Of course I have a stash of the must have foods. As long as I have the things shown here plus a few basic veggies and herbs I can always figure out how to cook a meal. Here’s my pantry
- On shelves 1,2 and 4 are glass jars full of
- beans – black, white, red, garbanzos, lentils and fava
- rice – black and brown
- grains – cornmeal, quinoa, buckwheat
- nuts – almonds. cashews, pecans
- seeds – sesame, chia, sunflower
- On Shelf 3 are jarred items:
- Oils
- prepared mustard
- salsa
- raisins
- honey
- minced garlic
- dried chopped onions
- On Shelf 5 are canned items:
- white kidney beans (most red ones are canned with sugar)
- diced tomatoes
- black beans
- garbanzo beans
- green chilies
- brown rice pasta – fusilli, penne and shells
In the fridge, freezer or stored in a cool dry place you will find:
- onions
- celery
- carrots
- spinach
- potatoes (either red, white or sweet)
- jar of lemon juice
- nut butter (almond is our favorite)
- ak-mak crackers or corn chips (preferably baked)
Finally, salt and pepper and a few dried herbs:
- basil
- thyme
- oregano and/or marjoram
- dried chipotle chilies
- bay leaf
- cinnamon
- nutmeg
Because we buy most of these items in bulk at either Costco or from various online sources the packages shown are very large. The good part is that a lot of this stuff only needs to be replaced every month or two (sometimes three). Just to be clear, we did not stock this pantry all a once! We, like most people, have a food budget. What we did was to just started adding a couple of things each time we shopped and before long we had a surprisingly full pantry with no damage to our budget!
During the summer our garden supplies all the fresh food except the potatoes. During the winter we buy either at Costco or by watching the paper for weekly specials and stocking up.
I could feed anyone tasty vegetarian or vegan food for a week just using these few items. And trust me, so could you!