How Healthy is Your Pantry?

Your pantry should be the go-to part of your kitchen for preparing meals, but often your pantry looks more like the snack aisle of your local grocery store than it does a healthy place to search for food. Find out how healthy your pantry is, and how you can make your pantry healthier.

How many snacks do you have in your pantry? If your pantry is full of chips, popcorn (microwave), cookies, candy, etc, then your pantry is more of a party pantry than anything else. If the snacks in your pantry take up more than half a shelf, then you aren't keeping as healthy a pantry as you could be.

Does your pantry have food items to prepare meals, or pre-packaged meals that you simply have to heat up? If your pantry is full of Top Ramen, cans of soup, or Hamburger Helpers rather than pasta and spaghetti sauce and staples to prepare meals rather than already-made meals, then your pantry could use a lift. Yes, you should always have the quick go-to meals in your pantry, but that shouldn't be all that is in there. Ready-made meals should be less than half of what is in your pantry.

Breakfast food, what's in your pantry? Healthy oatmeal or hot cereal, pancake mix? Or is it sugary cold cereal that is more like candy you pour milk all over? If your breakfast section of the pantry contains just cereal boxes, unless they are healthy cereals, like Cheerios, then mix it up a little bit with other healthy alternatives.

Toss out the soda, sugary cereals, high sodium or fat snacks and soups, and other items that are taking up space in your pantry but shouldn't be. Replace these items (or a majority of them) with the pantry items that you do need, like canned tuna, veggies and fruits, spices and baking items (like flour). Your pantry will quickly become a go-to for meal making rather than a place to search for snacks.

The pantry standbys like rice, dried pasta, powdered milk, broth for soup and gravy, flour, etc should take up the majority of your pantry. If these items (that you have to make meals out of, like canned fruit or veggies or dried beans) take up less than half of your pantry, then you need to give your pantry a makeover. Your pantry is the meal representative of your house, so the healthier your pantry is, the healthier your meals are, and the healthier overall you will be.

Sources:

my guilty pantry

http://www.webmd.com/diet/healthy-kitchen-11/best-worst-foods