I’ve been doing up my grocery shopping list and it occured to me that there are several items that I always get, things that I just couldn’t live without.
Examples:
Milk
Eggs
Butter
Coconut Milk
Rice
Garlic
So what food (or beverage) item is your kitchen not complete without?
hmmmmm…
mine begins like yours, with milk, eggs, & margarine.
I also use 5 lbs of sugar a week - making sweet tea & koolaid for my son’s thirsty thirsty friends. I betcha they drink 7 gallons of tea a week. They are also crazy about chicken tenders. Each week I get the big bag of frozen chicken tenders.
For my cooking & baking, some staples I like to keep on hand are: flour (both plain and self-rising), corn bread mix, shortening, frozen bread dough (you caught me!), shredded cheese & tortillas.
Which reminds me, we’re out of sugar. I gotta go Kroger-ing!
coffee
olive oil
pasta
garlic
water
fresh fruit
olives
parmigiano cheese
We go to the grocery everyday, picked up the habit in Italy as the grocery was across from the house. Now the grocery is two blocks from the metro nearest the apartment so I pick Hubby up there and we pick up dinner and whatever we need then.
As we are now dieting and/or trying to eat better a lot of former staples no longer make it into the house.
Either vegemite or marmite. Can run out of one, but not the other!
Olive oil
Flour
Sugar
Salt
Baking powder and soda
Yeast
Quick oats
Rice
Canned, diced tomatoes
Potatoes
Pasta
Onions
Carrots
Celery
Butter
Milk, both 2% and whole
eggs
coffee, coffee filters & spicy V-8
I hear Australians talk about these and sing their praises (sometimes literally) all the time, but what exactly are they, and what do they taste like?
Marmite and vegemite are yeast extract spreads; they taste very salty, but they also have a intensely strong sort of ‘meaty’ aroma and taste - like the golden coloured chewy/crispy bits that are found in the bottom of a roasting pan after cooking a chicken, or like the crystallised soy sauce that accumulates around the rim of the bottle, something along those lines.
The products are usually eaten as a spread (on buttered toast) or as a sandwich filling, but they can be used as ingredients in their own right - to enrich gravy, sauces and casseroles.
Anyway, My list
Flour
Onions
Red pepper
Olive oil
Chicken stock
Mushrooms
Garlic
Lemons
I forgot:
Paprika
Mature Cheddar cheese
Mustard
Milk
Fat Free Yogurt
Fresh Fruit
Vegetables - canned, frozen, fresh - whatever, always need it
Susan
…which goes great with the Spicy V-8 and some crusty sour dough bread.
::koee ambles off to the kitchen::
I always keep a couple tins of anchovies in the cupboard in case I get a frozen pizza.
Since my goal is to have enough in my pantry to last quite awhile, the list is long and includes many staples. But I’ll have to put in
Zatarain’s red beans and rice mix
Creative Grains’ roasted garlic bulgur (or as we call it, “stuff”)
couscous
and most of what everyone else has listed.
I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned cream of mushroom soup - the mother of many casseroles.
Also, canned tuna, tomato sauce, tomato paste and various Zatarain’s things like red beans and rice. Oh yeah, and regular rice - usually plain-jane Calrose and sometimes jasmine. (The kind that goes in a rice cooker, as opposed to “instant”)
(When you say “pantry” I think of stuff that sits happily on the shelf for how ever many months, rather than perishables like milk and eggs.
We have the same list!
Only things I must add are
melanzana and zucchini.
Peanut Butter!
Actually, there are none that I can’t do without. As a bacheler it is common for me to have almost nothing at all to eat in the house.
Many of the above but the one thing I will not be without is family sized tea bags for preparing the eternal tea pitcher.
Things I always have in the house:
Milk
Juice, usually OJ or grapefruit
Olive oil
Some kind of cheese (usually Cheddar and/or parmesan)
Various canned tomato producs (crushed, sauce, paste, etc.)
At least a couple of kinds of beans, both canned and dry
Tuna
Eggs
Baking staples (flour, sugar, yeast, baking soda)
Coffe/tea
Various herbal teas, although I don’t go through them quickly
enough to need to buy some every trip
Pasta
Onions
Garlic
Fruits/veggies in season (dpeends on what looks good)
I almost never buy processed foods.