Wave goodbye to a messy kitchen shelf and say hello to an organized pantry. It must not only a neat and clean pantry, but filled with nutritious and delicious ingredients. Do not waste your time looking for the right ingredients because you fail to arrange them accordingly. It is better that you know just where to get them whenever necessary during your cooking or baking time. Here are tips and ideas of how your kitchen pantry should look like.
1. Keep Your Pantry Full
The basic rule in regards to kitchen pantry is to make it full. All the essential ingredients for your regular diet must be present and displayed in this shelf. It makes your cooking or baking more productive because every ingredient is available for your needs. You have to make a list of the foods and ingredients that you mostly use for cooking.
2. Use as Many Jars and Bottles as You Can
If you do not have old or recycled bottles and jars, buy them. You have to make sure every ingredient has storage or container. They need to be packed thoroughly so no insects can intrude in and eat them gradually. Plus, if it is sealed, those food ingredients won’t easily get spoiled. You can store anything for weeks as long as it does not reach the labeled expiration date if you can put them in a bottle or jar.
3. Group Foods and Ingredients with the Same Item
Before you have a pantry or even a kitchen, you should already know which are condiments, which are fruits, which are vegetables, which are protein-producing meat, and so forth and so on. That way you can easily store spices all together in one place, then in another corner for the garnishes, fruits, vegetables, meat, canned foods and the like.
4. Stack Foods with Labels
To easily find what you are looking for, the containers must have labels. You just have to open the cabinet or the container, which helps save time. Besides, some ingredients and condiments, like spices, have similar features in terms of color and size. To avoid confusion, the label will help you just what to grab whenever you need them to add to your dish.
5. Fill in the Pantry with Healthy Foods
The most important of all is to have all foods and ingredients that are rich in vitamins and minerals. Here are some of the foods that you need to buy and store in the kitchen pantry.
1. Antioxidant Fruits and Vegetables – These include broccoli, spinach, kale, lettuce, cabbage, carrots, bell peppers, tomatoes, avocados, papayas, apples, and berries (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, etc.)
2. Colored Fruits – The pantry will look nice if you place fruits according to colors. Have the yellow fruits, such as mangoes, peaches, pears, and bananas, group together in one large basket, then another for the green ones, like avocados, kiwis and green apples.
3. Dried Pasta – Spaghetti, fettuccini, macaroni and ravioli are just some of the favorite types of pastas that you can cook regularly. Well, each type of pasta needs to be stored in a container. Do not mix them if they do not belong to the same group. It is best that you stack vegetable pasta, which is much healthier than the usual whole-wheat pasta.
4. Spices and Garnishes – Spices are usually powderized, so it is better that they are stored in a jar with seal. The same thing should apply to garnishes, which you may peel and cut in halves or into pieces.
5. Oil, Sauce and Salad Dressing – The liquid ingredients or condiments must be also stacked in the right container. In this case, you have to put them in a jar or bottle. Salad dressing may be placed in a larger bowl with lid, but ensure they can last for several days or weeks. You cannot just stack anything that expires within a few days, unless it is frozen and chilled in the fridge.
6. Other Essential Foods – These include eggs, and ingredients in packs, such as baking soda, flour, cheese, mayonnaise, and butter. Just anything that you cook more often must be added to the pantry.
Having a pantry is a great idea because it encourages you to fill them with not only plain ingredients of your favorite dishes, but also be stacked with essential and nutritious foods. It is very important that you have a healthy diet, so fill your pantry up with fruits, vegetables and other food items that contain vitamins and minerals.