Cora's Cottage

Cooking can be stressful, especially cooking from scratch, but that stress can be combated by keeping some staple ingredients on hand in your pantry and freezer.

Want to whip up a quick dessert to go with dinner? — Of course because all the ingredients are in the pantry!

Having unexpected company and need to feed extra people? — Your pantry and freezer has you covered!

Want to skip the grocery store this week because it’s been jam packed with activities?? — No problem; everything you need is on your shelves already!

Tailoring your pantry to a meal plan can create overwhelm because you have to have specific ingredients, sometimes even speciality ingredients you only use once, but having a pantry tailored to a flexible cook-from-scratch framework can bring joy back into your kitchen.  Using a framework that allows you to plug and play ingredients into your recipes brings the freedom to only grocery shop once a week (or less!) while still having all the ingredients you need to make a nutritious meal.

Grains and Starches

I include some type of grain or starch in nearly all our meals.  Some of my most used are rice, noodles, and potatoes. These three items are easy to prepare and store well for longer periods of time under the right conditions. 

Rice and noodles both lend themselves well to buying in bulk and potatoes do as well when stored in a cool, dark place. Not only do theses items store well, they are quick and easy to make to bulk up a meal. 

Additionally, they can be made in a variety of different ways to switch it up add cheese or spices to any of them or fry the rice or potatoes instead of boiling them on the stove.  The options can truly be limitless.

Some of my favorite recipes including noodles and potatoes are spaghetti, shepherd’s pie, and this spicy Italian skillet.

Flour

Flour is the base for so many different recipes from breads to desserts.  Having flour on hand can make it simple to whip up a batch of biscuits to go on top of a pot pie or to thicken a gravy to go with mashed potatoes.

While flour needs to be stored in a cool, dark, airtight container, it can be stored for 6 months to a year in the right conditions and depending on the type of flour used.  However, if you are concerned about flour losing its nutrients over time, you can always store grains and mill your own flour as you need it.

Some of my favorite desserts include cinnamon rolls and oatmeal white chocolate chip cookies.

Herbs and Spices

Herbs and spices are a great thing to keep in your pantry, and even to buy in bulk.  Keeping herbs and spices allows you to season any dish to your family’s liking at the drop of a hat. 

Buying herbs and spices in bulk allows you to make your own blends to fit your needs.  For example, you can custom blend a breakfast sausage season, Italian  season, pumpkin spice, taco seasoning, steak seasoning and many more.  The options are limitless when you blend your own!

A good starter list to keep on hand to make your own spice blends includes (*my personal favorites)

• Salt*
• Pepper*
• Granulated Onion*
• Granulated Garlic*
• Cayenne
• Paprika
• Cumin
• Chili Powder
• Turmeric
• Ginger*
• Crushed Red Pepper Flakes*
• Thyme*
• Rosemary
• Oregano*
• Cilantro
• Parsley
• Basil*
• Sage
• Fennel Seeds
• Dill
• Bay Leaves
• Cinnamon
• Allspice
• Cloves
• Nutmeg

Recipes that are full of good herbs and spices that are favorites in our house include pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, and lasagna.

Sweeteners

Having at least one type of sweetener on hand is essential in a from-scratch kitchen.  The most obvious choice is sugar (my favorite is unrefined cane sugar), but there are a variety of others. Honey and maple syrup are favorites in our house for sweetening things like overnight oats, protein balls, and several different cookie varieties. 

Sugar and maple syrup both keep well when stored in a cool, dark place, however, honey tends to crystallize when stored for longer periods of time.  While this is frustrating, it is a simple fix with just some hot water and a small heavy bottom sauce pan.

Conversions from one sweetener to another can often be found online.  One of my most used swaps is honey for granulated sugar.  Generally, I can use about half as much honey by volume as I would sugar. 

For example, if a recipe calls for one cup of sugar, I would use 1/2 cup of honey instead.

A sweet treat that is often enjoyed for our family are cinnamon rolls!

Quality Fat

Quality fats are important for both cooking and baking in recipes that call for oil.  Some top options would be tallow, lard, butter or ghee, coconut oil and avocado or olive oil. 

When choosing fats it it’s important to source high quality fats, especially with olive oil as there are many on the market that claim to be high quality but are diluted or rancid.

When cooking in a fat, lard is one of my favorites, while I like avocado or olive oil for spraying down pans and using in recipes in place of vegetable oil.

 Instead of using Crisco, I have swapped in lard for a healthier fat option, and I use room temperature butter on bread instead of margarine.

A couple of recipes that use quality fats include butter cookies and apple turnovers.

Quality Protein

While all the sides and desserts are great, no meal is complete without some quality protein. Sourcing quality protein is important and it can often be cheaper per pound when bought in larger quantities (1/4 beef, 1/2 hog, etc.).

When buying larger quantities of an animal, there will often be cuts that are harder to learn to cook with such as organs or flank steaks. This is the perfect opportunity to research recipes and use what you have on hand or to “hide” certain cuts.

One way I hide liver is to grind it and mix it in with ground meat.  My family is still getting the nutrients without having to taste the liver.

Some of the different types of meats I often cook with include:

• Beef
  • Steaks
  • Ground
  • Roasts
  • Ribs
  • Soup Bones
• Pork
  • Chops
  • Ground
  • Hams
  • Roasts
  • Bacon/fresh side(uncured bacon)
• Chicken
  • Whole
  • Thighs
  • Breasts
• Fish
  • Salmon
  • Shrimp
• Wild Game
  • Deer
  • Goose
  • Duck

Other meats that can be kept on hand include

• Lamb
• Elk
• Goat
• Rabbit
• Various types of fish

Family favorites with these quality proteins include Sloppy Joe’s, smothered burrito casserole, and chili.

While there are lots of other items that could be kept on hand in a from-scratch kitchen, these items will get you a good start. 

As you learn and grow in the kitchen and find what your family’s tastes and preferences are, you can add additional items such as dried beans, frozen vegetables and fruit, and oats among others.

Just because you are cooking from scratch doesn’t mean you can’t keep a variety of things on hand, in fact that is one of the benefits of cooking from scratch: lots of things keep well for long periods of time when stored properly so you can have a variety without worrying about having food spoil. 

To follow along and keeping getting more recipes, tips and tricks, and how-tos to cut out harmful ingredients from your life and become more self- and community-sufficient; subscribe to get my blogs straight to your inbox!