Now that summer is here, and all of the kids are home for every meal, my time spent in the kitchen can rapidly increase. Not to mention a reciprocal growing of time and money at the grocery store. In order to keep my sanity, and budget, in check I’ve started a capsule kitchen challenge.
Sticking to a fairly standard menu list helps in a lot of ways. I have a small kitchen and I need to utilize all the space that I have, I can’t have items I rarely use take up valuable real estate. When items that I cook with often are on sale I can stock up.
Plus I don’t get stuck staring at the pantry trying to figure out what to make for dinner every night.
Limiting what I buy at the grocery store has saved me time and money. Two things I think everyone wants more of!
If you want to get started on your own capsule kitchen I would recommend picking about 5 core dinner recipes that have similar ingredients and that you eat often. Write down all of the ingredients that you will need for those meals. There’s the basis for your shopping list. I also tend to stick to vegetables that everyone in my house likes.
Then when I add in a new menu item I try to make sure that it doesn’t have a million weird ingredients that I won’t use for anything else. I hate having food in the pantry or refrigerator go to waste.
Some of my must have kitchen foods include: broccoli, celery, lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, onion, potatoes, bananas, berries, grapes, apples, nuts, eggs, chicken, salsa, tortilla chips, pasta, milk, flour, sugar, butter, bread, and dark chocolate.
What are your must have pantry items?
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