This morning I woke up in a cleaning/organizing mood. I decided to not fight the feeling!
I started cleaning in the kitchen and threw away tons of junk in our pantry. I decided to share a few of my necessities....must haves in my kitchen pantry.
The obvious basic things are listed below. Once I run out of one of these things it automatically goes on my grocery list whether I need them for the weeks recipes or not.
salt
pepper
olive oil
flour
sugar
brown sugar
Bisquick
This rotisserie chicken seasoning is amazing. I love it for so many different reasons. The flavor is amazing. I typically use it on chicken, but I have seasoned red potatoes with it also. I like to thaw boneless skinless chicken breasts and marinate them in this seasoning over night before cooking the next day. Example: I thawed chicken thinking I was making cream cheese slow cooker chicken. We decided to switch up our meal plan for the night. I just tossed the thawed chicken into a baggie and thew in some rotisserie chicken seasoning. It sat in the fridge overnight and then the next day I tossed it into the slow cooker as planned!
Gary actually introduced me to Tony's. I love it and just as it says on the container it is great on everything. I like to marinade fish with it. I also use it to spice up fettuccine Alfredo.
I use cumin on everything. I really like the flavor of cumin in my slow cooker pinto beans.
Cumin is my BFF for any Mexican themed dish.
I love having Ranch seasoning on hand because you just never know when you will run out of bottled Ranch dressing. I mix a cup of mayo and milk and shake it up. It makes the best homemade ranch, and mixed with sour cream it is a great dip for fresh veggies. The kids love the flavor. I use one of these packets in my Santa Fe Stew recipe. I have been known to sprinkle a packet in the flour & egg mixture when I make chicken fried chicken. Yum!
Worcestershire is the best steak marinade ever! It also makes the flavor of a burger awesome, just toss in when forming the patties. I use it on a pork dish mixed with soy sauce. I also recently made beef stronganoff and used it in that slow cooker recipe. It is a must have in any kitchen!
Honey is a very important staple in my kitchen. I love to put it on biscuits or flour tortillas. It is delicious in coffee and tea. Gary once made me a hot toddy when I had strep throat. One of our new favorite recipes I cook is salmon and roasted potatoes with honey. Last week we ran out of jelly, so I put honey on Hayden's peanut butter sandwich. He gobbled it up!
I always have pasta on hand. The kids prefer regular spaghetti noodles because they love to slurp them up. I however like to mix it up. I usually buy whole wheat pasta, but I wanted to mix it up and get bow ties. I couldn't find bow ties in whole wheat? Anyway, the kids thought they were so good and of course fun. The kids will eat plain butter noodles, but they also like spaghetti with meat sauce and spaghetti with Alfredo sauce. If I need a quick lunch I will boil whatever pasta I have on hand and make my favorite chicken pasta salad.
We love Ranch Style beans. They are so easy to throw into the microwave, heat up and serve as a quick side dish. I have also drained and rinsed them and put them in salads and casseroles. Beans have so much fiber and I know how important fiber is our diet.
I'm sure I left a few things out. What are your pantry necessities?
5 comments:
This is a great list. I pretty much have all of your staples and the pasta. We almost always have spaghetti sauce on hand too. I saw on Twitter about that season and I may have to pick that up...sounds yummy. I had to laugh at the beans because a friend of mine (who used to live in TX) loves those and said they used to say 'husband pleasin' instead of 'appetite pleasin'. She usually serves them when she has us over for brisket...yum!!!
My #1 pantry staple is KETCHUP!! I keep it in the pantry & not the fridge. I hate cold ketchup! Although, I'm not eating as much of it since I've changed my eating habits but it's great in homemade sloppy joes. We use Tones Cajun Seasoning instead of Tony's because there's less sodium & it's just as good. We think anyway! We always have Worcestershire too. We've been buying McCormick's different seasonings a lot lately. There's a garlic & herb that is outstanding!
oo i love this post!! so fun seeing what other people stock in their pantry! I am the same way with cumin. LOVE IT. and i'm gonna have to try that chicken seasoning.. sounds yummy. I also use a lot of oregano..that's always in my pantry.. i have back ups. haha. as far as pasta..i just made orzo for the first time (is that crazy?) and loveee it. so it's now a staple too. :) Thanks for sharing girl!
I've always hated PB&J so I grew up on PB&Honey! I make it for Knox now and he loves it too :) We use Worchestershire's in our steaks and burgers too. Actually for the steacks, James usually does olive oil, Dale's, Allegro's, a bit of worchest, and Mrs. Dash table blend. It turns out better than ANY restaraunt steak I've ever had.
I think I have almost all of those things in my pantry... they are musts.
And wait, did you make the Creamed Cheese Chicken? Because that sounds like heaven and I think I might need to try it!!!
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