Please describe your kitchen/pantry habits

[Anonymous]

How do you keep your kitchen and pantry stocked? My fridge and cabinets are usually full and yet I can't figure out what's in them or how it relates to our meals. I like to make meals based on what's on hand and my shopping lists tend to be disorganized. Do you shop for a week and then at the end of the week have very little left on hand, or do you always have certain items on hand, or what? I'm trying to get a grip on how groceries cycle through my kitchen and I'd love to hear what others do. TIA.

[Anonymous]

There are certain meals I make routinely and for those meals I like to have non-perishables on hand. So, for instance, every time I make a chicken I make enchiladas from the leftover roast. On hand in my pantry: at least 2-3 jars of mild green tomatillo salsa and dried black beans. Closer to the time I make them, I will get corn tortillas and monterey jack cheese on my weekly shop. Which is really more of a 2-3x.week shop. Other things I like to keep on hand: taco shells, ground turkey/hotdogs/chicken sausage (freezer), dried pasta, spaghetti sauce. That way I can cook meals quickly and easily if I get home too late to make something more complicated.

I have gone the route where I plan to the nth degree and have shopping lists for the week but I never stick with it. I usually figure out 2-3 meals for the week and then roll with the rest of the days.

[Anonymous]

We take the opposite approach, shopping once a week from a list determined from a week-long meal plan. It can be a pain at the beginning, but it is really easy once you get the hang of it. We also keep basics in the house -- pasta, ground turkey, breakfast foods etc -- in case we are too exhausted to cook what we had planned. We also eat a lot of leftovers for lunch.

[Anonymous]

I always have on hand a good supply of certain staples: brown and white rice, different kinds of pasta, and couscous, as well as a few boxes of organic mac and cheese and rice pilafs for quick meals. In another cupboard, I have all my baking stuff: white and whole wheat flour, sugar (white and brown), baking soda and powder, special flavorings (almond, lemon, vanilla, etc), pancake mix, baking mixes, muffin liners, etc. In my pantry, I stock canned beans of all kinds, canned tomatoes (whole, paste, sauce, puree), oils, vinegars, canned fish, and other canned goods. I always try to have some ground turkey in the freezer, as well as pre-shaped burgers and veggie burgers, and plastic containers of home-made spaghetti sauce, soup, chili, and beans. This way there's always something we can eat on one of those rushed evenings. Everything else I buy fresh (fruit, veggies, bread, meat, fish, and chicken) once or twice a week. Anytime I see one of my staples on sale, I stock up. My husband, of course, thinks we have an automatic self-replenishing kitchen (except for cheese, beer and liquor, which he makes special trips to buy, naturally).

[Anonymous]

I love to cook and don't like to plan meals ahead, but, as you've noted, this requires keeping the pantry stocked. So, I put a bulletin board on the inside of the pantry door and tack up a list of staples, which I keep on my computer. When somebody notices we're running low on one of the staples, they highlight the item on the list. When we go to the grocery store, we just take the list with us. Then we print out a new list and stick it on the bulletin board. (In an uncharacteristically compulsive moment I actually arranged the items on th list in th order in which they're located as you cruise up and down the grocery store aisles. This is embarrassing to admit, but I have to say it has made shopping speedier.) So, how do you come up with a list? Start with many of the items PPs have already noted, or you can check cookbooks and online sources for standard lists, then just add items that you find you use a lot. Here's what I've got right now:

beans --cannellini, black and kidney
pasta -- linguini, lasagna noodles, fusillli, penne
rice -- brown Basmati and arborio
Isreali couscous
canned tomatoes, sundried tomatoes in oil, and tomato paste
soba noodles
tamari sauce
vinegars -- balsamic, red wine, cider
honey and Dijon mutard
mango and cranberry chutney
garlic, onions, shallots and ginger
honey, maple syrup and brown sugar
almonds and walnuts

This is geting too long, so I'm not going to list spices, dairy products or snack items that are also used in cooking (e.g., salsa), and I'm not even going to start with baking items. This should get you going, though. Have fun and bon appetit!

[Anonymous]

I googled "master grocery shopping list" and found one that I could just print out.