Despite the high cost of groceries, people are eating at home to save money, using a combination of doctored takeout cuisine, new plant-based products (a category that's exploding) and lower-priced supermarket staples.

Why it matters: What's bad news for restaurants and some fast-food chains is good news for stores that sell prepared foods, new and exotic ingredients, and rock-bottom-cheap pantry items.

Driving the news: While the pandemic got us accustomed to cooking from scratch (out of boredom) and ordering in from restaurants (fun!), the latest iteration is a mashup of those trends: concocting meals that blend budget ingredients with containers of mildly indulgent prepared foods.

"People got really a lot more into home cooking during the pandemic, and that's pretty much sticking — but with a twist," Denise Purcell, trends expert at the SFA, tells Axios.

Between the lines: A confluence of signs point to what the post-pandemic, inflation-pinched kitchen looks like: A place where takeout cartons, single-serve grocery products and low-priced bulk staples coexist, for the convenience of household members who may be whipping up meals to fit their hybrid work schedules.

"In the coming years, brands have an opportunity to make sure meals, drinks and snacks are not boring" as people continue to view food and drink as an outlet for comfort and creativity, according to Mintel, a market research firm, and its "Global Food and Drink Trends 2022" report.

Of note: Sales of food storage and preservation products are skyrocketing, as people use leftovers to stretch their food dollars, per The NPD Group, a consumer trends research firm.

The bottom line: "There is a pandemic-caused meaningful shift toward in-home preparation" and experimentation that will linger for the foreseeable future, David Portalatin, NPD's food industry expert, tells Axios.