I apologize ahead of time for the number of times you'll have to mentally say "pantry" in this post. It's one of those words that sounds stranger and stranger every time you say it, and after 10 times you begin to wonder if it's actually a word! But putting all that aside, we're talking today all about how to stock your pantry. You know by now that I'm an ardent meal planner and borderline neurotic about trying to keep our grocery budget in check. Groceries can be a sneaky budget saboteur if you're not careful, and one way to maximize your grocery budget while cutting down on last minute takeout is to ensure you have a properly stocked pantry.
Now, when I say “pantry” I’m technically referring to dried goods, spices, condiments, et al. I could do a whole other post on stocking your fridge and stocking your chest freezer, and I might in the future, but in this post I might also refer to some refrigerated and/or frozen items for the sake of discussion. Also, don’t despair if you are lacking a fancy schmancy walk-in pantry -- we don’t have one, and you don’t need one! In fact, I have cooked almost all of our meals exclusively at home in teeny tiny kitchens for the better part of 10 years, and used a metal shelf from IKEA as our pantry for the entire time. Constraints breed creativity!
Think About What You Eat Regularly
Take a bird’s eye view of the recipes and meals you often make. Pizza Friday? Taco Tuesday? Meatless Monday? We humans are creatures of habit and tend to rotate through familiar meals, so chances are that you’ll use a lot of the same spices and ingredients over and over again. Some of the staples I can think off the top of my head that I make sure we always have, so I’m able to throw together a super easy, super lazy meal when it would be way too easy to resort to takeout:
- pasta
- canned tomatoes
- nutritional yeast
- rice
- canned beans
- eggs
- hot sauce
- frozen veggies
Scan Your Pantry
See what you’re running low on and jot it down on your grocery list. While we’re talking groceries, I have to share something that has majorly simplified my grocery shopping life: the app AnyList. There are lots of grocery apps out there and I’ve tried a handful of them but kept coming back to pen and paper. I found myself rewriting the same items each week and never had a great system to easily keep tabs on the things I was buying repeatedly. Enter, AnyList! I added an Apple shortcut to my homescreen so I tap that, add items as I think of them, and they are automatically sorted into the appropriate category within AnyList. Then, as I’m walking through the store, I tap the item, AnyList crosses it out in red but doesn’t remove the item automatically. This means it’s easy to un-cross it off the next time I need to buy it! It’s been a gamechanger for my mom brain which has resulted in me buying multiples of far, far too many pantry items. Cough, cough, chili powder and lentils, cough cough.
Eat What You Buy
A well-stocked pantry is no good if you don’t actually use the items. Every couple months I’ll glance through the cabinets and see what has been languishing at the back, bring it front and center, and incorporate it into a meal during meal planning. This way, you’ll hopefully never find a can of food that expired five years ago! It’s also a great way to stick to your grocery budget at the end of the month -- use up what you have and get creative to stretch those dollars.
Below is this simultaneously tired yet over-caffeinated mom’s attempt at making an exhaustive list of items that I make sure are always in our pantry. I’m sure I’ve forgotten something so I’ll likely update this over time, but it’s pretty darn close! If this is at all overwhelming for you, think baby steps. When we moved to our new house in Massachusetts after coming from California, we had to restock the pantry entirely and I just about short-circuited. That’s actually how I came up with the below list for how to stock your pantry, by gradually compiling a list of what I like to have on hand that allows me to cook nearly all of our meals at home. If you don't care for some items, forget about them. If I've made a glaring oversight and missed something that you love, add it in. But please don't berate me for forgetting it, as I am but a mere mortal simply doing my best.
Spices
- Allspice
- Basil
- Bay leaves
- Cardamom
- Cayenne
- Chili powder
- Cinnamon (ground and sticks)
- Cumin
- Curry powder
- Dill
- Garam masala
- Garlic powder
- Ginger
- Nutmeg
- Onion powder
- Oregano
- Old bay
- Paprika
- Red pepper flakes
- Sea salt - fine and flaky, like Maldon
- Thyme
- Turmeric
Grains & Beans
- Brown Rice
- White Rice
- Wild Rice
- Quinoa
- Rolled Oats
- Steel cut oats
- Panko breadcrumbs
- Black beans
- Chickpeas
- Red lentils
- Green lentils
- Kidney beans
- Pinto beans
- Popcorn
Oils & Vinegars
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Coconut oil
- Canola oil
- Sesame oil
- Rice vinegar
- Apple cider vinegar
- Red wine vinegar
- Balsamic vinegar
- White vinegar
Cans & Jars
- Canned tomatoes (whole peeled, diced, and crushed)
- Tomato pasta
- Tuna
- Vegetable or chicken broth
- Unsweetened coconut milk
- Kimchi
- Fruit jams or preserves
- Pickles - spicy and dill
- Jalapenos
- Chipotles in adobo sauce
- Canned beans - any type you want in case you forget to cook the dried ones
Pasta
- Spaghetti
- Fusili
- Elbows
- Rigatoni
- Banza pasta (chickpea pasta for our toddler)
- Lasagna noodles
- Pad thai noodles
- Brown rice noodles
- Ramen noodles
Nuts & Seeds & Butters
- Raw cashews
- Raw almonds
- Walnuts
- Sesame seeds
- Chia seeds
- Poppy seeds
- Flax seeds (whole, grind them at home)
- Sunflower seeds
- Hemp seeds
- Peanut butter
- Shredded unsweetened coconut
- Dates
- Sunflower seed butter
- Almond butter
- Tahini
Baking Items
- Corn starch
- Cornmeal
- All-purpose flour
- Bread flour
- Whole wheat flour
- Brown sugar - light and dark
- White sugar
- Powdered sugar
- Pearl sugar (for leige waffles!)
- Maple syrup
- Honey
- Raisins
- Vanilla extract
- Active dry yeast
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Applesauce
- Cocoa powder
- Chocolate chips
Sauces & Condiments & Miscellaneous
- Worcestershire sauce
- Thai red curry paste
- Harissa
- Mustard - yellow and dijon
- Ketchup
- Relish
- Mayonnaise
- Miso
- BBQ sauce
- Chili garlic sauce
- Hummus
- Nutritional yeast
- Sriracha
- Hot sauce
- Salsa
- Soy sauce or liquid aminos
- Nori seaweed
- Kombu seaweed
- Dulse seaweed
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