What to stock my pantry with?

[KayleeZoo]

I just spent almost 2 hours throwing away pre-packaged and processed junk. My pantry is just about empty now. And so is my freezer. I am finally commited to cooking good food for my family. Heck, if I can declutter and organize our house, I can cook, right?

If you were starting out with a basically empty pantry (we have some pasta, a few spices and that's about it- ingredient wise), what would you buy to stock it? My kids are picky- one is really really picky- and we won't be doing casseroles, etc. but we are meat eaters (except for that one pesky picky child ) and I will be doing crock pot stuff- roasts, etc. We eat eggs, drink milk, etc.

I'm heading to Costco tomorrow- and NOT buying the pre-pacakged and frozen ready to heat foods. But I need a lot of help to figure out what I should buy.

Anyone want to give suggestions?

ETA- I have TJ's and Costco nearby, as well as regular grocery stores. So if there is something specific that TJ's or C carries that you would recommend, LMK!

[Llyra]

What I would do would be to start small. You don't want to buy a whole bunch of stuff and then find out you won't use it. I'd plan meals, maybe for the next six days or so, and then buy only what you need to make those meals. So you'd buy all the fresh stuff (milk, meat, eggs, cheese, produce, etc.) you need for those meals, plus only the shelf stuff you know you'll use for those next few days. And whatever you do buy, that you KNOW you'll use, buy one extra to keep on hand. Then do it the next week and the next, and pretty soon you'll have a nice back-stock of things you use a lot.

I'd start with a cookbook and make a meal plan, and shop from that.

[elus0814]

Think about the kinds of things your family likes to eat and then decide if you can make them yourself. If so, write down the ingredients and how homemade you want to go. For example, if you like take out tacos you could make them yourself but you have to decide if you are going to use pre-shredded cheese and premade tortillas. You can do those things yourself but it takes more work. I hope that makes sense.

I make most everything from scratch and we are about 90% organic (usually in larger batches so I can freeze the leftovers for quick meals later). Some of the things in my pantry are:
-flours (I make our bread/cakes/cookies/muffins/etc.) I keep whole wheat, white, oat, coconut, and pastry flours on hand.
-sugars/sweeteners (I enjoy baking pastries and cookies). I keep white (raw), brown, turbinado, powdered, honey (a few different kinds), real maple syrup (kept in the fridge)
-starches: oats, quinoa, couscous, pastas, wheat berries (for sprouting and grinding into flour), popcorn, cornmeal, oat bran, various rices.... I think I'm forgetting some
-nuts/fruits: raisins, pine nuts, peanuts, almonds, cashews, dried cranberries, various freeze dried fruits and veggies, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds
-fats: canola oil, olive oil, coconut oil, other oils depending on if I happen to have them around (like sesame or peanut), vegetable shortening (spectrum makes a non-hydrogenated one), butter (in the fridge)
-other staples: chocolate chips/baking chocolate, flax seeds, seeds for sprouts, panko breadcrumbs (I make my own regular ones), peanut butter, jams, cocoa powder, spices, various salts, tea, coffee, powdered milk, lemon juice (in the fridge), drinking juices, home canned applesauce, teas, coffee, active dry yeast
-commercially processed foods (they're just fine in moderation): breakfast cereals, granola (if I don't make my own), crackers (I haven't found a good from scratch recipe), pretzels (the little hard ones are annoying to make)

I try to have as little plastic as possible in the house and kitchen so most everything is in glass jars. I store the whole wheat and coconut flours in the freezer and other flours in the pantry (I would freeze them if I had the space). Large amounts of bulk items like oatmeal are in plastic zipper bags since I haven't been able to find large enough glass jars and we're in a humid climate so keeping moisture out is a must - bags of flour are put inside plastic bags to help keep them fresh.

Think about most processed foods. They are flour, corn syrup, hydrogenated oil, and flavorings. You can make just about anything with various combinations of starch, sugar, fat, and natural flavors. If you like baking (or want to get into it) check out the king arthur flour website. They have lots of great recipes. They even have one for toaster pastries, easy to make and way better than pop tarts.

[doubledutch]

here's what's in my pantry.

olive oil, vegetable oil, coconut oil
white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, tamari
flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, yeast, etc
pasta, rice, wild rice, quinoa, barley, bulgar, corn meal, oatmeal
lentils, split peas
canned: black beans, cannelini, garbanzo beans, tomatoes in various forms, coconut milk
dry cereal
popcorn
crackers
dried fruits, applesauce, molasses, honey, peanut butter

i have another cupboard that holds salt, spices, powdered broth, etc.

i don't have room in my pantry for onions, potatoes, winter squash, etc so i keep that stuff in the fridge.

i agree with the idea to meal plan and only buy the ingredients for those meals each week, and it will build up.

[Adamsmama]

I cook from scratch. Here is what I buy and keep on hand: * Baking Powder
* Baking Soda
* butter
* canned tomatoes & paste
* Celery
* Chocolate Chips or baking chocolate
* cooking oil (canola, vegetable, and/or olive)
* Eggs
* Flour (or wheat for grinding)
* Frozen cooked shredded chicken
* garlic bulb
* Homemade Chicken Stock
* Milk
* Oats
* Pasta Noodles
* Pizza Dough -- I freeze my own
* Pizza Sauce -- or ingredients to make it
* potatoes
* Salt
* Sugar
* vegetables (frozen/canned)
* yeast (for baking)


I love to be able to bake at a moments notice. I always keep some frozen meat in the freezer (usually preformed frozen hamburgers from costco, some chicken breasts bought on sale...sometimes steak, etc.)

For snack foods we buy craisins and raisins, popcorn, tortilla chips, organic cereals -- minimally processed "junk" type foods -- easy snack foods.

[gardenmommy]

Originally Posted by doubledutch

here's what's in my pantry.

olive oil, vegetable oil, coconut oil
white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, tamari
flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, yeast, etc
pasta, rice, wild rice, quinoa, barley, bulgar, corn meal, oatmeal
lentils, split peas
canned: black beans, cannelini, garbanzo beans, tomatoes in various forms, coconut milk
dry cereal
popcorn
crackers
dried fruits, applesauce, molasses, honey, peanut butter

i have another cupboard that holds salt, spices, powdered broth, etc.

i don't have room in my pantry for onions, potatoes, winter squash, etc so i keep that stuff in the fridge.

i agree with the idea to meal plan and only buy the ingredients for those meals each week, and it will build up.

This is similar to what is in mine. I have some gluten-free baking mixes as well, so that when I have GF friends over, I can make something baked for them to eat.

Baking stuff: GF mixes, flours, sugars (including molasses and honey), baking powder and sugar, spices, etc.
Pasta for spaghetti and mac -n- cheese
Grains: oatmeal, quinoa, rice, etc. I do have a few organic rice mixes because pregnancy is catching up with me in the energy dept.
Canned stuff: coconut milk, pumpkin, salsas, and a bunch of home-canned stuff. Before I canned my own, I nearly always had tomatoes, green beans, and an assortment of beans (kidney, pinto, great northern, etc.).
Oils: coconut and olive are my staples, along with good quality butter.
Almost always: crackers, tortillas, fruit leathers, dried fruits (cranberries, raisins, etc.), peanut butter, cocoa powder, etc.
Root veggies such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, etc. Squashes if they are on sale.

In the fridge, I usually have carrots, celery, snow peas, apples, oranges, etc. I try to stick with what is in season, to maximize the bang for buck thing.

We also try to minimize the amount of packaging that comes into the house. However, I do make allowances for busy times, like late pregnancy or with a newborn, or traveling a lot. I find it very helpful to make a menu, even a limited menu, and shop for that. That way you know that you have what you need to make a few meals and are less likely to buy something and not use it.

[blueridgewoman]

I don't have much in my pantry- most of what we eat is vegetables, fruit, meat, or dairy, but I do keep a few things around:

Healthy oils (avocado, olive, coconut)
Tons of spices, in small enough containers that they can be used up in a year so they don't go stale
Dried fruits like raisins
Trail mix (with sprouted nuts and seeds)
Diced tomatoes, tomato paste
Canned pumpkin
Oatmeal (for my daughter- this gets soaked overnight)
Almond butter
Root veggies- I usually have a huge stash of winter squashes
Coconut milk
Organic soy-free chocolate
Tahini
Teas- medicinal and the Irish Breakfast I drink each morning
Baking supplies like cocoa, sugar, baking soda/powder, arrowroot, cornstarch, etc
GF pancake mix (from Bob's) for GF baking since I don't like any other GF mix
Vinegars- mostly ACV since we use a lot of that
Salad dressings- compromises really since it's impossible to find one that tastes good and uses good oils and no chemicals...

[mamadelbosque]

I like of the pp's lists. Another big one for me is parmesan cheese. I always like to have at LEAST one, preferably 2 things of it in the basement its one of those things that I never realize I'm out of, till I'm out, yk? And then its always "oh god, I sure hope theres another one downstairs...". Oh, and soy sauce. Same thing. And I do still buy bread/tortillas from the store (actually my co-op in bulk and then freeze them)... I was making my own bread for a little while last year, but it really is a lot of work and I could never get it to be moist & not all crumbly...

[3princesses]

Oh, I love this thread.....I have been wondering this same thing. Thanks for all these great lists!!!!

[Storm Bride]

I haven't read any replies. I do have some processed stuff (eg. dry cereal - cutting back, but...) in my pantry, but my suggestions, based on my own pantry, are as follows:

(This will be less useful if you don't use any canned goods.)

Canned tuna and salmon
Canned tomatoes and plain tomato paste
Some canned fruit (usually peaches and pineapple - just 1-2 cans of each - we only rarely use them)
Canned beans (mostly kidney for chili, or mixed, so I can throw together a spur-of-the-moment bean salad)
Coconut milk

Possibly a tetra-pack of good broth - I like to make my own, but sometimes run out, and need/want some in a hurry.

Rice
Flour
Oatmeal
Pasta
Honey
Olive oil
Coconut oil
Vinegar (white, apple cider and balsamic)
Baking chocolate
Coconut for baking
Popcorn
Dried beans and lentils (don't eat as much of these as we should)
umm...potatoes
onions
sweet potatoes/yams (also garlic, but it's kept elsewhere)

Snack items:
Raw nuts (we keep almonds and walnuts & sometimes pecans)
Raw seeds
Dried fruit (we like raisins, cranberries, dates & prunes)


Let's see...
teas (we keep ours in separate cupboard, though)
spices (ditto - we have lots)
Baking powder and baking soda (again - a separate cupboard, except my huge box of baking soda for cleaning)
Maybe nut butters (we refrigerate ours, but I know some people don't)


I'm sure there are some other things, but that's all I can think of right now. I'm off to read everyone else's suggestions.

[Storm Bride]

Okay - read some others.

I forgot sugar (probably because I was thinking of the healthier stuff). I keep white, brown and demerara. I also keep molasses, mostly for baking. I didn't list crackers, but we usually have one pack floating around somewhere. As well as oatmeal, I have another porridge mix, with flax seed in it. It's pretty good.

I didn't list any fridge items, but I keep various fruits and veggies, eggs, yogurt, cheese, butter and milk. I also do buy prepackaged spring mix for salads. (If I try to buy each component separately, I run out of fridge room - we have a small fridge - and we often don't finish it.) I have a small quantity of baking dates, and we do keep some storebought condiments (I'll confess to buying Miracle Whip, for instance). We also have a couple of nut butters in the fridge,.and some tahini for making hummus. I also keep orange juice (we drink it a little bit, but I also cook with it sometimes), apple juice (ditto) and lemon and lime juice (for cooking).

Our freezer is also small. It mostly contains meat and frozen fruit (largely berries). There are a couple of bags of peas and corn. Occasionally, I make extra large batches of chili, spaghetti or soup/chowder and freeze a family-size serving, as well.

I'm sure I have all kinds of things in the house that I'm not thinking of right now, but that covers most of it.

[AnnieNimIty]

Subbing!!!! Ya'll are wonderful!

[velochic]

Store what you eat and eat what you store.

Before going out and buying anything to stock your pantry, you have to have an idea of what food you eat and how quickly you eat it.

I had started another thread on this, but the key for me is my master list of meals. I know what each meal requires on this list and I have a good idea of how much I need to keep on-hand without anything going to waste. I keep everything in excel and menu plan from this. I can't post my pantry list because it's several pages in excel (it's just too big), but I did post my master list of meals in the other thread.

I would sit down and do some meal planning and figure out amounts needed for the meals before doing any shopping. I realize you've already gotten rid of food, so you have to buy something, however, before buying any large quantities, you have to have an idea of what and how much you'll use. I always suggest to people new to stockpiling a pantry and scratch cooking to spend an entire month writing down ingredients and amounts. I *cook* nearly 100% from scratch and bake about 80% from scratch. Some people do everything from scratch and others less. You need to give yourself some time to figure out what's going to work for you before you just jump in with both feet. Otherwise, you're going to end up with a lot of food that you never use and is wasted.

FTR - I have 3 freezers and that helps *a lot*. We buy our meat by the animal (a side of beef, a whole lamb, side of pork, etc.) which saves a lot of money and I also can some of the meat as well, which makes for a quick meal.

Good luck!

[doubledutch]

Originally Posted by blueridgewoman

Oatmeal (for my daughter- this gets soaked overnight)

can you tell me about this? i know it's ot, so if you want to start a new thread . . . or pm me?

i forgot about tea, also! but it's in another cupboard, with the kettle.

also forgot garlic because it lives on the counter. why put something away that i'm going to use for every freaking meal?! (okay, not usually for breakfast.)

[Violet2]

I favor the stock for your recipes method of meal planning. That way I stock what I actually use and need.

And this is the method I use to calculate food storage quantities.

HTH
V

[BetsyS]

I have many of the staples that PP have said. One thing not mentioned is cornmeal. We like cornbread (I live in the south), so we eat it at least once a week. I'm never out of cornmeal.

I also like what a PP said about figuring out what YOUR family likes to eat, then storing that. No since in stocking up on brown rice, if your family hates it, and it takes a year to go through 2 cups, you know?

One thing I do is watch for sales, especially buy one, get one free. If it's on sale, I buy at least two. One to eat right now, and one for the pantry. That's an easy way to stock up. For instance, this week, black eyed peas were buy one get one (cause of the holiday). I bought two--we'll eat one this week, and then I have an extra for the pantry, bought on sale. Easy, easy.

[Storm Bride]

I also completely agree about the meal planning. I was just listing stuff we have that I think of as staples. Obviously, if someone doesn't like tuna, or use coconut milk, or whatever, then my list is useless!

I wobble a lot on how much scratch cooking I do. I always use certain storebought things (tortillas - mostly because of lack of rolling space, canned tomatoes, etc.). DH and I do most dinners (usually) from scratch and all lunches. Breakfasts are frequently, but not always, packaged cereal. We were baking about 95% of our own bread until we had dd2. I think we've baked one loaf in the last six months. Everything is flexible. Now that dd2 is a little less attention intensive, and Christmas is over, I think we'll get back on track. I haven't meal planned in 6-7 months!

[KristyDi]

I suggest making a list of every dish you know you can cook. It'll be longer than you think. Even list the ones that use some processed ingredients. This is a learning process and you can learn to sub out scratch ingredients for those processed ones as you find a balance you're happy with.

Then make a list of the things you need to cook your 10 or so most frequent recipes. Figure out a few processed things you'd like to eliminate and add what you need to do that (ie change spaghetti sauce from a jar for some made from canned tomatoes or condensed soup for a roux) Shop with that list.

[KayleeZoo]

Thanks everyone! I think I was just really overwhelmed Went to Costco armed with an ingredient list for dinners for this week. I figure if I do that a few times, we'll have the pantry and freezer stocked with most things and I can always pick up odds and ends when I go to get fresh produce and dairy each week. I wrote down what you all suggested and shopped off of that, too, figuring that it's stuff that I'll encounter a need for.

I'm not as ambitious as most MDC mamas; we will still eat packaged cereal, and the occasional frozen chicken nugget, but I'm shooting for cooking most of our meals from scratch. That's a HUGE step for me, so I'm going to focus on that for now. I don't bake, so am still buying whole wheat bread and stuff, but muffins are on my list of stuff to start making since my kids love them. I figure I can always add things to my repertoire as I go along

[Pinoikoi]

I like the Muir Glen organic products. I found a bunch of coupons for their stuff on ebay and stocked up when they went on sale. Things like canned organic diced tomatoes.

Also, stock up on dry beans.

organic canned tomato sauce can be used in lots of things. I just use the store brand organic ones- O at Safeway for example.

Flour.
RIce

brown sugar (we add it to oatmeal and also for baking)

pasta (unless you make your own)

I usually buy condiments two at a time.. we go through a lot of organic ranch dressing and ketchup.

I bought a chest freezer, so if I make too much of something I freeze extra portions in there- like I froze 3 quarts of chili the other night. I froze a dozen homemade lasagnas last fall. If I find a good deal on something I stock up (like whole cranberries after Christmas)