Your pantry and cabinets are empty, oh no! Keep most of these items around and you can pretty much make ‘dinner’ out of anything!
Pantry:
– Rice/ Quinoa/ Couscous/ other grains. Easy side dishes and these pretty much keep indefinitely if stored properly. Feel free to go buy a 10 lb bag of rice at an Asian market for $4 and be set for the whole year!
– Pasta: Buy extra when it’s on sale and keep several different shapes around. I like Barilla Plus pasta with its added fiber and protein content (the angel hair and farfalle are my favorite), or any brand of whole wheat linguine. You’ll never see me use spaghetti… I think it’s just too plain-feeling for my tastes, and doesn’t hold sauce as well as pretty much any other pasta shape.
– Canned goods: pasta sauce or crushed tomatoes, beans, corn. I try to use as few canned goods as possible because of high salt content and lack of texture.
– Flour: All purpose is usually sufficient but I keep some whole wheat around for when I’m in a ‘healthy’ carb mood.
– Breadcrumbs: I buy them, you can make them if you like. These are so amazing for sprucing up chicken, fish, and pork without adding too many extra calories.
– Oils: Olive oil plus at least one other oil with a higher smoke point for frying and stir frying, like canola or peanut oil (Olive oil will smoke and burn if it gets too hot)
– Sugar: Granulated, brown, and powdered sugars are all great to have around (brown is my favorite as you’ll surely see). Agave nectar, honey, Splenda, Truvia, etc. are usually just fine as alternatives.
– Soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, fish sauce. Salty fermented goodness!
– Vinegar: So many to choose from… pick the ones you like or think you’d use often. I keep rice vinegar (for Asian sauces), balsamic, apple cider, and red wine vinegars around. Seems like a lot but they are cheap, don’t really go bad, and add amazing amounts of flavor to food without adding too much extra salt.
– Corn starch: for thickening!
– Instant yeast: if you want to try BAKING (a real science!!)
– Sweet potatoes
– Regular potatoes
– Onions (I use yellow/sweet onions in almost everything)
– GARLIC (IMPORTANT… if you have only one thing on this list, make sure it is the garlic!)
Fridge:
– Eggs
– Milk
– Unsalted butter
– CHEESE!! (parmesan keeps for a long time, as well as sharp cheddars, swiss, feta, and blue cheese)
– Salad dressings, if you like. It’s easy to make your own out of the things in your pantry though.
– Hot sauces: sriracha, Cholula, Tabasco… whatever your favorites are!
Freezer:
– Frozen veggies (for emergencies!)
– Fish/ shrimp/ meats: The meats will taste much better if you don’t freeze them first, but when you buy more than you can make at a time don’t hesitate to freeze to keep things fresh.
Spices (There are tons available but these will get you through most of my recipes):
– Pepper (grinder preferred)
– Salt (I like a coarse salt like sea salt or kosher)
– Herbs: sage, thyme, rosemary
– Chili powder
– Cumin
– Garlic powder
– Onion Powder
– Cayenne pepper
– Crushed red pepper flakes
– Curry powder (any blend will do usually)
– Cinnamon
Now every time you go to the store, you pretty much only have to buy meat + fresh veggies!
