An Organized Whole-Foods Pantry

More so in recent times, it's come to my attention that the state of the kitchen (or should I say, the center of the home, where we usually congregate, eat, talk, dream, prepare, settle down with a cup of tea at night) should be as clean and organized as possible - for heaven's sake! 

There are many reasons for this, the biggest being that I'm a busy person and simply put, I need to know what I have. That's it. We've all bought several bags of beans only to realize that we've bought too much - and that for the next 6 months we must succumb to eating the beans, otherwise, we'd risk them becoming extra gassy, old, stale, hard to digest and well, just plain stinky. It's good to know what you have and use it in a timely manner. 

The second reason is efficiency. When I'm hungry and I want to make something to eat, I can't spend time rummaging through what I have. Like a child, "I need to eat, and I need to eat now!" I'm very visual and I need to see what I have instantly, so that I can whip something up in a jiffy and impress everyone on the block (actually, not really, that never happens....it's just about whipping something up fast and enjoy the pleasure that comes with filling a hungry belly). This is also very helpful when it comes to shopping. Since everything is in glass jars, I can see when we're running out of oats, raisins, and cannelini. There's no rummaging through bags (brown, plastic, or otherwise), and things are neat and in order. 

The last reason is that we're all hoping to eat better, so we should really set ourselves up for success in every way possible. If you have nothing in the house that's healthy or good to eat, then we're more apt to go out, order in, or just buy something in a hungry frenzy. Keeping yourself stocked with good things enables you to eat well, simply put. It's a no-brainer.

So, for these reasons, I wanted to show you what's in my pantry, and to encourage you to keep things in the kitchen organized, neat, clean, but fun and creative also. Use this as an opportunity to create a fun space for yourself! Get back to the "old way" of living where we ditch the boxes of prepackaged goods (actually, un-goods), and go for whole, recognizable foods!

Here's the scoop for what you should include:  

1.  Grains (and please whenever opt for beautifying non-gluten grains, as gluten makes oh not so beautiful):  teff, millet, quinoa, buckwheat and oats. Also include flours if you're a baker, but if you're not, best to store them in your freezer. I go through spells - I'll make some scones, and then I won't bake for another 2 months. Therefore, the freezer is my best friend.

2.  Beans:  I love beans to sprout (aduki and mung) and beans to eat (black, cannelini, chickpeas). Having them in glass containers makes it super easy for me to soak them over night and then cook them in a pressure cooker with some kombu. I make big batches and use what I need and freeze the rest. Doing this enables us to ditch the cans (bpa, no way!) and the extra money they cost by making the beans yourself. 

3. Seaweeds: I just mentioned kombu which is super important to have - anything that requires water should get about 1 or 2 inches of this baby in it (think stews, soups, rice, grains, beans, anything that requires water to cook). It's one super simple step to make sure your food is more digestible and infused with the minerals from seaweed. In addition to kombu, we have a big basket of:  hijiki, nori, dulse, and a myriad of other seaweeds. I love just clipping them into salads, or having them in shakers to be used as a salt alternative. Just make sure they're not from the waters of Asia but more from Maine like from this site, so that you're not getting a dose of pollutants in with your seaweed. 

4.  Nuts/seeds:  we love seeds and nuts (I love seeds more than nuts, but it's all individual preference). Since we don't use much oil, we tend to use the whole food variety and add in sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds to our cereals, to much on as a snack, and what have you. We keep overstock in the freezer and keep what we need on hand (they go rancid quickly, so take out and put in mason jars what you'd use for the week). 

5.  Spices:  I LOVE LOVE LOVE spices. It's so easy to make something taste absolutely gourmet and spectacular with a pinch of this and a pinch of that - and not to mention that many of them are medicinal (like ginger and cayenne boosts metabolism, clove boosts immunity, garlic just makes everything taste good, etc.) I keep my spices fresh in an Indian spice box, and add them to nut milks to create chai or even to plain rice for a little kick.  You're also more apt to use them if they look nice. The remainder of the spices that don't fit in the spice trays, I just labeled them and put them in a basket for easy grabbing.

6.  Aliums and roots: we keep our potatoes and onions in big open glass jars or baskets, so that we can see when we're short (or see when they're spoiling - since onions are water rich, their shelf life isn't as long as one might wish. You can also keep these in your garage if it's cold enough, or your fridge, but I've found that I'd rather use my fridge for greens than onions. Also, when kept in glass jars, I can see them better and use them up faster). We're not big on white potatoes, but sweet potatoes/yams and 3 kinds of onions (red, yellow and sweet) are always in our pantry.

7. Fruit: I happen to like room temperature fruit. I also like to see it so I can eat it - again, opening the fridge is too hard for me sometimes and in the cold of winter, I don't really want to eat a cold orange. All of our fruit is out in easy to grab baskets. This also helps greatly when it comes time to shop for food.

8. Herbs: one of the things we've done this year is really get proactive about making our own teas, growing our own herbs, and drying them. We have lemon balm, different kinds of peppermints, and nettles (which make an amazing mineral-rich infusion). I also have a huge bin of my herbs for making tinctures, infusions, medicinals, and keep them neatly placed in a wicker basket for easy grabs. At night, it's easy for me to remember to make a raspberry leaf infusion on the stove and drink it up the next morning. 

This is pretty much it in a nutshell. As you can see, when everything has a place and a creative order to it, it's actually MUCH easier to eat healthy. No more rummaging through cabinets when you're starving (or if you only have cabinets, just designate one for herbs, one for beans, one for grains, and then all you need to do is open the door and everything is at your disposal).