I’m talking about my favorite pantry staples! These include the items that keep our kitchen up and running on the regular! When you have a well stocked pantry, you are better prepared! You can zip in and out of the grocery store with ease, sticking to the perimeter during your weekly visit, simply shopping for fresh produce, herbs, clean protein, & frozen items. A stocked pantry saves me so much time and energy!
Here are the pantry items that I think are worth their weight in gold!
Let’s Start With Oil
Chosen Foods Avocado Oil is my right hand man in the kitchen so I make sure to always have an extra bottle. I’m an avocado lover {Yay heart healthy fat!}, and I think it’s so versatile. With a high smoke point, avocado oil is best used for high heat cooking and baking as well as in dressings and sauces.
My second favorite is Vital Farms Himalayan Pink Salt Ghee. It’s what I use as a replacement for butter on the daily! It’s pasture raised, clean and so versatile. I use it for cooking eggs, sauteing veggies, and baking. I slap it on the kids’ Birch Benders Paleo waffles, melt it over quinoa, pasta or rice and blend it for a “buttered coffee”.
I also love Organic Triple Filtered Coconut Oil from Trader Joe’s. It’s awesome! The coconut flavor isn’t very strong, so it doesn’t overpower like other coconut oils I’ve tried. I use it in my coffee or tea and for baking. For dressings and low heat cooking I use California Olive Ranch Extra Virgin Olive Oil. The olives are cold pressed creating a delicate flavor.
Wild Planet Wild Caught Salmon, Tuna and Chicken
Buy all three varieties!! These are my savior for quick, delicious, weekday lunches! They are shelf stable, portable and create a nutrient dense meal in minutes! You can find my favorite way to use Wild Planet here and here
Eden Foods Organic Beans
I love using Eden Organic Kidney Beans in my chili recipes and on taco night! Eden Organic Beans are the best y’all!! They are Organic, Non-GMO & PBA free. I stock black, chick pea (for hummus!) pinto, lentils and white beans. **Eden Organic washes, soaks, sprouts and pressure cooks all of their beans before they are canned! This process inactivates the lectins making the beans easier to digest! They are the only brand of beans & lentils I will buy!!!
Use Eden Beans to make my Turkey Chili.
Cucina Organic Ketchup
So I could totally live without ketchup, but my kids adore it! They like it with chicken, chicken sausage, eggs and they like it with hot dogs and burgers. It’s a total pantry staple! I love Cucina because it’s Gluten Free, Non-GMO and made of all organic ingredients. Plus it tastes delicious! Speaking of Tomatoes I also regularly stock Rao’s Homemade Tomato Basil Sauce and Muir Glen Canned Tomatoes (both crushed and whole peeled tomatoes). I also like to keep Organic canned Crimini mushrooms on had to easily add to marinara sauces, tacos or stir fry!
Coconut Aminos
It tastes delicious and is an amazing replacement for sodium rich soy sauce! I love to marinade our steaks and fish with it. I use it for rice, kelp noodle and grain bowls. I even mix it in salad dressings and sauces! Trader Joe’s makes a delish version too.
I used it last week for this lunch!
Grains
I’m never without Sprouted, gluten free, organic oats. They are a baking staple, and the kids really enjoy oatmeal for breakfast at least once a week! You can also quickly blend oats for oat flour! I only buy One Degree because sprouting makes them easier to digest and I usually don’t take the time to soak/sprout myself.
Simple Mills Pancake Mix is a Saturday morning savior! The kids really love it and it whips up light and fluffy pancakes so easily! I do add 1-2 TB of Coconut flour to the mix to make them extra fluffy! Birch Benders Mix is another pancake mix favorite. I love to use it as a base for muffins as seen in My favorite Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe, and here!
Moving on to lunch! Try Trader Joe’s Quinoa pasta! The kids love it with peas or broccoli and a little melted ghee! It’s also yummy cold in an adult pasta salad! For basic quinoa I go with Eden Foods Organic Quinoa. Quinoa is a complete protein with the best amino acid profile of all grains. It’s rich in magnesium, a good source of fiber, thiamin B1, vitamin B6, and folate B9. Plus it’s technically a seed so it’s naturally gluten free.
For an easy white rice I stock Tasty Bite Organic Rice. It’s the perfect size portion for my kids to split and I can add as a side to their dinner plate in literally 1 minute!
If you have kids, you are stocking mac and cheese, right? I stock these versions by Annie’s Homegrown. Quinoa Rice Pasta & Gluten Free Rice Pasta & Cheddar. Both are gluten free and my kids don’t notice a difference between these and the Classic version. **I only use about 1/4 of the cheddar pack just to give the mac an orange color then I mix with ghee and milk to create a creamy consistency. I also top with fresh parm, which the kids really enjoy!
My family cannot function without Siete Grain Free Taco Shells. We LOVE tacos over here and I’m so very thankful for this local #ATX brand turned national sensation! Siete taco shells save dinner for me at least once a week! The kids love how they keep their taco fillings in tact, and I love that they are Non GMO, Dairy Free, Soy Free, Grain Free, and Paleo!
Siete Grain Free Tortilla chips are a staple in our pantry as well!
Nuts Seeds & Dried Fruit
Cosco and Trader Joe’s are your #1 for stocking organic nuts, nut butters, seeds and dried fruit. I always look for one ingredient items with no additives, oils or added sugar!!
For dried fruit I regularly stock organic dried mango, dried unsweetened cherries, organic raisins, organic dates, banana chips, organic coconut flakes, DANG coconut chips, Cacao Nibs, dried apples, BARE apple chips, organic unsweetened applesauce & goji berries.
For nuts, I regularly stock almonds, walnuts, pine nuts (for pesto!), pumpkin seeds and flax seeds.
For nut butters I typically stock Macadamia Nut Butter, Sunflower Butter and Almond Butter. But sometimes I switch it up. I try to look for raw and sprouted! As mentioned with regards to beans and grains, sprouting is the practice of germinating seeds — (whether grains, nuts, beans, legumes) — so they are easier to digest and your body can access their full nutritional profile!!
It’s also a good idea to stock some shelf stable milk items! It’s a savior post vacation, or when you haven’t been to the store and there isn’t a fresh option in the fridge!
Canned Organic Coconut Milk . It’s great for baking, for smoothies, as a base for homemade coffee creamer or dairy free whipped cream! For Non-Dairy Coffee Creamer I stock Nutpods or Laird. I love Laird Superfood Non Dairy Coffee Creamer because there are no fillers or additives and it’s made with Aquamin, a mineral-rich, calcified sea algae that adds beneficial minerals to your morning! It also travels really well!!
My favorite coffee beans are Bullet Proof The Original Whole Bean. I love the flavor, but even more so I love that the beans are clean, tested for toxins (particularly mold–which I’m allergic too) and Bullet Proof Coffee is Rainforest Alliance Certified.
I also love the shelf stable oat milk at Trader Joe’s! There are only 2 ingredients, water and oats!
Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides
I’m never without Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides! I don’t even travel without it thanks to these On The Go packets!!!!
I use Collagen Peptides in my coffee or tea, in my baking recipes, in pancakes and in smoothies. It’s undetectable, great for gut health, provide join support, and a super easy way to add protein into your diet and the diets of your kids!
Speaking of collagen, I highly recommend you store some shelf stable, preservative free Bone Broth! If you need to whip up a nourishing soup for a sick kiddo last minute, you know you always have a good base on hand!
I’m a big fan of Fond Bone Broth. It’s a local Austin brand that you can buy at HEB!. My favorite flavor is the Turmeric Thyme Black Pepper, but really all of the flavors are delish! If you aren’t in Austin, it’s also available online!
Kids Snacks
This section of our pantry is constantly evolving based on new products and my kids’ ever changing preferences!
Knowing that our kids get a fair amount of sugar at birthday parties, restaurants, classroom parties and sporting activities I really try to keep sugary snacks low in our home. Holiday’s are an exception but today I’m talking “every day” snacks.
We love Made Good Products, Especially the chocolate chip granola bars! The bars are organic, gluten free, nut free with added antioxidants + delish! Hooray!
If nuts aren’t a problem we also like the original Larabars. The ingredients are super clean and they are only sweetened with dates! **the new Lara protein bars have cane sugar so we stay away from those! If you want to make your own Energy Bites in minutes, try Creation Nation No Bake Energy Bites. Zia and I have so much fun with these! Here’s chef Zia getting her PB&J Energy Bites mixed up! 🙂
I’ve stayed away from purchasing Annie’s gummies since the summer. (They became to be a problem!) To satisfy the kids’ “gummy” craving I buy fruit strips. We love the fruit strips at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods the best.
For salty we love plain ole plantain chips, beet chips, dehydrated veggie chips & Siete Chips Ground Up Cauliflower Based Snacks are winners as well! The pretzel sticks are a favorite, but really we mix it up a lot with all of the varieties! Lesser Evil is another brand we love! I’m partial to the organic popcorn with pink salt, but the kids really love the paleo puffs!
Happy Pantry Shopping!!
What are your favorite pantry staples? I’d love to know! Share them with us in your comments below!
