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Today, we’ll look a little closer at items for the pantry. In case you’ve missed the previous posts:
I went through my shelves as I wrote this post, and jotted down what all we stock. You certainly don’t need everything here, and your family probably stocks completely different foods as well!
**Next week, I’ll offer a few online resources for some of the items below, so stay tuned.**
:
I consider the foods below essentials in our kitchen…
Grains & Flours
- variety of flours* – unbleached white flour & whole-wheat flour mix
- brown rice
- basmati or jasmine rice (sometimes the brown varieties)
- wild rice
- quinoa
- couscous
- cornmeal
- whole-wheat crackers or pretzels
- whole grain cereals such as oats
- whole grain (or a mix of white/wheat) pastas
- soba noodles (which we’ve only tried once, but I want to use it more).
*I’ll touch on gluten-free flours next week!
Legumes
I keep both dried and canned beans on hand: black beans, pinto, garbanzo, great northern beans, kidney, lentils
Nuts, Seeds, Nut Butters, Dried Fruit
My kids would eat dried apricots all day if I let them! We also snack on:
- raisins
- almonds
- cashews
- pistachios
- pumpkin or sunflower seeds
- popcorn
For baking we use pecans and walnuts, and in our smoothies chia seeds or flaxseeds. Our favorite nut butters are peanut and almond.
Oil/Vinegars
- raw apple cider vinegar
- red wine and balsamic vinegars
- extra-virgin olive oil
- unrefined cold-pressed coconut oil
Other Bottled Liquids/Items
worcestershire sauce, mirin, sesame oil, cooking wines, mustard, ketchup, salad dressings, Bragg’s liquid aminos, mayonnaise
To make your own salad dressings or teriyaki sauce, take a peek at my friend Lindsay’s recipes!
Sweeteners
- agave nectar (not much)
- maple syrup
- raw honey
- turbinado sugar
- molasses
- brown rice syrup (substitute for corn syrup)
- other choices could include rapadura, sucanat
Canned Products
tomatoes (diced, sauce, whole), coconut milk, canned beans, salmon, sardines (yes, some of us actually eat these!)
Baking Goods
- variety of flours
- aluminum-free baking powder
- baking soda
- raw cacoa powder (for making chocolate peanut butter cups)
- baking spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.
- yeast
- chocolate chips (when Amazon has a sale, I stock up!)
Culinary Herbs & Seasonings
unrefined sea salt (since receiving a sample, I’ve been faithfully using Redmond’s Real Salt – full of healthy minerals!), right now I use these herbs for cooking: thyme, oregano, rosemary, parsley, savory, chives, garlic (powder, minced, salt), cayenne peppper, chili powder, bay leaf, pepper (whole & I grind as needed).
Medicinal Herbs
Last year I began stocking a few of these to make teas.
- lemon balm
- red clover blossoms
- St. John’s Wort
- nettle leaf
- echinacea leaves
- licorice root
- chamomile flowers
- peppermint
- plantain leaves
- raspberry leaves
All our herbs are Mountain Rose Herbs brand, which I find at my local natural health food store; I’ve ordered from the site before with no issues.
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Again, you don’t have to have everything here. I find when these pantry items are on hand, along with a few fridge/freezer items, meals are SO much easier to bring together! *Update: see what my blogger friend Kelly stores in her pantry!
What other pantry items do you stock?
Note: I am not a physician or medical professional in any field; all posts are for educational purposes alone and not intended to diagnose, prevent, cure, or treat any illness, disease or health concern. Please read full disclaimer here.
[…] list of all we stock in our pantry and […]
Thanks so much for sharing my pantry post – what a helpful post this is! I love all these great ideas! Blessings, sweet friend, Kelly 🙂
I try to do as many whole foods as possible. My list is smaller than yours (I tried to simplify a year or so ago!). I do buy Organic Evaporated Cane Juice (fair trade) because it’s fair trade and because it’s SO much cheaper than Sucanat. I can get 10 lbs. for $11. I try not to use a ton of it. We also use a lot of raw honey and pure maple from a local farm.
We don’t use brown rice. I read that it has higher arsenic levels (even organic brown) than white rice. I decided that we get plenty of fiber in our beans/other whole grains/veggies/fruits, and that I would just go with white rice. Do you have thoughts on this? Am I way off base?
Everything else looks about the same! Well, your chocolate chips are a lot more special than mine. 🙂
Wow Ami, that’s a great deal on the cane juice! To answer about the brown rice, I had recently heard of the ‘debate’ on this, and really…I’m not sure. An article I read said the same thing, stick with white rice. We primarily do jasmine or basmati, and little brown rice here & there.
Worth checking out, so thanks for bringing it up!