Five Foods That Are Always in My Pantry
Rounding out this mini-series of what is always in this dietitian’s kitchen brings the topic of the five foods in my pantry.
The pantry is a catch-all that can have a lot of things that are infrequently used relative to others. Examples include baking items like baking soda, baking powder, vanilla extract, different sugars, baking chocolate/cocoa, and flour. In addition, biscuit mix, tea bags, herbs and spices, condiments, and other staples are there but not used weekly or even monthly.
However, like my list for the fridge and freezer, there are just some foods used several times a week, if not daily.
Here are five foods you will always find in my pantry.
PEANUT BUTTER
No question that this is a staple food in my home. My son ate peanut butter almost daily when he was younger (I ate it when I was pregnant), and my husband and I still eat it nearly daily.
What am I using peanut butter for? Usually as a quick snack straight from the jar with a spoon. Seriously. It is something to have between meals when there is still an hour before dinner.
We may make a sandwich, but not that often. So instead, it is used in cooking, mixed with cooked oatmeal, spread on graham crackers, or a cocoa rice cake. It can also go into a smoothie.
And with past food recalls, I get very antsy about not having the peanut butter I preferred. So, I will compromise on which one is in there, but it is always in there. Always.
OATMEAL
People often assume I have steel-cut oats. Nope. I get the box of Quaker oats from where else, Costco. I believe it is the 10-minute cook kind; I don’t know. Maybe it is 5 minutes. Even though I have oats nearly every day, I don’t always cook them.
The most common use is adding ¼ cup of uncooked oats to my smoothie. I’ve been doing this for well over ten years.
Next is a toss-up on whether I make overnight oats or have them cooked. I do a make-ahead method of ½ cup of oats, nuts, dried fruit (like raisins, craisins, or both), chia seeds, and flax seed. I will sometimes add some shredded coconut. I will do this mix/concoction in 3-5 mason jars or reusable containers and place them back in the pantry. Then depending on the season, I will do overnight oats by adding 1 cup of milk (lactose-free milk or vanilla soy milk) and place it in the fridge overnight. In the cooler months, when I do not want a smoothie or cold oats, I add the milk in the morning and microwave for two minutes.
On occasion, I make baked oatmeal or pan-fried oatmeal from my cookbook. The baked oatmeal was a great thing to make on Thanksgiving morning to hold everyone over until the mid-afternoon dinner. I also make granola a few times a year.
CANNED BEANS
This one varies, but I always have at least two types of canned beans in the pantry. The most commonly found there are pinto beans, garbanzo beans (aka chickpeas), and black beans.
These are my go-to ingredients to add to recipes that could use more protein.
And yes, canned beans are just fine. I mostly drain and rinse them even when I purchase the low-sodium or no added salt version.
And people who say to “only shop the perimeter” are missing out.
While it is part of the baking stash of foods, these are also snack foods. The type will vary occasionally, but the usual is peanuts or mixed nuts for snacking.
There are also walnuts, pecans, and almonds. These go into the oats mentioned above in the overnight or cooked oats and the granola. However, a handful provides a quick snack, protein, fiber, and healthy fats.
Even if the kinds of nuts vary, they are always in there and eaten several times a week. They don’t require a spoon to eat either.
CARNATION BREAKFAST ESSENTIALS (aka Carnation Instant Breakfast)
Yes, another Costco purchase. The yellow box of breakfast drinks has been part of our pantry since the mid-90s.
While I don’t always have them daily, they are in regular rotation.
Participating in competitive endurance activities regularly (running, cycling, triathlon) made this an essential part of the recovery drink. Teammates and others would spend hundreds of dollars on specialty protein and recovery supplements/beverages. I bought a box of 40 serving for less than $15 this month. And because this is a food and not a supplement, the likelihood of this having heavy metals or other contaminants in it. Protein powders are supplements, and it is not uncommon to have heavy metal contaminants in the supplements.
These are also multi-vitamins in food form (you still need to mix them with milk). When I was in undergraduate school and had to do the diet analysis, this would be the best source of my vitamins and minerals (I didn’t have the best diet in college – just like most people).
There are other items I wanted to include here, including coffee (consumed daily) and canned fish like tuna and sardines (consumed monthly, maybe). But the coffee (whole bean) seems just apparent, and we don’t eat the fish so much that I would remember to buy it if I ran out.
I hope you enjoyed this mini-series of what is in my fridge, freezer, and pantry. Share your staple foods.
Others in this series:
