Basic Pantry Staples for Home Cooking

For a good idea of what basic pantry staples for home cooking are, it is good to think of all of the different types of foods that you need for a balanced diet.

Plate Recommendations

A good place to refer to is the example of a good plate on myplate.gov.

This shows us that a balanced meal should have about half of the plate filled with a combination of fruits and vegetables, with a bit more vegetables than fruit.

The other half of the plate should have protein and grains, with a bit more grains than protein. Dairy is shown as a glass of milk in the myplate.gov example, but can be incorporated in a variety of ways.

Of course there are many diets and many ways to split these things up, but this gives us a good general guideline for a balanced meal for most.

Basic Pantry Staples

With these basic guidelines in mind, let’s go over things that we can keep in stock in our basic pantry to be ready to prepare meals for our families on short notice. By keeping back stock and staple items ready, we can avoid having to plan too much and can eat what we want and be more flexible with ourselves.

Breads/Grains

• To make homemade biscuits, I keep White Lily self-rising flour on hand at all times
• To make southern fried cornbread, I keep corn meal and baking powder
• Nature’s Own Honey Wheat Bread is good to keep in stock for sandwiches and toast
• Jiffy corn muffin mix makes an easy bread option
• Pearl Milling Company makes a great pancake mix that’s complete and you just add water for easy pancakes or waffles

• I keep a variety of noodles so that I can make chicken and noodles, spaghetti, butter noodles, or other pasta dishes anytime
• I keep white rice on hand
• Zatarains black beans and rice are an excellent quick side

Vegetables

• Some seasonal fresh veggies each week
• Pictsweet Roasted Vegetables are great to throw on a sheet pan- I drizzle them in olive oil and sprinkle on some seasonings- usually something like garlic powder, salt, and pepper, maybe some onion powder
• Frozen zucchini and squash makes an easy quick side, you can just throw it in the oven for 15-20 minutes and sprinkle some seasonings and drizzle olive oil on it – I like to broil it a little at the end
• Frozen corn on the cob- easy to cook in oven
• Turnip Greens with roots- boil for about 30 minutes with a couple tablespoons of oil- I usually do canola oil
• Butter beans – aka baby Lima beans- Walmart has some that are microwaveable which makes them a lot faster- but I still finish them off in a pot and put butter in them. Pictsweet ones are also really good, they just take longer since they cook on the stove the whole time- about 20-30 minutes

Proteins/Meats

• Steak- I like sirloins and I pan sear them first on each side and then bake them at 425. Cook to the desired internal temperature and check with a meat thermometer.
• Chicken- I like to keep boneless, skinless breasts that are individually frozen in the freezer so that I can always make chicken and noodles (an easy and well loved family favorite) or any chicken dish any time. You can also buy rotisserie chicken, cut it up, and have it in the fridge to use in your recipes. It’s cheap and already cooked.
• Ground beef- ready for easy staples like spaghetti, tacos, and chili
• Bacon
• Aidell’s sausages
• Ground sausage- great in breakfast casserole

Fruits

• Bananas
• Apples
• Strawberries
• Mandarin Oranges (Halo/Cuties- because they’re easy for kids to peel and shouldn’t have seeds)

Dairy

• Mexican blend shredded cheese – I keep this in stock for tacos and for making easy nachos. You can microwave it sprinkled on tortilla chips for a very quick and easy snack
• Milk- great for a super easy meal/snack with cereal and of course an ingredient in many baked goods
• Sliced cheese for sandwiches and grilled cheese

Spices/Kits/Sauces

• Taco Seasoning Kits- I use the Old El Paso meal kits
• Chili seasoning packets- I like McCormick’s if you want an easy dump it in way- or you can do it yourself with mainly chili powder and other spices to taste
• Spaghetti sauce- I like Classico
• Alfredo sauce- I like Classico on this too
• Salsa- I like to keep this on the weekly list because it’s an easy snack with tortilla chips

Oils

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil- I drizzle it on fresh vegetables when I chop and bake them or cook them in the pan
• Pam Olive oil spray- I spray this on my pans when baking
• Land O Lakes spreadable
• Land O Lakes stick butter in half sticks- this makes it easier for using in cooking to me
• Canola oil- I use this in biscuits and for frying French fries and corn bread and for seasoning turnip greens

This is just a start

These are the main things that come to mind for me in each big category. Having them on hand helps me to be able to create meals quickly. I can just pick things from the different categories and combine them to make a meal.

Brainstorm Family Faves

My ideas can be a jumping off point, but you can brainstorm what your family likes. You can use those ideas to create your best custom list.

It’s good to have 4-5 go to meals, like my 5 super easy lunch/dinner meals. For these main meals, try to always have the ingredients ready to make them. If you get busy and realize you forgot to plan for lunch or dinner, it will be no problem. You can always just whip together a meal real quick and you know you have what you need.

Take pictures of the meals you make

I have an album on my phone of food cooked by me. In it, I keep pictures of meals that I feel like I have done a good job on or I want to remember to make again. For the album, I just quickly snap a picture of the plated meal. When I’m stumped and can’t figure out what to cook, I can always look back at that album for ideas.

I almost always see something when I look back that I used to love and sort of forgot about and then I’m all excited to make it again. Sometimes we just get into rhythms and get bored and there may be things we’ve done before that can help us. If you help yourself remember your good ideas, you can use them again.

Keep Learning New Skills to Make it Better With Time

I know there are processed foods in here and I wish it was all one hundred percent from scratch and perfectly healthy. This is a realistic picture as is. I’ve improved over the years and plan to keep learning more skills to help me make more foods from scratch and healthier choices. I’m a work in progress.

Check out these favorites of mine!

I hope this helped to get your wheels turning and keep you ready to feed your family without stress. Be sure to check out my recipe for Southern homemade biscuits for a quick and easy bread option. If I can’t think of anything to cook and I’m really needing to get something going, I just try to start making biscuits and they’re a great go-to for any time of day. Happy eating!