Planning Meals – Shopping Part 1

There are some very basic things that are helpful to have around any kitchen. This first list of items will be non perishable items that can be stored in your pantry.

Here are the basic items that I like to keep around for baking purposes:

• Flour – This can be all purpose, unbleached, or whole wheat whatever you like to cook with but make sure you at least have some all purpose or unbleached as whole wheat can be too heavy for some purposes. If you are a very experimental cook, you can also include other flours such as barley flour, rice flour, rye flour, etc.
• Sugar – This includes white granulated sugar, brown sugar and powdered or confectioner’s sugar. I don’t always have powdered sugar on hand but I never run out of granulated or brown sugar
• Salt – Morton’s white salt “When it rains, it pours” For those of you gourmet foodies go with the ormus
• Baking Powder
• Baking Soda
• Cornstarch – this can also fall under the cooking category
• Old Fashioned Rolled Oats – who knows when you want to make oatmeal cookies.
• Chocolate Chips – I actually keep mine in the freezer not the pantry.
• Nuts – Pine Nuts, Walnuts, Pecans, Sunflower Seeds, Almonds, Cashews – I keep most of these in the freezer as well. This keeps them fresh as I do not always bake. As a side note all these are great for snacking and can double in the “cooking” category.
• Oil – Canola Oil, Olive Oil, Sesame Oil. The Canola Oil is the only one I would use for baking whereas all three are useful in different ways in the cooking process.
• Molasses – I don’t use this very often and it is very strong so a very small jar goes a long way.
• Vanilla – I only use pure vanilla or vanilla beans – never imitation vanilla ewww
• Other flavored extracts – Orange, rum, lemon, almond…these all come in handy but are not necessary unless you come across a recipe that specifically calls for them. (One of my favorite things for Thanksgiving is to make fresh cinnamon rolls and use an icing of powdered sugar milk and a little orange extract – YUM)
• Cream of Tartar – useful in any dish that calls for egg whites