My Basic Gluten Free Whole Foods Pantry List

Pantry stocking and cooking from it is a real skill to learn. We have had weeks with a $20.00 food budget in this past year, more often than I want to remember. If we were a typical American couple, that wouldn't even buy our lattes. Thanks to goodness, we are NOT a typical American couple, and I can feed us 2-3x a day for $20.00 a week, IF I have a stocked pantry. I know visions of canned goods and boxes are dancing in your head when I say, stocked pantry, but my pantry only holds at the most...cans of curry paste and coconut milk. Everything else is real foods, stored in jars or buckets, or my fridge and freezer. A visitor said it best. "I know there is allot of food here, but is there anything that doesn't require 2 days planning and soaking? I just don't know who to cook this stuff and I need food now." After I walked him through a 3 minute rice noodle dish, I went through the whole pantry with him.


I buy pantry items whenever they are on sale or I have an extra few dollars. I know what we have and I carry my shopping list everywhere, because you never know when a conventional grocery store is going to screw up the pricing and quinoa will be a dollar, or I will be able to buy a case of coconut milk for $10.00. I buy as much as I can in bulk, and I buy my spices in whole form when possible, and by the ounce. There may be a few missing items from week to week, but I stay flexible and plan a back up to every menu planned. If I am unwell, the Guy has my back up menu using the pantry. It took 5 months to grow this pantry, and I have maintained it for a year. I will never, ever go back to shopping week to week for basics. With this, a $20.00 week is a tight- needs to be very planned-wild salmon-less breakfast week, not the end of the world. So, just looking at my basic list, I see dozens of meals at the ready with minimal planning or purchasing needed to round it out or fluff it up, depending on our needs or those of our guests. (You'll notice tomatoes, yeast, and cheese are missing now)


If I was more computer inclined there would lines drawn to ingredients and a color coded recipe for each line...sorry, just barely can turn this thing on, soooo. Off the top of my brain, there are vegan onion soup, Tom Yum, carrot ginger, Pho, and Asian noodle soups, right there in the pantry. I can make a nut sauce in 2 minutes to compliment any combination of vegetables, noodles or whole grains. Nut and rice milk. There are pot pies, sweet pie crust, cookies and crackers. There are veggie nori and spring rolls. Lentil soup or dal. Breads, rotti, tortillas, pizza, pancakes, and waffles. Chai. Smoothies. Green drinks. Pilaf to pastas. Slaws and salads and sprouts... and their dressings. There are many tasty, nutritious options.... and I haven't bought anything else yet. When it begins to flow like this, eating seasonally and eating whole foods becomes simple. All it really took was some planning and thoughtful bulk purchases...and away we went. If you are not gluten free, the same principles apply here, just stock according your needs.

This is it. Year round, it doesn't change...just the seasonal produce, and the level of meat supply. 


THE FRESH PANTRY
Onions
Garlic and shallots
Ginger
Carrots
Celery
Yams and a few potatoes

Broccoli and or cauliflower

Bok choy or napa cabbage

Green cabbage

Greens: chard, kale, collards, etc.

Lettuces

Fresh herbs: I grow cilantro, dill, parsley, and oregano all year long.
Fresh lemons and limes
Apples
Fresh seasonal vegetables and fruit


THE STORED PANTRY
Whole grains (a variety of brown rice, quinoa, wild rice, and buckwheat, or other special guest, and all of their lovely gluten free flours)
Masa
Corn meal
Dry legumes (black beans, kidney beans, adzuki beans, mung beans, red lentils, French green lentils)
Rice noodles: both Italian pastas and Asian style
Rice paper rolls
Rice flour tortillas
Frozen fruit: berries and tasty bits.
Frozen vegetables for quick soups and other dishes.
Frozen basil cubes
Apple cider vinegar
Ume plum vinegar
Whole grainy mustard
Sea salt
Black peppercorns
Spices (cumin seeds, oregano, coriander seeds, star anise, cinnamon sticks and powder, thyme, dried turmeric, dried ginger, bay, zattar, cardamom, paprika, dried mustard, black mustard seeds, crushed red pepper, graram masala, herbes de provence)
Dried chilies
Coconut, olive, grapeseed, and sesame oil
Earth Balance for baking and table use
Baking powder and soda
Xanthan gum for baking
Bragg's Liquid Aminos
Coconut milk
Red curry paste
Green curry paste
Pure vanilla extract
Nuts and seeds: walnuts, cashews, almonds, popcorn kernels, sunflower and hemp seeds
Nut and seed butters and flours
Dried fruit
Dairy free chocolate chips or chunks
Kombu and other sea foods: dulse, agar agar, kelp.
Sweeteners - Raw agave nectar, local honey, grade B maple syrup, blackstrap molasses, and organic cane sugar
Cultured vegetables, kimchi and sauerkraut
Homemade vegetable and chicken stock
Herbs for tea
Black tea
Organic Sumatran coffee beans; naturally low acid, yum.


THE MEATY PANTRY
Ground bison and turkey
Bison, beef, or pork for stews
Chicken parts and pieces
Wild salmon, as the budget allows.
Tofu
Tempeh

1 pound of a sausage or bacon type treat