinner tonight. Also shown is a fresh fruit platter that Florinda prepared, she made the fruit dip from scratch and hand scooped the melon to hold it!

I’m so proud of the hard working and talented staff who subscribe to the “old school” pantry preparation traditions! 😀

Monday meal features are: Cashew Chicken and Baked Salmon! Remember, prices listed include a complete meal - tossed salad with house made dressing, fresh baked roll with real herbed butter, baked vegetable, potato/pasta/or rice, fruit chutney, and dessert! That’s a lot of food for a reasonable price ($18.50 or $25.50) - especially considering that we went out this weekend to our favorite local burger place, and walked out almost $70.00 lighter after enjoying 2 burgers with fries and soft drinks and a hot dog to go!

Please call 269-375-8300 to order your complete, made from scratch, meal to enjoy tonight! Hope to hear from you soon! 😊

We all missed Sue Ellen last week when she was on vacation, and our customers did too! She was greeted by many orders for pie - blueberry peach, blueberry lemon, and lemon meringue - we hope you enjoy them!

I’m a few days late with this, but along with the pie pics you will find the August menu…in the nick of time. Apologies for the delay, I slipped away for a few days with Sue Ellen too. Enjoy these last couple of days of July. 🙂

One of our customers and their guests planned ahead and will be enjoying our fresh made quiche this weekend! Just a reminder that you can order these, with 24 hour notice, they are delicious!

I will be working on the menus for August and September this weekend and should be posting them early next week! Have a great weekend! 😎

Today’s menu features Turkey Divan and Lemon Chicken Parmesan (only a couple left) and we have a few Fiesta Chicken available too! Please call 269-375-8300 to order, hope to hear from you soon! We are using local blueberries in our pies and dessert bars, you can request these (while they last) when you order. Blueberry lemon pie pictured here! 🫐😃

It feels like every time I make a turn on a route I travel frequently, there’s a new construction road block to navigate. Kalamazoo small businesses are feeling it too… and struggling with much more than an added 5-10 minutes to their travels. Please make an effort to take the detours, appreciate our locally owned small businesses, and the new scenery you see on your way to visit them. 💕

Late inventory of flag and star cookies shows we have lots extra! If you need a dozen or two to take to your 4th of July gathering, give us a call! 269-375-8300 🇺🇸

This is how busy we are today… the co-owner (aka my husband) is doing dishes! Maybe I’ll see more of this in the kitchen at home too? 😃

Thank you for keeping us so busy! My staff has earned an extra day off to celebrate this 4th of July and we will be CLOSED Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Open again Monday, July 8th.

Have a safe and fun weekend!🇺🇸

We sold out of BBQ Chicken last week(thank you!)but if you missed out, we are featuring it again today! Looking ahead to the holiday weekend, don’t forget to order your picnics - details in the pic below - you can pick these up or have them delivered, Wednesday July 3rd. 🇺🇸🌟

Summer weekends are for BBQ! Every Friday, all summer long, we are featuring BBQ favorites including racks of ribs and pulled pork! Today we are also featuring BBQ Chicken (locally sourced from Otto’s) We make our BBQ sauce from scratch!

Today’s pie flavors are Chocolate Cream, Coconut Cream, Apple, and Cherry.

Please call 269-375-8300 to order, have a safe and fun weekend! 🌞

It seems everything is early this year! Blueberries are ready to be picked and that’s just what Sue Ellen did with her grandkids this week. She baked these into her blueberry bars that will be part of our dessert lineup while the season lasts. 🫐

This is such an amazing gesture from one of our restaurant colleagues - this industry is tough and the support we offer each other is invaluable. I’ve met the greatest most hard working people since owning The Ample Pantry. Thank you Mel from Pizza Katerina, we love you! To our pantry fans, when you are hungry for a great pizza…you know who to call! https://pizzakaterina.com/

UPDATE: We are sold out of BBQ chicken and down to just 3 Enchiladas dinners left, thank you!! 😃

After a long winter break - BBQ Chicken is back!! Otto’s bone in chicken breast and drumstick grilled and topped with our made from scratch BBQ sauce - served with macaroni and cheese, baked vegetable, tossed salad with house made dressing, fresh baked rolls with real herbed butter, fruit chutney, and a slice of pie (rhubarb, lemon meringue, cherry, or strawberry). We will likely sell out, so please call early. If you are in the mood for Mexican we have Chicken Enchiladas also featured. Please call 269-375-8300 to order, have a great day! 🌞

It’s Turkey Tuesday! Sleep well tonight after enjoying a Thanksgiving-like meal including tossed salad with house made dressing, roasted turkey breast, hand pulled stuffing, made from scratch gravy, baked vegetable, hand peeled and mashed potatoes, fruit chutney, fresh baked rolls with real herbed butter, and dessert! If you’re hungry for something from the sea, Crab Cakes are also on the menu today! Please call 269-375-8300 to order, hope to hear from you soon! 🦃🦀

The best part of our work here at the pantry is the pleasure of getting to know the people we serve, we develop relationships that are the cornerstone of what we do. On Monday we received this gorgeous bouquet of flowers from the children of our long time customers thanking us for providing meals to their parents for many years. Our week has been brightened by the kindness of this family and the memories of our time with their parents. Thank you! 💕

Summer break is almost here along with a break from our Deluxe Fare pricing! Just for the summer we are lowering the price on some of your favorites like Baked Whitefish, Beef Kabobs, and Marinated Flank Steak.

BBQ Fridays are back! Available every Friday during the summer, please give us 48 hour notice. We make our BBQ sauce from scratch , our pulled pork is slow roasted, and our potato salad is made with hand peeled potatoes!

Better late than never, below are our June and July menus! Please call 269-375-8300 to order, hope to hear from you soon! 🌞

Last call for our Memorial Day Weekend Picnic! Choose from baked chicken tenders with a special dipping sauce or our famous BBQ ribs with our house made bbq sauce. Both picnic entrees come with fresh cut fruit, veggies with house made dill dip, rolls, potato salad, and flag and star cookies! Please call 269-375-8300 to order, hope to hear from you soon! 🇺🇸🌟

The kitchen smelled so good today! Sue Ellen was baking strawberry rhubarb pie with hand rolled double crusts! Stop in this week for lunch or add a piece to your dinner order. 🍓🥧😊

Good morning - today we have a great comfort food entree on the menu … Chicken Pot Pie Bake. Crab cakes are also featured tonight. 🦀
Mother’s Day orders will be accepted until noon today.

If you know of a family suffering from the storm devastation please send me a private message or email at [email protected]. Besides being able to help with meals from The Ample Pantry, the Kalamazoo FC Men’s and Women’s soccer players can help with storm cleanup. Our hearts are with all of our community families and friends who have lost so much.

I was happy to see the Kalamazoo Farmer’s Market so busy on their opening day 😊. We are featuring asparagus from Crisp Country Acres in our Mother’s Day Meals for pickup this Saturday and Sue Ellen is making an Upjohn Rhubarb Pie this morning! Thinking of all of our community friends who have been affected by the the terrible storms yesterday, please let us know if you know someone in need of help. Extra thankful for sunshine today!

Lemon tarts will be the featured dessert served with our Mother’s Day Special this weekend! 🍓🫐🍋