Pantry Party Part - The Refrigerator Pantry

Welcome to Pantry Party Part II - The Refrigerator Pantry! When I say "pantry" what I'm referring to is the non-perishable (or the things that take a realllly long time to perish) items you keep on hand in your kitchen at all times. Things that are used slowly and in small amounts are usually part of your refrigerator pantry (as well as things that are used all the time, like milk, eggs, and yogurt).

Whipping up quick and healthy dinners can be easy as pie, assuming you keep your pantry stocked well at all (OK, most) times. Most recipes call for a few main fresh ingredients and a slurry of spices, seasonings, and other peripheral items. Keeping your refrigerator well stocked will make your life much easier, and allow you to only pick up fresh essentials at the grocery store each week.

Here's a beautiful drawing (ah! the fire alarm in my building keeps beeping because it is probably broken. How safe!/I wonder if I'll have to wake the sleeping baby to evacuate...):

OK, that beautiful drawing is a bit blurry, but that's my fridge (for all you visual learners). Things with stars are extra credit. Here's the list of what's in there categorized by how quickly it spoils:

Quickest Spoilers (1-3 weeks, generally)

• Eggs (generally always needed for baking, and are always great to have on hand for a breakfast for dinner omelet or frittata)
• Milk (for use in baking and breakfasts, and for making yogurt and smoothies)
• Celery (for all soups and stews you'll make)
• Carrots (for all soups and stews you'll make, for snacking)
• Bacon (for flavoing soups and other dishes and romantic special weekend breakfasts)
• Yogurt (substitute in baking for sour cream, snacking, baby food)
• Soy Milk (for cereal, smoothies, baking, and cooking - unsweetened is the most versatile)
• Oranges (for snacking, marinades, dressings)
• Apples (for snacking, baking, baby food)

Long Lasters (3+ weeks)

• Dry milk powder (for making your own pancake mix and other assorted uses, can be found in buttermilk and soy, too...I use buttermilk for my dry pancake mix)
• Yeast (for making bread)
• Coffee Beans (for making coffee...duh)
• Butter (for baking and cooking, and, if you're me, eating by the stick)
• Walnuts (for breakfast topping, salads, and baking)
• Flax seed (grind and add to everything: soups, stews, yogurt, cereals, baked goods...I forgot to add this on the picture, but it's so easy to use and is a nutritional powerhouse! Flax seed can also be used as an egg and oil replacement - the linked video tells you how)

Longest Lasters (these stay fresh for months, if not over a year...always check your expiration dates, of course, and throw out whatever isn't fresh anymore!)

• Romano cheese (a staple for topping Italian dishes, just a little goes a long way!)
• brown, yellow, dijon, and Chinese mustard (for salad dressings, marinades, sandwiches, hot dogs, and Asian cuisine)
• maple syrup (for pancakes)
• hot sauce (for dressings, chilis, soups, and chicken)
• balsamic vinegar (for dressings and marinades)
• Worcestershire sauce (for dressings, marinades, and meatballs/loaves)
• ketchup (for dressings, toppings, and all things ketchup-worthy)
• strawberry jam (for sandwiches, baking, toast, topping for plain yogurt)
• horseradish (for cocktail sauces and dressings)
• sesame oil (for Asian stir fries and dumpling sauces)
• soy sauce (for Asian sauces and marinades)
• crushed garlic (just in case you're ever out of fresh and just NEED it, or are in an extreme time crunch...I bought this before I had the baby so that I could throw dinner together in a pinch)
• raisins (for baking, salads, and breakfasts)
• damn that's a long list

By keeping your pantry full you can be sure you'll always have what you need on hand to put together whatever you want to cook. Here are some examples:

Organic field green salad:

Buy: field greens

Pantry: walnuts, raisins, Worcestershire, ketchup, garlic, salt, balsamic vinegar, sugar, juice of an orange, and vegetable oil

Rigatoni and Broccoli with Garlic, Oil, and Cheese:

Buy: broccoli

Pantry: rigatoni, Romano cheese, salt, pepper, olive oil, and garlic...this could actually be an entire pantry meal using frozen broccoli!

Spring Vegetable Frittata:

Buy: some fresh veggies

Pantry: eggs, olive oil, milk, salt, pepper, seasonings, Romano cheese

Baby Breakfast Mix-Up

Buy: nothing!

Pantry: apples, yogurt, flax

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Buy: chocolate chips (if you don't have them already in your baking pantry...if you're a baker, you should have them in there already!)

Pantry: butter, eggs, flour, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla extract, baking powder

Blueberry Breakfast Bonanza

Buy: blueberries

Pantry: oatmeal, walnuts, flax seed, brown sugar

As you can see, it's easy to put things together when you have everything you need on hand! Always remember to make a note when you are running low on something, that way you can watch for it and buy it on sale. Even if it doesn't go on sale, you won't be caught with your PantryPants down! It doesn't make sense to stock up on most of this stuff, though, because you use it soooo sloooowly.

Things I'd buy 2 of if they went on sale:

• coffee beans, butter (because you can freeze it), ketchup and mustard (because you go through those a little faster than most other pantry items), raisins, strawberry jam, and balsamic vinegar

Building a pantry is a journey (okay, not really - but don't worry if it takes you a while to get all these things in your fridge!), but it's well worth the forethought and effort.

I hope this post helps you guys stock your fridge pantries. Stay tuned for next Monday's Pantry Party, where we'll discuss stocking your baking pantry! See you then (hopefully you'll be back and reading tomorrow...and everyday until then, too!)

7 Potatoes, 7 Eggs, 2 Ways, Part 1

Yum, yum, people! SO, today I realized I had 7 large baking potatoes. In the fridge, I also had 7 eggs (okay, I had 11, but just bear with me for the sake of the story). Originally, I was going to make a potato chowder for Freezermeal Friday, but I am not so sure how potato soup freezes, and of course I didn't want to steer you wrong. So then I thought, "Oh, I'll use half the potatoes for soup, and we'll eat it in the next few days, and with the rest I'll make something else". Then I realized I didn't have any carrots or celery (this never happens, I was out of town!), so soup was out of the picture.


I finally settled on potato salad and potato and egg pie.

Potato Party Salad

serves 6 as a side dish

5 large baking potatoes (about 1 1/2 lbs, $.75 Haymarket)

3 T. chopped white onion ($.03 Haymarket)

1/3 c. mayonnaise ($.25)

1 1/2 T. Dijon mustard ($.13)

1 t. salt (<$.01)

1/2 t. black pepper ($.03)

2 hard boiled eggs (organic - $.60)

1 T. white vinegar ($.01)

Total is $1.81 for about 2 lbs of potato salad...not bad!

1. Peel and chop potatoes into large cubes (I halve, then quarter then chop a few times, resulting in about 12 chunks per potato - I don't have my camera so I can't share the pictures with you, sorry...)
2. Put them in a large pot and cover with cold water. Cover and bring to a boil.
3. Boil until fork tender (the fork goes in and out easily, and they are beginning to get a little soft...I would take them out when they're right about where you'd eat them)
4. Drain. While they're still in the strainer, cover with a dishcloth for about 5. This allows the steam to go back through the potato resulting in a great consistency. The Barefoot Contessa taught me this one!
5. In a small bowl, combine mayonnaise, mustard, salt, pepper, and onions.
6. When potatoes have sat under the towel long enough, pour a T. of white vinegar over them.
7. Toss the vinegar-y potatoes with the mayonnaise mix.
8. Chop hard boiled eggs and add to salad, mixing to combine.
9. If you'd prefer more dressing, just add more mayonnaise by the tablespoon full, and add another teaspoon of mustard for every tablespoon of mayonnaise you add.

scrimpyTips:

- This is pretty much a pantry recipe, I keep all these ingredients on hand.

- This would look pretty with some chopped green onions sprinkled on top, and would be perfect to serve at a brunch!

- This is good served alongside a salad or sandwich for a dinner entree.

- This is a good microwave free lunch dish.

- You can add extra eggs, or omit the eggs entirely.

- You can add chopped celery if you like that, too.

Pantry Party Part I

Good Wednesday morning! I'm in NY, posting from the beautiful Hamptons...there's a ton of snow here, but it's still nice to get out of the city and relax. I love being home for a bunch of reasons. I obviously love seeing my family, and I love that I don't have to clean, or run errands, or even really cook for myself. It's great. The flip side of that, however, is that I have to wake up with the baby every night by myself (last night from 1 am to 3:30 am).

Anyways...Dylan's napping and I am here to talk to you about stocking your pantry. This is part one of a series...today I will discuss your dry cabinet pantry which includes: grains, dry beans, and pastas.

What do I mean by pantry?

*Pantry refers to all of your non-perishables or foods that stay fresh for an insanely long time. My pantry includes my cabinets, my refrigerator, my freezer and my fruit and vegetable bowls. Today I'd like to share with you tips for building your cabinet pantry.

Why stock a pantry?

*I believe stocking your pantry is one of the most budget friendly tactics you can employ to keep your food costs low, low, low. By having your basic essentials on hand, you eliminate the need to buy a ton of ingredients for every meal you cook. If you have a well stocked cabinet pantry, you can just buy perishables every week, and rest assured knowing you have most of what you need at home.

*Many items in your cabinet pantry are amazing multi-taskers. All you need to do is buy one jar of dried basil, but that one jar will take you through tons (probably hundreds) of meals! The same goes for most spices. This applies to oils, too. You will probably use some sort of oil in almost everything you cook, so it's important to always have it at hand.

*You can often throw together meals entirely from your pantry in a pinch. A little garlic, oil, pasta, and a can of beans goes a long way when you have nothing in the house (like when you get home from a vacation - or you've exhausted your grocery budget for the month).

What's in a cabinet pantry?

I have organized my cabinet pantry into 3 sections. This works for me, but feel free to organize yours any old way! I will draw a beautiful picture:

Grains and Dry Beans

These are staples of meal planning in my house. Here's what I keep on hand at all times. Those with a "*" are bonus points!

• Steel Cut Oats (for breakfast and babies)
• Brown Rice (use like pasta under chilis, baked beans, in soups)
• Rice Sticks* (for stirfries and asian)
• Quinoa* (use as you would rice)
• Barley* (soups)
• Dry Red, Black, or Pinto Beans
• A 16 Bean Mix*
• Lentils
• Split Peas

By keeping the above items in your pantry, you can be sure you'll always have the ingredients to make a healthful meal on hand. From the above, depending on the quality of your overall pantry, you can make: fried rice, rice and beans, stir fry, and a bunch of different soups.

Pastas

I cook with pastas a lot - especially whole wheat ones (which are as good as any other whole grain, nutritionally). They're a great, inexpensive option for dinners, and I try to cook with them several times a week to keep the grocery costs down. Keep a variety of pastas on hand for different uses.

• Penne (stands up to fresh vegetable toppings and heavy sauces, also good for ziti)
• Farfalle - bowties, or literally - "butterflies" in Italian (perfect in place of noodles in casseroles)
• Spaghetti and/or Linguine (perfect for lighter sauces, but also stands up to meatballs and other toppings...can be used in asian cuisine as well in place of noodles - as in sesame noodles, yum!)
• Lasagna noodles (for lasagna...duh)
• Rotini (perfect for all sorts of pasta salads and baked macaroni dishes)

If you stock your pantry correctly, you'll always have a pasta-based meal just 20 minutes away.

Canned Goods

Having canned goods on hand ensures you always have at least something to eat. They're a great way to stretch your grocery dollars and always have something to cook with at hand.

• Beans (for dips, pastas, and soups)
• Clams* (for clam sauce and chowder)
• Tomatoes (for sauce and chili)
• Soups (especially cream of mushroom for casseroles)
• Olives* (as a throw in to pasta salad or topping for pizza)
• Artichoke hearts* (for use in pasta, pasta salads, or pizza)

If you keep some of the above on hand, you'll always be able to make a bean dip for entertaining, a pot of sauce for dinner, or some garlicky bean soup...assuming your refrigerator and basket pantry are up to par!

My scrimpyPantry Tips

Here are some tips to help you stock your pantry as inexpensively as possible.

Brown Rice - WFs has a good deal on organic, TJs has sells conventional at around $1/lb.

Beans - if you're going conventional then Stop and Shop is the way to go @ 3 cans/$2. Organic go for about $1/can at both TJs and WFs.

Dried Beans and peas and lentils - Whole Foods has the best deals on these. A pound of organic will cost you $1.99 across the board, only $.50 more than what conventional costs at Stop and Shop. TJs does not carry dry beans. TJs does, however, sell a 16 bean mix with some grains in it for $1.29 (or something like that).

Clams - these go on sale at Stop and Shop and CVS 4/$5. I stock up then. 2 cans makes clam sauce for 4, and with a pound of pasta this is a $3.50 dinner.

Canned Beans - if you're going conventional then Stop and Shop is the way to go @ 3 cans/$2. Organic go for about $1/can at both TJs and WFs.

Pasta - hands down, TJs has the best prices on pasta in town. White will cost you $.99/lb and organic whole wheat will set you back a mere $1.29/lb. Amazing!

Tomatoes - if you're going conventional then TJs, WFs, and S&S are all comparable. Organic are cheapest at WFs at $1.79/28 oz. can...that's a GREAT price considering you generally pay $1/28 oz. conventional can.

Soups - Campbell's coups can often be found buy one get one free making them under $1. Add in some sale tuna and organic whole wheat pasta for a $5 casserole that serves at least 4.

Olives and Artichoke Hearts - Unlikely versatile ingredients that can be added atop a pizza (prepared crust from TJs @ $.99 + a handful of organic canned tomatoes @ $.75 + can of olives @ $1 = a vegan pizza for under $3) or a pasta dish. Also good for a quick antipasto platter for entertaining!

Jarred tapenade or bruschetta - I like to keep a $3 TJs jar of these on hand in case of entertaining or dinner emergencies. The tapenade can be served along a loaf of bread or with crackers to make a quick platter, as can the bruschetta. Alternately, the bruschetta can be tossed with hot penne for a $4 dinner for 5.

I hope this post helps you develop and build a working pantry. Stay tuned in the coming days and weeks for:

• tips on stocking a refrigerator pantry
• how to build a fruit and veggie pantry
• spice, seasoning and oil pantry
• building a baking pantry
• creating a freezer pantry
• pantry recipes