How to Stock Your Pantry

If you’re brand new to eliminating gluten, dairy, and sugar from your diet, one of the easiest ways to get started is to clean out your pantry. There are many harmful things lurking in there, waiting to lure you back into their inflammatory clutches.

What to Eliminate

• Start with the dry pasta and/or anything that has wheat or flour listed as an ingredient.
• Condiments like soy sauce and bbq sauce where added sugar and gluten are present
• Unhealthy snacks, candy, crackers, protein bars, and shake mixes (full of sugar and whey protein isolates)
• Canned goods, soups (check the labels for wheat/flour)

The list goes on and on. Read your labels! You’ll be surprised how many things have gluten, dairy, and hidden sugar!

Organize & Stock Up

Food is a big deal in our house, and as a Project Manager, it all has to have a system and make sense. I would recommend a basic list of item categories:

Cooking and Baking Essentials:

For baking, I keep coconut sugar, turbinado sugar, sucanat and molasses on hand. I do have an organic cane sugar both powdered and granulated if I need to bake something for my boys who will revolt if I try to monk fruit them!

I have several GF flours on hand, and Mexican & Kirkland Vanilla (both GF) are in there as well.

I also keep a gluten-free brown gravy mix in there for those certain meals that Jeff requires it. I have organic free-range chicken broth and bone broth’s on hand as well. 

Condiments (Sauces & Oils)

I have at all times a plethora of organic extra virgin olive oil, Mustard, and agave-sweetened ketchup. Artichokes hearts and nuts and seeds are in there too.

Canned Goods

I always keep a can or two of baked beans, chickpeas, red beans, white cannellini beans, and an organic bean mix from Costco. I love to make my own red sauce, so I’ll keep the Muir Glen organic roasted tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and paste. I have black olives, tuna, and sardines. Other than that, I’m not super big on canned goods.

Dry Goods

Everything gluten-free! I have pasta for spaghetti, spiral for pasta salads, and even some elbows to make dairy-free mac and cheese. I do have some Simple Mills crackers and Trader Joe’s chips (for the boys). I also GF oats and basmati rice.

Other dry items I keep in my pantry are paper towels, napkins, extra toilet paper, dog food, and cat food.

Beverages

Coffee, tea, and bottled water. I always have water on hand! I also have tonic water, lemon, and lime juice.

Spices & Herbs

I must have garlic salt, garlic powder, tri-colored peppercorns, and parsley for my signature seasoning mix. Some of my other staples would be Italian Seasoning Blend by Frontier Organics and Smoked Paprika for topping my fish and deviled eggs, Saffron, Thyme, Rosemary (although I always use fresh), Montreal Steak Seasoning, Celtic Sea Salt, and more.

Inspiration

You can organize your pantry however you like. My husband was so kind as to not only move my pantry to make it accessible from the actual kitchen, but he added more useful shelves. He even included a special shelving system just for all of my herbs and spices!

Our pantry is currently under construction, so if you need a little extra inspiration check out my Pantry board on Pinterest:

I have a process for everything I do, even shopping. WE (Hubby and I) both shop weekly at Costco, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and maybe Petco. We have a plan for our household, we work as a team and we all agree on our process. It’s a powerful synergy! We don’t waste food; we eat the shit out of our leftovers and pack our lunches daily.

Now that you have embraced your brand-new lifestyle of eating clean, what do you keep on hand to keep the momentum successful? Every pantry should have some useful things in case the zombie apocalypse or the pandemic gets out of control. Or you have a snack attack and really want to be bad. Stock up with healthy things and be prepared!