Cleaning Out Your Pantry is a First Step Toward Eating a Plant-Based Food Plan
Organizing your pantry works best when combined with grocery lists and menu planning. Moving to a plant-based food plan involves learning about the foods you need to eat. I used a typed grocery list I made on Google docs as a table. It is very easy and allows me to compartmentalize my shopping. With these grocery pre-printed lists, I simply have to circle what I need. But first, I had to find out what foods I wanted to eat.
From 14 Tips to Organize Your Pantry:
This post has a list of 14 tips so I will re-post a few of them. I only include excerpts in my content curation but by clicking on the link, you can read the whole post.
1. Designate areas for different types of food such as baked goods; breakfast items like cereal, oatmeal, jams, spreads and syrups; grains; bottled, canned and boxed beverages; tea and coffee; snacks; boxed or canned stocks; condiments; and oil and vinegar.
2. Label shelves as a reminder when unpacking or when looking for foods.
3. Keep a section of “instant” meals like mac and cheese, instant noodles, or canned or boxed soups together for those times when you need something quick.
4. If you cook a lot of ethnic foods, keep those ingredients together. For example, keep Italian ingredients like pasta, jarred tomato sauce, canned tomatoes, tomato and anchovy paste together, or group Asian ingredients like cans of coconut milk, curry paste and soy sauce.
From How to Organize a Pantry:
This is a 11 slides post from Wikihow.
From Nutrition tips for 14 days at home:
Between social distancing and self-quarantining, grocery store shelves are stocked with limited supplies as many people try to stock up knowing they can’t leave the house for 14 days. Debra Silverman, a Mayo Clinic dietitian, says that shopping for 14 days at home doesn’t have to become stressful.
First and foremost, Silverman says, make a list.
“Now is the time to double-check the pantry, fridge and freezer, and make a list of what you need that will last. All of us at some point realize when we’re back in our car halfway home, ‘I should have bought some flour or I needed sugar,’” Silverman says.
Silverman also offers these tips:
Think about your family and a new routine.
“You may have kids eating lunch at home now, so you might want to have things like extra peanut butter and jelly for sandwiches. Or flour and sugar, for example, if you’re planning a baking project with your kids,” she says.
Consider alternative options.
While dairy and fresh produce are staples for many households, Silverman says don’t forget shelf-stable alternatives or frozen options. “You can buy egg whites in cartons if you can’t find eggs, for instance,” she says. “Shelf-stable items, such as powered milk, frozen fruits and vegetables, or canned (fruits and vegetables), are always good to have on hand,” she says.
From Food Storage Organization; Tips, Ideas and Inspiration:
“It’s time to put the items in the Keep pile back into your food storage space, following the basic organizing principles that we’ve used over the last few months. Remember, it’s all about:
- maximizing storage space by using solutions that take advantage of vertical space and make the back of deep spaces accessible
- using appropriate containers to keep food items within the same categories together (and separate from other categories)
- using labels to increase the chance that you and your family members will put things where they belong
- create an inventory of your freezer and pantry contents as you put everything away. You can download my printable meal planning kit, which contains both a pantry and freezer inventory.
