Pantry Pride

A well stocked pantry can save your butt. Doing one from nothing is expensive and sucks. I've found that with a few simple odd things and watching the sales, you can generally stuff your pantry. Here's a few lists of my must haves in the pantry. I try to pick up one or two things just for the pantry when I do my weekly shopping. It's like having a food savings account. With the right crap in your pantry, you can usually pull something out of your hat when you have an empty wallet. If you need just one for a dinner, see if you can afford to get two. If not, ok. Maybe next time.

General dry staples:
These are the ones that it comes in really handy to have when you have to fake something from scratch.
Flour
Baking Soda
Baking Powder
Brown Sugar
Corn Flour (Maseca)
Corn Starch
Sugar
Potato Flakes
Dry beans
Rice - regular and instant
Pasta - 2 different forms, like spaghetti noodles and rotini

Standard Spices:
If I can't get these for 50 cents a bottle, I buy the giant size. We do go through some spices around here.
Onion Powder
Garlic Powder
Italian Seasoning Mix
Adobo Crillolo
As many different boullion types as I can find.
Lemon Pepper
Cinnamon
Chili Powder
Ground Red Pepper
Cumin
Seasoning Salt
Salt
Pepper

BOGO Stock:
When these come on buy one get one sales or if it's something that is just naturally cheap, make sure you have at least two of them in your pantry and maybe one in the fridge.
Ken's Vidalia Onion Salad Dressing
Ken's Raspberry Vinaigrette Salad Dressing
Italian Salad Dressing
Caesar Salad Dressing
Mayo
Ketchup
BBQ Sauce
Mustard
Kikoman Stir fry sauce (the green label)
Favorite Salad dressing
Rice a roni
Macaroni and cheese
Spray Oil
Taco sauce
Salsa

You need at least one:
Vinegar
Minced Garlic
Lemon Juice
Pancake syrup
Cake mix
Frosting
Gravy mixes - beef, chicken, turkey, white, mushroom
Taco mix packet
Fajita mix packet
Sloppy joe sauce (the cheapest you can find)

Canned goods:
Choose 5 different veggies and keep at least 2 cans of each in the pantry.
Spaghetti sauce x3
Tomato sauce
Chopped tomatoes, get a few different variations
Chicken stock
Beef Stock
Veggie Stock
Cream of Chicken Soup
Cream of Asparagus Soup
Cream of Mushroom Soup
Chili beans or Kidney beans

Super Cool to have:
Taco Shells
Rice or cellophane noodles
Tiger Sauce
Pickapeppa Sauce
Honey
Just add water pancake mix
Saffron
Water chestnuts
Bamboo shoots

Once you get your pantry stocked, the amount of things you can do with a little of this and that is amazing. It takes a while to get it set up and to remember you have to replace stock from time to time. So worth it.