What Lives in YOUR Pantry?

I don’t know about you, but I have fallen down the rabbit hole this last week. I can barely tell the days apart and meals are largely made up of holiday leftovers. On top of that, our oldest daughter has begun a DIY bathroom makeover, which means I am doing a bathroom makeover, too.

Needless to say, I have not been creative in the kitchen too much this week. I have relied on pantry staples, which lead me to the idea of sharing my pantry essentials with you.

Now this is, of course, extremely personal for each home cook, and entirely different from house to house. But there are some items I try to keep on hand to be able to pull together family favorites.

One of the main things I always keep on hand is canned tomatoes. I keep plenty of cans of petite diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomato paste.

These items are foundational ingredients for soups and chilis, pasta and pizza sauce, or more exotic fare like Chicken Tikka Masala. You will notice in my photo, that I almost always buy low sodium or no salt added options. This is a personal preference, as most often my recipes will call for adding more spices and flavor later.

Another constant on my pantry shelves are canned beans – black, chick pea and usually kidney beans. These provide protein for many recipes on their own, or accompanied by meat, like in chicken chili. Chick peas are on hand to whip up some homemade hummus.

Soups are a mainstay for the winter months, so I also keep stock on hand – lots of chicken, a box or two of beef broth and usually at least one vegetable stock. With some vegetable stock on hand, you can always substitute it for chicken stock and whip up something like minestrone soup for your vegetarian friends.

I also stock grains and pastas that can be embellished and turned into a quick and satisfying meal like Shrimp Primavera.

I also keep some guilty pleasures on hand, like ramen noodles. We love to add veggies and fried eggs to ramen and serve it along with potstickers or egg rolls.

Keeping your pantry organized is the key to using things in a timely manner. I know this firsthand, as the same girl who is painting a bathroom currently first reorganized my pantry and found some long-forgotten items.

Katie helped clean things up but I would love to get some shelf organizers from Amazon, like these lovelies.

Maybe I can stay more organized in the new year, but for now, we need to finish the DIY project we already started, and keep working through the pantry food we have on hand.

I hope you are off to a great start in this new year and I would love to know what lives in your pantry.

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