The power of your pantry-Challenge Week #3

A pantry is a room where food, provisions or dishes are stored and served in an ancillary capacity to the kitchen.


As anyone who cooks knows you need to have the right ingredients on hand in order to create the meals that you want. You have to have somewhere to store these ingredients. Depending on the amount of space you have will determine the size of your "pantry". You could have a traditional closet for your pantry, or a single cabinet, sometimes you pantry might just be a tote that is stored under your bed.  Any shape that is takes, they all serve the same purpose.



In order to have a successful meal planning you need to know what you have and where they are located.  Here comes the master pantry list. First off you need to make a simple decision.
 
How much cooking do you like to do? Do you want to make most of your meals from scratch or are you looking for a more semi-homemade kind of meal?

Once you have answered those questions you can decide exactly what works best for your family.  I do a little bit of both. I love to cook from scratch but during the week my meals are more of the semi-homemade variety. There is no right or wrong answer to this, it simply depends on what your preferences, skills and time allows.

BAKING
Flour
sugar/sweetener
baking soda
baking powder
salt
yeast
Butter
oil-your choice

SPICES:
allspice,
bay leaf
basil
cayenne pepper
cinnamon
chili powder
cloves
cream of tartar
cumin
ginger
garlic, fresh and powder
marjoram
mustard
nutmeg
onion powder
oregano
paprika
parsley
sage
salt
 thyme
turmeric
vegetable broth
chicken broth
beef broth 

Well this is a beginning of a master pantry list. This will be a three part series creating a pantry that works for you. I don't always have these things in my pantry but I work on devoting a small amount of money out of the grocery fund to stocking up and/or replenishing items I feel are essential to keeping my pantry well stocked.