Stock for food emergencies
When was the last time you checked your pantry? Do you even know what kinds of food you’ve stocked in it?
As we’re nearing Christmas and New Year’s Eve, many of my friends and clients are going to cook something special for their families. A holiday is a wonderful reason to celebrate and enjoy delicious dishes together with your loved ones.
Last week, we started looking into the fridge, giving it a good cleaning and getting rid of expired foods. Now, let’s check out your pantry.
A pantry doesn’t always need to be a separate room. You can recycle an antic armoire or even use a deeper bookshelf. What’s the best way to organise yours?
- Empty out your pantry.Take out the food stored in your pantry and clean each pantry shelf. This gives you a fresh start to a wonderful new pantry!
- Review all your food.What has expired and needs to be thrown out? What do you actually eat?
- Combine foods.If you’ve a couple of boxes of the same food opened, combine them in one container.
- Use the appropriate container. Clear closed containers are fantastic to see the content and the amount of dried foods while baskets work better for potatoes and onions. Choose your containers according to the required size, e.g. a large one for rice, if you frequently eat it and a small one for special dried herbs.
- Choose the right storage position. Not everything needs to be stored vertically. To save space, you can also lay cans horizontally.
- Create zones. Julie Morgenstern is a big proponent of putting like and like together in specific zones. One zone could be grains, another canned soups and the third one snacks.
- Label the zones. This way, everyone in your household will know where what belongs and you can quickly find what you’re looking for.
- Store food at the appropriate height. Heavy foods like potatoes or water bottles can be kept at the bottom. Food which you rarely use or sweets you like to keep out of reach can be placed at the top of your pantry.
Are you ready to get your pantry started but aren’t sure what to store? Basically anything dry can be stored in your pantry. Examples include:
- Canned foods like baked beans, tomatoes or fruit
- Dried beans, lentils, peas or the like
- Dry baking materials like flour, baking soda and sugar
- Oils and vinegars
- Pasta
- Potatoes and onions
- Rice, quinoa and other grains
- Snacks
- Spices
- Tea bags and coffee
- Water and juice bottles
What’s in your pantry? Are you all stocked up for a food emergency like a Friday night when you don’t want to go to the shops? Or the real emergency when you’re snowed in this winter? I’d love to hear what you normally have in yours! Just leave a message
Until next time,
Agni