Pantry Tour

Ladies and Gen­tle­men, today we are tak­ing a field trip…into my pantry! (I know, I know…a safari would have been more fun, I’ll work on get­ting some giraffes). One of the ques­tions I’m asked most fre­quent­ly is which brands I use and how I stock my pantry, so I’m always ready to whip up a meal in a jiffy.

I often hear from clients that they don’t keep things on hand for them­selves, because their dietary needs are dif­fer­ent from their spouse or room­mates. It’s absolute­ly pos­si­ble to stock a pantry for mul­ti­ple dietary needs, as my hus­band and I couldn’t be more dif­fer­ent in the way we eat. For brevi­ty sake, I’m a gluten/­grain/­dairy/­soy-free, low-residue veg­e­tar­i­an (say that five times fast). My hus­band? He eats pret­ty much anything.

So…what are our sta­ples and absolute must haves in our pantry?

First and fore­most, let me be sure to men­tion that I do not have any affil­i­a­tions with the brands I have show­cased. All thoughts and opin­ions are pure­ly my own. Sec­ond­ly, when choos­ing prod­ucts, I take a few things into consideration:

1. Ingre­di­ents – plain and sim­ple, what’s in it? Could I make it myself? Can I pro­nounce all of the ingredients?
2. Source – where was it made?
3. Organ­ic/Non-GMO – as much as pos­si­ble we aim for foods free from dyes and preser­v­a­tives, and grown/produced with­out genet­ic mod­i­fi­ca­tion of any kind
4. Price – while many of us would love to have the top of the line for all of our prod­ucts, it’s not finan­cial­ly fea­si­ble. I rely heav­i­ly on the bulk bins, local store brands like Weg­mans and Trad­er Joes, and dis­count clubs like Cost­co and Thrive Market.

Snacks

• Weg­mans Organ­ic Popcorn
• Trad­er Joe’s Organ­ic Blue Corn Chips
• Whole Foods 365 Organ­ic Wheat Squares
• Man­i­to­ba Har­vest Hemp Bites
• RxBars, Thun­der­bird bars, Juice Plus bars and Larabars
• Sim­ple Mills Almond Flour crackers

Cooking Staples

• Most grains, nuts, seeds, dried fruit and beans are pur­chased from the bulk bin and stored in mason jars (var­i­ous lentils, bar­ley, ama­ranth, mil­let, brown rice, dates, dried cran­ber­ries, almonds, cashews and sun­flower seeds)
• Cost­co Organ­ic Quinoa
• Wegman’s Organ­ic Broth
• Ancient Har­vest Quinoa Flakes
• Tin­kya­da Brown Rice Pasta

Canned and Bottled Goods

• Farmer’s Mar­ket Organ­ic But­ter­nut Squash and Pumpkin
• Thai Kitchen Coconut Milk
• Weg­mans Organ­ic Black Beans
• Brag­gs Apple Cider Vinegar
• Weg­mans Organ­ic Chunky Mari­nara Sauce

Baking

• Nuti­va Coconut Oil
• Nav­i­tas Nat­u­rals Cacao Powder
• Trad­er Joe’s Organ­ic Raw Honey
• Otto’s Cas­sa­va Flour
• Bob’s Red Mill Ultra Fine Almond Flour

Supplements and Smoothie Add-Ins

• Organ­ic India Turmer­ic Formula
• Juice Plus Gar­den and Orchard Blends
• Vega Chlorel­la Powder
• Ter­ra­soul Man­gos­teen, Acai, and Noni Powders

Tasty Treats

• Thrive Mar­ket Gin­ger Cubes
• Bur­dicks Choco­late Cacao Nibs
• Larabar Bites
• Nikki’s Coconut Butter
• Enjoy Life Choco­late Chips
• Mad­ha­va Coconut Sugar

So there you have it…a peek into my pantry! Do we have any of the same favorites? Could you guess what belonged to whom, and which items we can share?