Your Pantry: The Items You Always Need

A healthy pantry is a well-stocked pantry, which means your pantry contains items that you can both readily eat and items that will stick around for a while without going bad or stale. With winter fast approaching and the urge to stock up 'just in case' instinctively strong, learn the items you absolutely must have in your pantry at all times. When that huge storm takes over your town, you'll be glad you don't have to hit the grocery store to come up with some dinner items.

Canned tuna fish is a must-have at all times in your pantry, for a few reaons. It's relatively cheap, it's healthy, it lasts a long time, and guess what? Tuna fish is an easy-fix meal. Tuna noodle casserole, tuna melts, or just a classic tuna salad- with tuna fish canned and ready to go in your cupboard, so long as you have tuna, you are good to go. As a bonus, it serves as a quick meal for your cat or dog when their own food supply is getting low.

Never run out of low-sodium canned soups (including cream soups), tomato sauce, instant rice, and pasta (preferably whole wheat). Lemme tell ya, you can make an entire meal out of canned soup (I once made a family-sized pot pie with a can of cream of potato soup and biscuit mix) and a few other essentials. Besides being among the cheaper staples to make a meal out of (a can of spaghetti sauce and a pack of noodles feeds 6 easily for less than $5), these items last a long time and are versatile for even the most basic cook. Cream of mushroom soup mixed with rice makes a hearty casserole on the cheap.

My family used to literally live on potatoes (hey, we are Idahoans after all...). While for us all it takes is a trip to the local fiels to get our spuds, it's not the only reason our pantry is always full of huge potatoes. Potatoes in your pantry can last for months so long as they are kept dry and you pull out the sprouters and rotters now and then, but a baked potato, french fries, hash browns, or mashed potatoes are only a peel away when you want them. Potatoes are a super vegetable to always have in the pantry.

Dried beans should always be in the pantry, because in a pinch they can be turned into refried beans, a soup filler, a side dish, or added to any dish to fill it up. Just like rice makes a great pantry item because it's cheap and versatile, the same can be said for dried beans (add peas to that pantry too, if you'd like). Dried beans can and will come in super handy when you need them, and won't take up too much space nor go bad.

Peanut butter scarcely goes bad (see Can Peanut Butter Go Rotten? ) and can make cheap sandwiches when a snack or quick on-the-go meal is needed. Put peanut butter on your pancake and you will never turn down peanut butter again! Speaking of pancakes, applesauce is another great pancake topper, so stock up on applesauce in your pantry. A cheap and long-lasting fruit source, and makes great baby food in a pinch.

Never run out of vegetable oil. Since vegetable oil (and pancake syrup, for that matter) can be purchased in bulk and gets used often, don't run out. When you need oil, you need oil, and running out is no fun. Same goes for the syrup- when you need it, you need it. Since bulk is cheaper, it doesn't hurt to stay stocked up.

Personally, I would also add to always keep powdered milk in your pantry. Cheap, beneficial, and decent for cooking, you'll be glad you have it. Oatmeal or a hot cereal is great in your pantry at all times for those days where you can't cook breakfast (and these last longer than cold cereals do), and always have canned tomatoes in your pantry. Canned tomatoes can make all the difference between having a great pasta meal (or yummy rice dish) and scratching your head as to what to make. Oh, and though I hate to admit it, mac-and-cheese is a staple as well (offbrand is just fine), as are canned pastas like ravioli or Spaghettios. You never know when you need them.

Sources:

stocking my pantry

http://www.webmd.com/diet/healthy-kitchen-11/slideshow-pantry-staples