A well stocked pantry (and fridge and freezer) is a beautiful thing

With a new baby arriving any day now my thoughts are turning to those first few weeks of complete and utter chaos as the fam adjusts to the new regime. With both our girls I prepared for the exhaustion by cooking like a woman possessed during those blessed weeks of nesting. I seriously went crazy. I would cook from 9am until 1am and then cry about the dishes. I've been so busy this go around though that I haven't had a chance. Instead I'm stocking my pantry with all the staples so that making dinner will be easy and fast without needing to run to the grocery store cause I'm missing 1 or 2 things for a recipe, annoying!

I try to keep a well stocked pantry year round regardless of the state of my womb. Inspiration hits me often and I don't like to wait to try out a new recipe or invent something on the fly. I buy a lot of items on sale and really stock up, like when the grocery store has pasta on for 99¢ a bag or cases of soup for 1/2 price (Canada doesn't have the amazing coupon deals the US has, I be jealous), this saves a ton of money in the long run.

With school about to start up again this is also a great way to prepare for that big readjustment. School and activities can leave a lot of parents struggling with what to make for dinner in the 15 minutes before they have to race out the door again, having everything at your fingertips can ease the strain a bit!

I've compiled a list of items I always keep on hand for anyone who would like to keep their kitchen well stocked:

Pantry
Extra virgin olive oil
Canola/Vegetable oil
Cooking spray
Chicken, Beef and Veggie broth in tetra packs
Canned Tomatoes
Canned Tomato Sauce
Canned beans
Canned soups (Cream of Mushroom, Tomato & Cream of Celery)
Dried pasta (in many shapes)
Rice
Oats
Worcestershire sauce
Mustard
Ketchup
Pickles
Olives
Nuts
BBQ Sauce

Dried Herbs and Spices
Bay leaves
Cayenne pepper
Cinnamon
Garlic powder
Onion Powder
Whole Nutmeg
Oregano
Thyme
Sea Salt
Kosher salt
Smoked Paprika
Italian Seasoning
Steak Seasoning
Vanilla Beans

Baking
Baking powder
Baking soda
Brown sugar
Granulated sugar
Powdered Sugar
Cornstarch
White flour
Whole wheat flour
Chocolate (Chips, Squares, Chunks)
Unsweetened cocoa powder
Honey
Pure Vanilla Extract
Fat Free Pudding Mix

In the Fridge
Low fat milk
Homogenized Milk
Whipped Cream
Half & Half
Yogurt
Eggs
Cheeses
Ranch Dressing
Italian Dressing
Unsalted Butter

In the Freezer
Frozen veggies (peas, corn, broccoli, etc.)
Frozen fruits (berries, pineapple, mango, etc.)
Frozen Pizza Dough Balls
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts (I get mine at M&M Meatshops, cheap!)

Fresh
Garlic
Onions
Lemons
Potatoes
Peppers (of every colour)
Green Onions
Mushrooms
Pita Bread
Naan Bread

Breakfast Drawer*
Bread
Peanut Butter
Nutella
Honey
Cinnamon Sugar Mix
English Muffins
Cereal
Oatmeal


*The Breakfast Drawer

I mentioned my Breakfast Drawer on Twitter a while back and got a lot of response on it. Everyone wanted to know WHAT it was. The Breakfast Drawer is a pot drawer in my kitchen island that has everything related to breakfast in it. I keep the bread, toaster, peanut butter, Nutella, honey, cereal, oatmeal, etc... in there. Why? Well, I have this great wish that when my kids are old enough to wake up on Saturday mornings and come down without waking us up, they can easily get themselves a bowl of cereal or some toast cause everything is all together and completely accessible to them (I keep their plastic plates and cutlery in the drawer right above the Breakfast Drawer). I like having the toaster in there cause it keeps it off the counter freeing up space and keeping the kitchen less cluttered looking. It sits on a cookie sheet to catch crumbs making it easier to keep the drawer neat and clean.

Big Changes at the Best Mom House

If you follow my blog you know I love food. I love chocolate, butter, cheese, peanut butter... you get the picture. My family eats well. I offer a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, meats and pastas. I try to keep it as healthy as I can but when a recipe calls for a cup of butter I don't shy away.

My wonderful husband had a physical for the first time in years (since I met him I think!) and his blood work came back with bad news. He has really high cholesterol. High enough that our doctor wanted him on Crestor® immediately. I felt terrible. Did I do this to my husband? Did I force him onto a medication that he has to take for the rest of his life so that his arteries don't block, so that he doesn't develop heart disease, so that he doesn't die of a massive heart attack or stroke? Turns out high cholesterol is hereditary and his mom had it, but what I was doing in the kitchen certainly didn't help.

This is why I've been MIA from posting for the past few weeks. As soon as we got the call I was online researching what he couldn't have anymore and what foods would help his medication reverse the damage we'd done to his arteries. All his favourites had to go: chips, peanuts, bologna, butter, hot dogs; others we had to cut way back on: red meat, cheese; and some we were able to find substitutions for that he found to be just as good: switching from 2% milk to 1%, almonds instead of peanuts. I've become a pro at reading labels, scouring the contents for the amounts of cholesterol, calories, fat and the biggie, sodium. I've incorporated cranberry, flax seed and pomegranate into his everyday diet. His daily veggie/fruit intake has quadrupled. And the best part: our whole family is eating better.

I know what you're thinking... "oh no! This blog is going all health nut!". Not quite. My dear husband is not a dessert guy, opting to have seconds instead of cake since he was a kid. So desserts were never an issue (except for cookie dough, the guy can eat a whole bowl of it!) so desserts are staying! Also, I plan to work a monthly "treat" food into our dinner rotation once we get the okay that his numbers have come down. Something that might be a bit decadent, like something made with real butter perhaps. But for the most part I'll be making meals that are good for you AND extremely tasty!

I hope you take this opportunity to follow along and make some changes in your family as well so that one day you don't get a call like we got, or worse. Happy healthy eating!

Coming Clean

I was talking to Christy of Beach Brights fame and she mentioned that her pantry had become a hoarders delight. It was messy and disorganized. I chuckled with her about how it would be fun to do a post on tidying up her pantry, and that's when it hit me, my own pantry was... well.. let's just say it looks like Gremlins attacked it at 12:01am. Nothing was on it's "right" shelf, I knew I had duplicates of some stuff but couldn't find them, and it was so crammed I had overflow onto my very precious counter space.

I know, shocking right? How do I cook like this? I can tell you it took longer than it should to make a lot of my recipes cause I was hunting for stuff.

Now, I live in a house with 2 kids under 4, an 18 year old boy and a husband, all of whom have never understood the term "put it back where you found it" so essentially I had given up. It was an open the door, throw it in, and close the door super fast kind of situation.

Inspired by Christy, I set out one night, while watching Grey's Anatomy to organize my pantry. I'm a happy cook now... and if I see anyone putting something back where it doesn't belong... no dessert for them for a week!



Head on over to

to see how Christy did with her pantry!