Foodie Friday: The Plentiful Pantry

Living in the UK, we keep substantially less food in our cupboards and refridgerator. For some reason, they don’t prepare for the apocalypse like some are in the habit of doing, stocking up on twinkies and canned sardines. Storage is at a premium, not to mention they use far less preservatives in their food than North America, so if you purchase a tub of yogurt, you have 3 days to eat it…unlike the good 2 weeks we have before the “best before” date in Canada.

But how do we keep the balance between being prepared and not getting sucked into the Costco mentality of “why would I only buy 500ml of Olive oil when I could buy 5 gallons?” I thought I would share with you, as a North American living in Europe how I go about grocery shopping for a family of four (don’t be deceived by my childrens’ ages…they know how to pack it away like the best of them.)

Thankfully, here grocery deliver services are plentiful and the reason being, most people cycle or walk and outside of work, don’t want to spend their time always running to and from the store. That being said, grocery delivery is an extremely economical and practical solution anywhere you live. When we lived in  the Vancouver area we used Spud.ca. This company has grown leaps and bounds since we used it and now delivers to the Vancouver area, Calgary, Vancouver Island, Seattle and parts of California. I am sure however, if you live in an urban area, it shouldn’t be hard to find a similar company. As a new mom living in a condo Spud was so incredibly convenient and the groceries came straight to my door: I did’t have to be home, they were well packaged in reusable bins and I didn’t emit unnecessary pollution driving to the store and back. 

Here in Cambridge, I order from Abel and Cole. They are VERY similar to Spud in that they pride themselves in organic and local products. Each week I receive a Fruit and Veg Box, organic milk, eggs, bread and whatever other goodies I have a hankering that week. The nice thing about the fruit and veg boxes is that they choose the seasonal vegetables that they pack in them, which means that I don’t have to think about it but still receive a variety of goodness. (Spud.ca does the same). So how do I decide what else to get. Well, lets break it down:

As I say, I get my box but I always like to have onions, garlic, carrots, celery or celeriac and potatoes on hand for last minute soups or stir fries.

 Lemons are essential as well, for drinks, baking and sauces.

We aren’t huge milk drinkers, in fact we used to only have rice milk as it was the cheapest organic substitute that I could buy. Now that we have easy access to reasonably priced organic milk, we get 4 litres a week and that is just enough. 

Cheese: my kids love it and it is good to have on hand for sandwiches.

Parmesan: We eat a lot of pasta in our household so parmesan is a must. 

Eggs: We get one dozen a week but should probably be getting one and half dozen. We like to eat them in the morning and they are essential to have around for baking, quiches and fried rice. 🙂

Butter: Salted for toast, unsalted for baking.

Yogurt: My kids love yogurt but we also have indian food a lot and like to have plain yogurt to accompany it.

Cream or Buttermilk: If you bake a lot these two items are called for a lot (at least in the good stuff), if you have one or the other you can always substitute.

Whole wheat bread: We get three small loaves a week. I used to make my own bread but when I moved to the UK, for some reason, I wasn’t allowed to bring my kitchen aid. Sad.  I send sandwiches with Jakob almost everyday (because that is what he wants) and I have an obsession with toast. I could honestly eat toast all. day. long. 

Rice Cakes-These are easy, relatively clean, healthy and my kids love them

Granola Bars-Good for taking on the go.

Cereal: We don’t generally eat cereal for breakfast but I always keep some corn puffs or cocoa bears on hand to take a long as time consuming snacks for places like church.

Popcorn: And I am not talking about the microwave stuff. Seriously, real popped pop corn tastes so much better and is SO much better for you. Don’t know how to make it? Just ask.

In Canada, we could go to Costco, buy warehouse packs of meat and stick it in the deep freeze. That is not happening here, so while I love all sorts of meat and fish here is what I get on a regular basis.

A Whole Chicken: Chicken goes a long way in our house. I start by roasting it, then I take off the meat for stews or stir fries, etc. Then I boil the carcass to make stock (add some onion, herbs and maybe a veg or two) and take off all the excess meat to make soup. It’s good for at least 3 if not 4 or 5 meals. I do this every other week.

Ground beef. Here we can get organic ground beef and I find it a little bit disturbing how different it tastes than the regular beef we get in North America. Just a thought. Anyway, if I buy a small package of ground beef I can split it between spaghetti and meat sauce and use the other half usually for something like beef/barley soup.

The possibilities are endless after that.

Canned Tomatos: I am not going to go into how bad they say canned tomatoes are for you…if you can, get organic. I need these for soups, indian food, and sauces.

Spaghetti Sauce: I always have a small jar on hand. When I make spaghetti I will first sautée a bunch of veg (broccoli, zucchini, onion, garlic, grated carrot, peppers-whatever I have really) with our without beef and then add the sauce. It goes much further and tastes much better and is better for you. Spaghetti sauce can also be used for a base when making homemade pizza

Grains
Rice
Quinoa
Barley (for soup)
Whole Wheat Spaghetti…it won’t take long until you can’t even taste the difference.


Legumes
Lentils
Chickpeas
Beans (whatever combo suits in your favourite chilli)

Baking

You know what you cook most but for us we are huge herb people, so if I were to list them all it would take up a lot of space.

But if you are going to have one pot of fresh herbs pick basil!

Honey- I have started using honey instead of sugar way more

Mayonnaise 
Mustard: The best is whole grain. Good on sandwiches but also great on roasted potatoes and in dressings.

Oil and Vinegar: You know that shelf in your fridge that you have solely dedicated to salad dressings. We found out, its not necessary. Oil and vinegar are healthy and taste great.

Okay, well I am sure I have left something out…it’s getting a little dry but I always get so excited when my grocery order comes that I thought it would be fun to write on. It was a good exercise anyway and I hope someone found it helpful.

Happy Cooking!