Cooking From Your Pantry

Cooking from your pantry is a great way to get quick and easy meals on the table, even on the busiest nights when you would normally be tempted to order take out or stop at a drive through window.

Feeding your family at home can be easy to do if you stock your pantry well.

Anything that you pull out of your pantry - even if it is just a box of spaghetti and a jar of sauce, is healthier and less expensive than fast food.

Let me show you how to stock up on the foods that your family uses regularly, what to stock up on and what to avoid, and how to prepare a healthy, delicious meal for your family any night of the week simply by cooking from your pantry.

The Well-Stocked Pantry

Cooking from your pantry requires that you have a stock of ingredients on hand at all times. That doesn't mean that you should go to the grocery store and buy everything that is on sale. Here are some basic rules to keep in mind when it comes to stocking your pantry:

• Stock up when items are on sale. Keep an eye out for sales on items that you use frequently and stock up at the sale price.

• Use common sense when stocking your pantry. If you use an item regularly, at least once per week or more, buy as many as you can. If you use the item only once per month, buy six. For items that you use less than once per month, two will be plenty. Remember, you want your pantry to be well-stocked, but not over-stuffed.

• Do not be tempted by a great sale on an item that you do not normally use. Stick to items you use frequently when it comes to stocking up. If an item that you have never used before intrigues you, buy one to find out if your family likes it before stocking up on it.

• Avoid cluttering your pantry. Your pantry follows the same rules as your house - you can only store what you have room for. Anything more than that is clutter. Stock your pantry as well as you can within the amount of space that you have.

Here is a top ten list of pantry staples. This list is a great starting point because it works with any budget, any cooking style and the items are readily available in any grocery store.

With these items on hand, you will have a great base for cooking from your pantry. Start with this list and add to it, based on your family's likes and dislikes, to create your own personal list of pantry staples.

• extra virgin olive oil
• dried herbs and spices
• dried pasta
• rice
• beef/chicken/vegetable broth
• condensed soups
• canned beans
• canned tomatoes
• liquid condiments (Worcestershire sauce, hot pepper sauce, etc.)
• spaghetti sauce

For more information about why these pantry staples are so versatile, read 10 Pantry Staples to Make Quick Cooking Taste Like All Day Cooking.

In addition to your frequently used staples it is also a good idea to have a few luxury items on hand. Things like grainy mustard, jarred pestos and specialty ethnic ingredients can add a special touch to any meal. Buy one of each and replace it as soon as you use it. There is really no need to stock up on luxury items. They are expensive and, chances are, you will not use them nearly as often as your staples.

Now all you need is some quick easy dinner recipes using these staple ingredients and preparing dinner for your family will be a breeze.

Keeping Your Pantry Stocked and Organized

Now that you have your pantry stocked, you will need to keep it running smoothly. You will need a method to keep track of what you have and what you need to replenish. You should also organize your pantry so that you can easily access what you need when you need it.

Here are some tips to keep that well-stocked pantry functional and organized to make cooking from your pantry easy:

• At the beginning of each new year, when you are adding birthdays and anniversaries to your household calendar, add the dates you will purge your pantry. Do this at least twice per year and prevent your pantry from housing expired or unwanted items.

• Place a list of pantry staples on the back of the pantry door. A dry-erase board works well for this. Use the letter "x" to show how many of each item you have. Each time you use an item, erase an "x". You will be able to see at-a-glance, how many of each item you have in your pantry. Your checklist would look something like this:

• Arrange the items in your pantry from least to most often used. Put the least used items in the back and the most often used item within easy reach in the front of the pantry.

• Take advantage of the vertical space you have in your pantry by stacking things. Place lesser used items on the bottom and stack more frequently used items on top of them.

• Purchase a set of stackable food storage containers to use for items that come in large or bulky packages. Transfer the food to storage containers and you will be able to stack it all up and keep it fresh at the same time.

Getting Through the Week

Now that you have your pantry stocked and a system in place for keeping it that way, feeding your family healthy and delicious meals with ingredients you have on hand will be a snap.

When you are doing your weekly menu planning, choose meals that can be prepared using the 80/20 rule: 80% ingredients from your pantry and 20% fresh fruits, vegetables, protein and herbs that you buy each week - that is what cooking from your pantry is all about.

You will find that your weekly grocery bill will be much lower on weeks that you are not purchasing staples. Even when your grocery bill is slightly higher because you are stocking up on staples, over the long-term you will be saving money because you will be purchasing those staples at a lower sale price.

Cooking from your pantry, when done right, is a great way to feed your family.