Stocking Your Food Cupboardposted in Around the Kitchen by Kathy MaisterIt's a lot easier to start cooking if you already have some basic food items in the house.
My Food CupboardHere's a list of the (probably essential) non-perishable foods that will happily sit in your food cupboard (or pantry) until you are ready to use them.
Other
My Spice CupboardYou will want to personalize this list with things like coffee, tea, sodas, etc. This is a good basic list on which you can build. From these ingredients, you can make dishes like tuna salad sandwiches, chili, spaghetti, and rice. And that's just the beginning! I am intentionally leaving out the entire category of baking foods (like flour, brown sugar, confectioner's sugar, coco powder and so on). You can begin assembling those ingredients when you begin baking from scratch. (Yes, that will happen someday too!) When stocking up, I strongly recommend bringing a written list of what you need to the grocery store with you (or have it on your cell phone or mp3 player.) It can become hard to remember what you actually do need these days when some grocery stores are so big they should have their own zip code. When given a choice in size, be realistic. I rarely buy "giant family size" of anything, since my household has only two people and it takes a long time for us to get through a small jar of mayonnaise. Granted, the larger size is a better value, but not if it ends up being thrown out because it has passed its "use-by" date. I would rather buy the smaller size and when it runs out, buy a fresh jar. Anything else YOU would consider a "must have" in your pantry? If you are new to startcooking, or are a regular visitor here, please consider subscribing for free. 10 commentsKathy (Maister) How could I have forgotten peanut butter! It’s such an (American) staple. Pantries are so personal, as I’m finding out on my own blog. I may use an ingredient one way, but my readers have many other ideas. For instance, I don’t keep garlic salt, because the only thing I use it for is dry rubs—which I don’t make very often. But I do keep a few slices of good bread in the freezer—for emergency sandwiches! Dave Here in the Southwest.....guess.....SALSA!!!! I too LOVE salsa! My personal favorite is salsa on a baked potato with yogurt! Kung Pow! Vegemite owns peanut butter
My brother-in-law, a Kiwi, would totally agree about the vegemite. (It is almost unheard of here in the USA!) Amanda 2 things that are always in my pantry are chili powder and ground red pepper. We like a lot of spice in our food and our household would literally fall down if we ran out of these. LOL Hi Amanda, once you are used to lots of heat, food must seem quite bland without it. I love lots of flavor but not much heat! I use red pepper very sparingly! Andrea Thank you for posting this. I just started college at Arkansas Tech University and am still learning to cook and shop for ingredients. Your site is so inspiring. Comments are now closed.0 trackbacks |
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Claire
I would consider oatmeal a must. I guess that could be considered a breakfast cereal. It’s also a good idea to have some kind of cracker on hand as well as peanut butter. These are musts if some kind of natural desaster occurs and there is no power! For me, the baking items are musts!