5 Essential Pantry Items that Will Make Cooking a Cinch!

REAL FOOD prepping, cooking and eating  is made
A LOT easier when you have a few staples on hand.

Having a kitchen full of “ingredients”;
gives you flexibility to create a dish last minute,
gives you options to choose or change your recipe as needed, and
ensures nutrient dense choices are always available to fuel your family.

When you’ve always got these essential items on hand, you’ll always have
easy-delicious-budget friendly REAL FOOD meals
available when you need them.

 5 Essential Pantry Items for making
REAL FOOD EASY:

flour--I still prefer white flour for most of my baking, although I do have about 4 other kinds on hand at any given time.
White unbleached flour is my standard for bread, muffins, biscuits and tortillas.
Wondering what else I have?  Whole wheat, rye, buckwheat, rice…

canned beans–Chick pea, pinto, black bean, mixed–doesn’t matter, whatever kind you like!
I use canned a lot more than dry (…mostly because I NEVER remember the night before to take the dry out and soak them–how about you?)
They are so useful for making quick vegetarian meals and great for salads! Black Bean Salad, Chick Pea Tacos, Refried Beans

nuts and seeds — keep sunflower seeds, pepitos (pumpkin seeds), sesame seeds, flax seeds (ground and whole), and a couple of variety of nuts (almonds, cashews, walnuts or pecans) on hand.
Its a great way to add a little extra nutrition to baking or salads and they make a great snack!
You can easily grind them with your coffee grinder and add the “flour” to breads and muffins.

other legumes and grains –lentils, quinoa, barley, wheatberries, rice, oats…whatever floats your boat.
They are great for so many vegetarian dishes and are a great way to add extra nutrients to recipes!
Add red lentils to Turkey Soup, Spaghetti Sauce and Chili.
You can substitute quinoa for rice in many dishes and this Wheatberry Salad is amazing!

spices and herbs–Cumin, chili powder, thyme, mustard powder and cinnamon are my fave 5, but I always have a huge selection available.
**Keep them fresh and replace them when they get too old–they loose their pungency and any nutrient content if they are kept around too long (…so if you inherited any from your mother-in-law and the containers look the same as the one your Mom used to purchase in 1984, it’s probably time to ditch it!)
Buying herbs and spices at the bulk store is definitely the most economical way to purchase–you can buy in quantities that suit you and try a bunch of different varieties without breaking the bank.