My Pantry Staples

            I had always been health conscious but I remember back when I was only starting to get into healthy baking and cooking, I would look up recipes online and have no idea what half of the ingredients were, or how they reacted when baking.

           

Some of the following ingredients are pretty different but a lot of them are just items you would walk past in the supermarket all the time. It’s small swaps and changes in the ingredients you buy and the types of foods you eat that can improve your health exponentially. No one changes everything overnight, and often when that happens it hard to keep sustainable, we return to what we find comfortable.

So I started by just swapping a few of my ingredients with healthier options and incorporated what worked for me into my staples, and not everything did. For instance, I have tried coconut flour so many times, determined to make it work in my baking (it never did, really not loving the texture) and that I would grow to like the taste (nope, just no way), so that particular health food didn’t make its way into my pantry staples. And that’s ok, what works for one wont work for all, and I found that a combination of buckwheat four or brown rice flour, with a mix of almond meal has an awesome consistency in my baking, so I use that instead. You will find healthier swaps that will work for you; the key is to keep trying and experimenting, not too much at once but not giving up on healthier options all together when you aren’t a fan of a few of them. It doesn’t have to be an all or nothing change, but surrounding yourself with healthy, nutritious food is a good way to start, as we will eat what is available.

I love to fill my fridge with fruit and vegetables, and they are usually what make up the majority of my food shops, but I will always have the other ingredients listed here available in my pantry.

Flours & Baking Items:

Buckwheat Flour

Brown Rice Flour

Oat Flour (or just rolled oats that I grind up into flour when I need to)

Almond Meal

Hazelnut Meal

Millet Meal

Baking Powder

Baking Soda

Vanilla Extract

Flaxseed Meal (my egg replacement)

Coconut Sugar

Rice Malt Syrup

Coconut Nectar

Coconut Oil

Spice Rack:

Cinnamon

Nutmeg

Clove

Turmeric

Ginger

Chili Flakes

Cayenne Pepper

Coriander Root

Cardamom

Oregano

Coriander

Chives

Thyme

Sage

Basil

Black Pepper Corns

Himalayan Pink Salt

Superfood Powders:

Maca Powder

Camu Camu Powder

Mesquite Powder

Lucuma Powder

Acai Berry Powder

Glow Inner Beauty Powder by The Beauty Chef

Pantry Goods:

Raw Cacao Powder

Carob Powder

Bee Pollen

Unhulled Tahini

Hulled Tahini

Nut Butter

Manuka Honey

100% Fruit Jam (no added sugar)

Unsweetened Almond Milk

Nutritional Yeast Flakes

Almonds

Walnuts

Pecans

Cashews

Peanuts

Sunflower Seeds

Pepita Seeds

Chia Seeds

Buckwheat Groats

Goji berries

Sultanas

Dates

Cranberries

Shredded Coconut

Rolled Oats

Popcorn Kernels

Millet

Quinoa

Lentils

Brown Rice

White Rice

Corn Pasta

Gluten Free Pasta

Organic Tinned Tomatoes

Organic Coconut Milk/Cream

Organic Tinned Beans

Fridge:

Unsweetened Almond Milk

Tamari

Mustard

Apple Cider Vinegar

Fruit (usually fruit that’s in season, and as much as I can afford)

Veggies (these also change depending on the season, I will eat almost any veg, except peas…)

Freezer:

Banana

Mango

Berries

Lemon Juice (ice cubes)

Coconut Milk/Cream (ice cubes)

Passion Fruit Pulp (ice cubes)

Kale

Corn

Leftovers

Other:

Lemon

Banana

Avocado

White Potato

Sweet Potato

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Coconut Oil

Coffee

Tea (Green, Black and Herbal Selections)

Let me know what swaps you want to make with your food choices; I’d love to hear them! I hope you are all having an amazing day!

‘When you change the way you look at something, what you look at will change’ – Deepak Chopra