My Pantry Necessities

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?