Pantry Staples

This post is more a reminder/organizational memo for myself than anything else. I was standing in my pantry the other day, frustrated that I didn’t have “anything” to fix for dinner.  The feeling was idiotic and ironic, because my pantry is stuffed—overloaded—with food. Canned goods galore, syrups, condiments, spices, oils, grains, and beans.  There’s chips and cookies, and baking supplies.  And yet, I couldn’t think of a way to use any of it to make a meal.  When a good chunk of the world goes hungry every night, my home is full of food and I don’t know what to do with it.  Pathetic. Embarrassing.

I need to take stock.  And then I need to get a bit creative, broaden my definition of what makes a good meal, and thank God for giving me so much.

Fortunately, later in that same day, as I was idling away some time, I found a recipe in a magazine that inspired me. (After I’d ordered pizza.)  It required two cans of garbanzo beans.  I don’t have canned garbanzo beans, but I had about a pound of dried ones.  I think they’ve been in the pantry for well over a year.  I don’t remember buying them, but I must have, because they were stored in a quart jar with my handwriting on the lid, saying “dried chickpeas.”

So, as I write this morning, I am quick-soaking the beans, so I can cook them up and make up this recipe.  I’ll post about the recipe itself, later.  Right now, I’m going to inventory the things in my pantry.  I have:

15 lb. brown rice

4 lb. brown sugar

1 #10 can each: dried celery, powdered egg, dehydrated onion, freeze dried strawberries, dried carrots, quick oats, regular oats, white flour, sugar, high gluten flour, baking soda, salt (oh, wait, I have two cans of salt), dried apple slices, raisins, dehydrated potato slice, potato pearls, Marshmallow Mateys, refried beans, black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans

2 qt. dried black eyed peas

2 lbs. dried split peas

4 cans tuna

7 qts. canned salmon (canned for me by the amazing Merrill Dougal)

2 cans clams

10 pints beef chunks

3 pints beef broth

three rubbermaid containers the size of mailboxes full of various herbs and spices

1 little jar baking powder

2 bottles vanilla

1 five gallon bucket whole white wheat

1 five gallon bucket (almost gone) white rice

25 lb. bag rolled oats

5 lb. bag flour

1 five gallon bucket (nearly empty) sugar

4 lb. powdered sugar

odds and ends bags of corn chips

2 jars peanut butter (one creamy, one chunky)

1 jar strawberry jam

12 qt. canned peaches

12 qt. canned beets

half pint of tomato relish

A big “thing” of chicken bouillon cubes

half a box of chocolate cheerios

2/3 box of some high fiber cereal my husband eats

6 oz. bag of white chocolate chips

1 jar molasses (3/4 full)

1 bottle (unopened) ketchup

2 or 3 cans each: golden corn, green beans, beets

1 large bottle olive oil

1 large bottle canola oil

1 gallon white vinegar

1 bottle balsamic vinegar

That’s just what I remember off the top of my head—I’m sure some of the amounts are off, but still—I look at that list and think—how can I not find a way to make a decent meal out of some of that?