Building a Natural Food Pantry

A few tips to get you moving in the right direction:

1. Cook at home as much as possible using fresh, local, seasonal, and sustainably grown ingredients.
2. Try out a new ingredient every other week or so.
3. Get to know the "bins" at your grocery store - they are packed with nutritional (and affordable!) whole grains, beans and spices.
4. Drink water or sparkling water in place of soda.
5. Get rid of your "all-white" staples, start exploring new "whole" foods and ingredients.
6. Rethink your plate - is it balanced nutritionally? Do you have lots of color, veggies, protein, whole grains? Good.
7. Shop at a local farmers market, or sign-up for a local C.S.A. (check out spud.ca).

Making the Switch:

• Replace white flours with an assortment of whole grain flours (see the Flour Guide to determine which flours you want to try and how much you will need for substitutions).
• Replace white pastas with different whole grain pastas. There are a lot of different grains to choose from – Kamut, Spelt, Brown Rice...try switching to Whole Wheat first (if you haven’t already), then from there try Kamut (closest tasting to whole wheat), Spelt...
• Stock up on some beans and lentils, and then get ready to try making one vegetarian dish a week. Have fun experimenting with different recipes and legumes.
• Pass on any boxed items that have too many ingredients or scientific names on the label.

Must Have Items:

• Whole wheat flour (keep in fridge)
• Rolled Oats
• Kamut, Spelt or Brown Rice flour
• Millet (can also be ground into flour using blender)
• Quinoa (can also be ground into flour using blender)
• Brown Rice
• Kidney Beans
• Pinto Beans
• Black beans
• Dried lentils
• Sea salt
• Coconut oil
• Olive oil
• Honey (the local honey sold at the health food store and Farmer’s market is great!)
• Succanat (natural sugar)
• Brown Rice Syrup and/or Agave Nectar
• Herbs and spices
• Baking soda (alum free)
• Baking powder (alum free)
• Dried coconut
• Cocoa or carob powder
• Raisins
• Nuts
• Onions
• Garlic
• Sprouted grain bread
• Nut butter
• Organic canned beans (for last minute meals)

Once you get your pantry stocked with healthy items, you'll find it much easier to whip up healthy meals and treats!!

In good health,

Wendy