What's in your pantry?

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jimLE said:
Now i feel like a real red neck countryboy..:D

Edit...leave the Salisbury steak alone.it's. Mine..lol
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If there is a family, with working couple and children to feed, it is a better deal to cook rather than going out, and usually pre-made food. For single people, a t.v. dinner is much easier for a single meal. I know you cook and make up a few days worth of food. I also have times when I just go grab some fast food, such as a burrito from somewhere.
 
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I like to eat out once in a while.
But make it a treat.
I get tired of my own cooking.
But I also get tired of eating by myself when I go out to eat.
When I do my big monthly shopping, then I do my big freezer stocking cooking days too.
You all reminded me I need to pick up more honey,coffee,chips(also a treat),soda( also a treat),beer,sorghum,hamburger.
Thanks!
 
Amish Heart said:
I'm irritated about the hamburger recall. I'm going to see if I can buy some from my cousins when we go to the farm. I had to check dates on cake mix, too. Some of that was recalled. Then the romaine lettuce. What's going on???
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Dang, I need to check dates on cake mixes.
I don't have any hamburger at this time .
Don't eat lettuce.
Insectides?
 
duncan hines huh? is that what you are referring to? I don't buy cake mix usually.
What's in the pantry...cake mixes I did not buy, baking powder, baking soda, flour, ww flour, raisins, jam, peanut butter, tuna, lots of canned stuff, soups, veggies, fruits, spaghetti sauces, pasta, salt, sugar, jello, I don't know...what IS in my pantry? Plus I 've got other stuff in other places, don't you? Cans of wheat berry. Water.
No guilt here. You do the best you can.
 
It was just for a few dates I think in March. I checked my boxes because they had just had a big sale at Smiths (Krogers) and I had coupons, too, so I bought 20 boxes. My boxes were ok. But I'm irritated with all the recalls. Is the FDA or whoever just being more cautious? Or are food companies getting more sloppy? Just read about the lady with the brain eating amoeba from using tap water in her neti pot. First off, use bottled distilled water. But why would that be in Seattle's drinking water anyway? Disgusting. I guess that's off topic for what's in your pantry! OK, so today I used the "buy 5" coupons again at the Kroger store and got 25 lbs more of flour, 20 lbs more of white sugar, 5 more chocolate chips, 5 more peanut butters, and 5 more canola oils. My bill was $29.75.
 
Amish Heart said:
It was just for a few dates I think in March. I checked my boxes because they had just had a big sale at Smiths (Krogers) and I had coupons, too, so I bought 20 boxes. My boxes were ok. But I'm irritated with all the recalls. Is the FDA or whoever just being more cautious? Or are food companies getting more sloppy? Just read about the lady with the brain eating amoeba from using tap water in her neti pot. First off, use bottled distilled water. But why would that be in Seattle's drinking water anyway? Disgusting. I guess that's off topic for what's in your pantry! OK, so today I used the "buy 5" coupons again at the Kroger store and got 25 lbs more of flour, 20 lbs more of white sugar, 5 more chocolate chips, 5 more peanut butters, and 5 more canola oils. My bill was $29.75.
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DANG, GIRL, you are a super saver!!!
Yes, that is disgusting to have a brain eating amoeba from TAP WATER. We have been using spring water and distilled water, we hate our community water.
Cautious...or sloppy? I don't know.
 
@Flight I read the prepper article you put up and it has a good basic information.

We do similar here but I disagree with the has to cost money to build food storage as you can buy half price specials on items on your normal grocery list and get 2 which doesn't cost any more money but then and again not all things come on special. As we are lower income we started prepping by doing the half price specials of using 1 item and replacing it with 2.

Just what we do is that we have a specific pantry stocking budget of $20 per fortnight or $40 per month and it can indeed buy a lot of things we have found if you look for the specials. We also buy grocery e-vouchers which give us $40 in free groceries and use that for stocking groceries and earn $10 free groceries from rewards points by buying our usual groceries and also use that for stocking groceries for our pantries too.

It all adds up and doesn't have to cost a fortune if you do it right.
 
We also have a working grocery stockpile pantry where we use it and replace the items eaten so they have a variety of use by dates and nothing expires without being eaten.

Our grocery stockpile is similar to other people's lists and we currently have 9 - 12 months worth of everything in stock and are currently working bit by bit on stocking dried beans and rices.

We just put in an order for a years plus worth of yeast and 1 years worth of herbs and spices which we just got and grow a lot of these ourselves too which we dry and add to our stockpile.

The problem we had here in the rental we are currently in was not a lot of space as @MoBookworm1957 was saying so we were stocking according to what we could fit in a workers cottage the size of an apartment.

When we move into our own home on Tuesday we will have a far larger area to use as a stockpiling area. The room we have marked for food storage is 5.5 x 3.5 m and we also will have a wooden meat house measuring 4 x 4 m with shelves and good ventilation in which we will store rice, dried beans and work our way to storing wheat in there too as it will be the right temperature.
 
Amish Heart said:
It was just for a few dates I think in March. I checked my boxes because they had just had a big sale at Smiths (Krogers) and I had coupons, too, so I bought 20 boxes. My boxes were ok. But I'm irritated with all the recalls. Is the FDA or whoever just being more cautious? Or are food companies getting more sloppy? Just read about the lady with the brain eating amoeba from using tap water in her neti pot. First off, use bottled distilled water. But why would that be in Seattle's drinking water anyway? Disgusting. I guess that's off topic for what's in your pantry! OK, so today I used the "buy 5" coupons again at the Kroger store and got 25 lbs more of flour, 20 lbs more of white sugar, 5 more chocolate chips, 5 more peanut butters, and 5 more canola oils. My bill was $29.75.
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There is a lesson for all of us. I cannot imagine that the water had those pathogens in it. Cities highly and sometimes over purify their water. My guess is that there is a law suit in the future.
 
Checked my cake mix dates, their good.
I have learned the hard way not to mention things in passing to Estelle's daddy.
Hence why I have cake mixes,toilet paper so rough you could use it as sand paper,bag of lemons, bag of limes.
I mentioned I would like one of each, not the toilet paper, but those items weren't in my budget this month.
I meant 1 lemon, 1 lime,1 cake mix(Jiffy size).
That's sure not what I got.
 
The wife buys lemons and limes in season, squeezes them and freezes them in ice cube trays. A Ziploc stores them the rest of the year. Some of the zest goes in another small bag.
 
I have way too much to list lol I have 2 years worth of canned foods in stock all the time ( thats everything from fruits to beans to veggies to meats) I rotate through it so its always up to date. I have about 16 months of pastas and noodles vacuum sealed in jars and canisters ( found those at the goodwill). I have 100's of pounds of sugar and about 90-some pounds of salt (table) stored in mylar and buckets ( they don't need O2's just need to stay dry). I have almost 2 years worth of coffee stored in either vacuum cans or bricks that I also vacuum sealed again so its double walled. 100's of tea bags vacuum sealed ( both regular and decaffeinated and herbal)
I have pots of fresh herbs growing every year and my English thyme winters over every year but I have to bring in or take cuttings of my other herbs.
I have at least a year's worth of TP stored.

That doesn't include all the LTS I have put away

I am low on flour and need to buy and vacuum seal some bags since its baking season now
I plan on buying some of the baking "bark" and vacuum seal that also. It melts so easy in the microwave

I also don't have a large amount of olives which I love. I should look into that. Also pickles but I'm the only one who eats them. Hubby doesn't. Nothing like grabbing a dill pickle and munching on it lol

The only soda I keep around is ginger ale. It helps with tummy trouble and also when we're under the weather. No chips but I do have popcorn in the house and about 100lbs stored in mylar O2's and in buckets
 
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I just rotated my stored flour and am restocking with the sales. Sugar, I don't worry about rotating. Stopped storing brown sugar, just store molasses. Anybody store whole wheat and a grinder? I do, but I don't use it. I do buy 50 lb bags of animal grade whole wheat because I sprout them for the chickens. Same with sunflower. Why is animal grade so much cheaper than people grade? I think I'll price check in Kansas. Cousins were surprised I had to pay $7 a bale for straw. They throw a couple of bales in our truck when we leave.
 
Amish Heart said:
I just rotated my stored flour and am restocking with the sales. Sugar, I don't worry about rotating. Stopped storing brown sugar, just store molasses. Anybody store whole wheat and a grinder? I do, but I don't use it. I do buy 50 lb bags of animal grade whole wheat because I sprout them for the chickens. Same with sunflower. Why is animal grade so much cheaper than people grade? I think I'll price check in Kansas. Cousins were surprised I had to pay $7 a bale for straw. They throw a couple of bales in our truck when we leave.
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I have wheat and a grinder but don't use them now. Did in the past. Have 100's of pounds of that stored in mylar O2's and in buckets. Maybe animal grade isn't as clean as people grade?
We pay the same amount for straw here but its a large bale as opposed to the smaller ones ( about half the size of the large). I can remember paying only $5 for a large bale years back. Amazing how prices go up on ya
 
I am a spice junky. I have to keep a list of what I have.

Adobo without pepper
Allspice whole
Alum
Ancho Chili Blend
Anice
Basil Leaves
Bay Leaves
Black Pepper
Black Peppercorns
Cajun Spice
Caraway Seed - 2
Cayenne Pepper
Celery Salt
Celery Seed
Chicken Boullion Powder
Chili Powder
Chipotle - 2
Chopped Chives
Chopped Onion
Cinnamon Sticks
Cinnamon Sugar
Clear Jel
Coriander Seed
Cream of Tartar
Crushed Red Pepper
Crushed Thyme
Cumin
Curry Powder
Dill Seed
Dill Weed
Fennel Seed
Garlic & Pepper
Garlic Salt
Garlic Sriracha
Granulated Garlic
Granulated Onion
Ground Allspice
Ground Cardamom
Ground Cinnamon
Ground Cloves
Ground Coriander
Ground Ginger
Ground Mace
Ground Mustard
Ground Thyme
Herb de Provance
Himalayan Pink Salt
Hot Shot
Italian Seasoning
Kosher Salt
Lemon Pepper Seasoning
Memphis Style BBQ - 2
Minced Garlic
Montreal Steak Seasoning
Mustard Seed - Brown
Mustard Seed - Yellow
New Orleans Style Seasoning
Nutmeg
Old Bay
Onion Powder
Oregano
Paprika
Parsley
Pepper Grinders - 3
Pickling Spice
Poppy Seed
Pumpkin Pie Spice
Roasted Garlic & Herbs - 2
Rosemary
Rosemary Garlic
S - P - G
Sage
Savory
Sazon
Sea Salt
Seasoned Salt
Sesame Seed
Shake & Bake
Six Pepper Blend
Soul Food Seasoning
Sriracha
Steakhouse Style Seasoning
Table Salt
Tarragon
Thyme leaves
Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning
Turmeric
White Pepper
Whole Cloves
Whole Coriander
 
Amish Heart said:
I just rotated my stored flour and am restocking with the sales. Sugar, I don't worry about rotating. Stopped storing brown sugar, just store molasses. Anybody store whole wheat and a grinder? I do, but I don't use it. I do buy 50 lb bags of animal grade whole wheat because I sprout them for the chickens. Same with sunflower. Why is animal grade so much cheaper than people grade? I think I'll price check in Kansas. Cousins were surprised I had to pay $7 a bale for straw. They throw a couple of bales in our truck when we leave.
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I store wheat. I have red and white, but mostly red. Most of it is from the LDS Bishop's warehouse in #10 cans. I have also gotten some from feed stores. It is labeled grade B. I think the most important difference is that the grade B, which is for feed, has not been cleaned as thoroughly. There may be other factors that have put it into a lower grade. I have ground up wheat into flour and used it. I prefer whole grains, but they are not as easy to use as highly processed white flour. White flour doesn't have a very long shelf life.

A challenge for me is my daughter's celiac. Because of that, I have more rice and other gluten free grains that can be used for flours. I keep corn starch, potato starch, potato flakes, rice flour and all the alternatives that I can find. I keep Pamela's gluten free flour, but since we don't bake much, it doesn't get rotated much.

1. I have a few grinders. I have an electric Retsel. It is heavy duty and I got a super deal on it, $24 on a Craigslist ad. It was like new. I had to drive a few miles to pick it up, but it was well worth the drive. I think someone was having a life crisis, either a divorce or job loss.
2. The first grinder I purchased was a manual Victorio. I have had it for more than 30 years. It has had little use.
3. I have a cheap grinder that is a corn grinder. It was $5 at a yard sale. I haven't used it yet.
4. I have a couple electric coffee grinders that I think would work for grinding up various grains if needed, if there is power. I use one mostly for herbs and flax seeds, the other one for grinding coffee. I wish I had an antique coffee mill/grinder. I keep watching for one (or two).
5. I have an antique grain grinder that is red, with a wheel like crank. I don't remember what I paid for it, maybe $10 or $20.
Things like grinders can be found used if you watch and keep them in mind. Craigslist is a good source for things like that. It is a good way to get them for less than new prices.
6. I just remembered that there was an exhibit at the art museum and then many items were donated to a teacher store. I was able to buy a two stone set up for grinding grain from those donated exhibit items. I have no idea how old it is, and grinding grain with it would be a real pain, but it has worked for centuries to grind grain with two stones. The larger one has a good indent where grain has been ground. Yes, two rocks are the original grain grinders.

Besides wheat and other gluten free grains, I also have dried corn that I was able to can in #10 cans when the LDS warehouse allowed us to check out canners and buy cans. I have 5 gallon buckets of popcorn. These could possibly be sprouted or ground.

When it comes to having a deep pantry, it takes being mindful when shopping. It is better to stock up when things are on sale. Certain things are on sale at particular times of the year. Fall is a time when canned vegetables have been discounted. November and December are good months for baking supplies such as flour, sugar, chocolate and nuts.

I worked on building up my stock by planning and tracking. I have a notebook that has pages for wheat, oatmeal, powdered milk, sugar, beans, rice, salt, etc. It has been a way for me to plan for amounts desired, and then to track what and when purchased.
What I am not as good at is tracking what I have used in my notebook. That is more of a visual for me, seeing what I have or don't have. The deep pantry doesn't get used much. It is the kitchen pantry where most of the rotation goes on.

There are many places online that have detailed lists of things to stock up on.
 
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