Pantry Party Part III: The Baking Pantry

When you're trying to bake, and you get all pumped up to make something, there's nothing worse than opening up the cabinet and realize you have - NOTHING. Stocking your pantry up ensures that you'll always be able to whip up a quick batch of muffins to bring with you anywhere, or bake up a loaf of bread for dinner or sandwiches.

Here's what I keep in my baking pantry. I'll categorize it based on how often I use these ingredients.

Use daily/almost daily/can't make much without these things:

• All Purpose Flour
• Whole Wheat Flour
• Sugar
• Butter
• Eggs
• Baking Soda
• Baking Powder
• Brown Sugar
• Cinnamon
• Salt
• Vanilla Extract
  
• Milk
  

These are really helpful to have, but you can make things without them:

• Chocolate chips (cookies, muffins, truffles, frosting, ganache)
  
• Yogurt/Sour Cream (coffee cakes, substituting for milk, scones)
  
• Molasses
  
• Ginger
• Corn syrup
• Cream of Tartar (stabilizing egg whites)
  
• Bread Flour (certain bread recipes, but mostly you can just use all purpose instead of bread flour)
  
• Active Yeast (keep in the fridge)
  
• Cornstarch
• Almond Extract
• Shortening (vegetable or lard)
  
• Buttermilk/Buttermilk Powder (can be made by adding 1 T. vinegar to 1 c. milk or soy milk)
  
• Vinegar
• Ground Cloves
• Ground Nutmeg

With these ingredients, you're on your way to making most things. You can make:

1. Cinnamon Bread
2. Low(er) Fat, Whole Wheat, Chocolate Chip Nibbles
3. Crumbly Crumble Coffee Cake
4. Very Vanilla Vegan Cupcakes
5. Whole Wheat-ish Blueberry Muffins (all you have to do is buy the frozen or fresh blueberries!)
6. Molasses Crackle Cookies
7. Pastry Creme
8. Delectable Creme Puffs
9. Whole Wheat Bread
10. Dinner Rolls

When stocking your pantry, keep your eye out for sales, they happen on baking supplies around the holidays. Even if you don't need molasses, if it's on sale, pick it up. When you finally need it you'll be glad you did!

It's fun to try new baking recipes, and keeping your baking pantry stocked allows you to be creative and experiment with different ideas and recipes without running to the store.

Stay tuned for next week's final installation of the Pantry Party, where I discuss my fruit/veggie bowl pantry and my oil/vinegar/spice pantry!

scrimpyTips:

- If you're looking to really stock your pantry in one trip, Stop and Shop is the cheapest place to buy baking supplies. However, they don't have organic goods. If you're looking for organic, hit up Whole Foods, they're not the cheapest, but they have great prices on butter, sugar, and flours.

Stop and Shop Sale Alert!

Sorrento Ricotta cheese is on sale $3.49 for a 2 lb. container. This is a great deal!!!

I'd buy 2. Use one fresh (and make the Turkey and Spinach Manicotti recipe in my Freezer Veggie post), and make a big lasagna with the other and freeze it for later (using my Tomato Sauce recipe found here). Next Freezermeal Friday will be lasagna, so buy one of these if you plan to make it!

Shaw's Sales & Stop and Shop Sales starting 3/6/09

Whole Foods beats Shaw's sales on Hummus, Organic carrots, and Asparagus! Good job, Whole Foods...I love that place...

You can see the Shaw's circular here, and the Stop and Shop circular here. I'm not really going to go into Stop and Shop, because basically,a lot of the items at Shaw's are on sale at S & S, it's just less expensive at S & S.

This is actually the last time I'll really get into specifics on the sales at Shaw's and S & S. I really wanted to list everything that was a great deal for you guys, but, honestly, there are rarely great deals on healthy foods at Shaw's and S & S. Even S & S and Shaw's organic brands can't beat TJs and WFs prices. You can usually find even cheaper every day prices at Whole Foods or TJs on everything that goes on sale at the other stores. Like this small comparison shows, healthy foods are cheaper at stores that cater to healthy foods. So, when there is an amazing buy at Shaw's or S & S, I will let you know, but I won't go through everything.

This month, however, watch for my post about where you can find staples cheapest in the city (flour, eggs, butter, etc...). Watch out for that. It's coming. It's coming to get you.

I'm sorry to write a weekly post, and then to stop, but I'm just getting started with the blog, and figuring out what works and what doesn't. I don't like reporting a sale to you at Shaw's when you can get the same item at TJs everyday for less money, you know what I mean???! I'm just looking out for all of you! Not looking to waste any time. If you're trying to live a scrimpy healthy lifestyle like me, you can just do what I do - buy everything I like from TJs, get what I can't get at TJs at WFs, and make occasional trips to S & S to stock up on some staples that they sell dirt cheap (read: brown sugar).

Most of the decent sales this week are on meat. So, if you're a meat eater, this is probably a good opportunity to stock up and freeze some stuff!

My freezer friendly picks are:

-Perdue roasting chicken $1.49/lb

-Shaw's Chicken Legs, Drumsticks, or Thighs $1.49/lb (you can freeze these for the season's first BBQ...defrost and marinate for the grill)

-Shaw's chuck stew $2.99/lb

-Shaw's boneless chuck roast $3.49/lb (for pot roast)

-Wild Harvest Fresh Ground Turkey $4.29/lb

-Wild Harvest Boneless Chicken Tenders

-Frozen raw shrimp $6.99/lb

-Haddock, tilapia, and trout $6.99/lb

-Steakhouse Choice Sirloin tips steak $6.99/lb

-Perdue split chicken breast $1.99/lb

-Prince Edward Island mussels $1.99/lb

Other deals:

-Morningstar products 2/$7 or $3.50 each (I like to buy these for a quick dinner when there's nothing to eat in the house, my favorite is Pizzaburger!)

-Kashi frozen pizzas $2/$11 or $5.50 each

-Organic ice cream $4.99 16 oz. Good deal!

-General Mills cereal, buy 2/$6 and get a coupon for free gallon of milk on your next trip. That's kind of cool. That's like getting the boxes of cereal for $1.50 each.

-Shaw's sugar $2.49/5 lb bag

-Kashi 7 whole grain pilaf 2/$4

-Contadina tomatoes 28 oz 4/$5

-Cabot VT cheese 2/$5

-Kraft Deli Natural Cheese Slices 2/$6

Produce Deals:

-Wild Harvest Organic baby green mix 11 oz. $4.99

-Squash, broccoli crowns, and mushrooms $.99

That's All! P.S. I've decided to tack on the post about freezing your own fruits and veggies along with the recipe for Freezermeal Friday. Keep your eyes peeled for it. See you all tomorrow!

Stop and Shop Sales

Hey guys! I don't really shop at stop and shop because it's too far away, but they have some really good deals. Whole wheat flour is $2.19/5 lbs. It's not organic, but it was such a good deal, I couldn't pass it up.

Here are the best deals from this week's sale circular, again - the best being in RED, the good being in plain old BLACK.

Organics:

28 oz. Nature's Promise canned tomatoes 2/$3. That's $.16 less than the next cheapest (365 WF). If I had a car I would buy 20 of these, no joke.*

Nature's Promise organic ice cream 2/$6. It's cheaper than Haagen Dasz and it's organic!

Nature's Promise Ground Turkey $3.59/lb. Stock up for burgers and chilis!*


Not Organics:

Barilla Pasta 10/$10 or $1 each...TJs has pasta everyday for $.99, but if you shop at S&S, this is a great sale!*

Bumblebee tuna $10/10 or $1 each...good deal (just be cautious of your mercury intake).*

Florida grapefruit 5 lb bag/$3...that's $.79/lb (WF has them for $.69/lb)

Stop and Shop Yogurt 6 oz. containers 20/$10 or $.50 each. This is even cheaper than if you had bought the big container of organic at TJs (but, buying in big containers and making portions yourself saves all the little containers from landfills, so...). It comes out to $.08/oz. Make sure you choose plain and add some fruit, honey, or nuts. All yogurt has good for you pro biotic bacteria, but you could probably do without all the added sugar (and in yogurts, there's a lot, that's why I make my own)

Friendly's Ice Cream 2/$6 or $3 each.

Green Seedless Grapes $.99/lb ( I didn't put them in red because they're not organic and not really a necessity...plus their shelf life isn't as long as something like apples, grapefruit, or oranges. I set the bar for Bold Red font high, people!)
Avocados $10/10 or $1 each, nice deal for making guacamole!


OK - that's it! A word of caution about "Nature's Promise"...their wording in the press is tricky, but not everything is organic. Only things marked "USDA organic" are...so be careful and happy shopping :).

* These are great items to help stock up/build your pantry ("pantry" includes your cabinets of dry goods and your freezer)!