I recently shared 3 steps to know your essential pantry staples. This week I’m sharing our family’s 10 essential pantry staples with a free printable. The free printable has more than 10 items, but a lot of the items are things that you buy once and last you for several weeks or months (like condiments and spices).
Our 10 Essential Pantry Staples
In order to understand our pantry staples, you should probably know that our family tries to eat real food the majority of the time. We do have the occasional boxes of organic Mac and Cheese (organic makes me feel better about feeding it to the kids?!?) and Top Ramen (I know, I know, the worst), but for the most part we don’t eat processed foods.
We make most of our meals from scratch which is healthier and tends to be better for the budget. We don’t currently buy only organic food, but we would love to eventually buy all of our food locally and organic.
Here are our 10 essential pantry staples:
- Flour
- Pasta
- Diced Tomatoes
- Milk
- Eggs
- Butter
- Rice
- Beans
- Cheese
- Oatmeal
If we have these 10 staples in the house, we can make pasta with red sauce, pasta with white sauce, frittatas, beans and rice, tortillas, baked oatmeal, and all kinds of yummy breakfast foods.
My Children’s 5 Essential Pantry Staples
I asked my kids what they felt were essential food items to have in the house and this was their feedback:
- Top Ramen – this is a favorite snack afterschool with hoisin sauce and sriracha for my two older sons. They beg me to buy it and I usually give in once a month.
- Potatoes – my middle son loves to fry the potatoes to make french fries, and the whole family loves making hash browns for our frequent “breakfast for dinner” nights.
- Bacon – Pancakes, waffles, and eggs just aren’t greeted with the same delight when there’s no bacon.
- Corn Flakes – this has become a favorite late night snack for my two older sons.
- Popcorn – we love to make popcorn on the stove for our family movie nights. When we have popcorn in the house, all is well.
Here is a free printable of our Pantry Staples. Hopefully it can help you get started on yours. You can download it here.
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What are your 10 essentials? Are they similar to ours?
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Great list, thanks! My personal list would be just a little different. But it’s good to keep it at ten, so I want to stay with that number.
I’d swap out the butter and add olive oil. Fats are essential, and olive oil is a good fat to like.
The next thing to cut is nearly impossible, since everything else is so good. But I’d let go of eggs in favor of salt, I think. Salt is after all an essential part of diet. (True, it is so ubiquitous that maybe it doesn’t count as a pantry item?) If salt doesn’t count, I still would let go of eggs in favor of pepper. I just like pepper on pretty much everything else that is on the list, and … spicing up the diet is good!
We love olive oil too Bob! I think salt and pepper are staples but I didn’t count it in the list just like other spices and things like baking soda or baking powder. Thanks for reading and commenting Bob. I appreciate it!
Ours are super similar to yours- I’d add tortillas, since we love quesadillas as a quick snack, and we almost always have ground turkey in the freezer for tacos. I’m thinking I might need a guest post on these hash browns you speak of!
Tortillas are a staple in our house too! I thought that if push came to shove we could make them with flour – but that definitely takes time!
We also always have tortillas, as well as onions. Bread and peanut butter, too.
Yes to all 4 items Christy!
Check, check, check to all! 🙂 With (for obvious reasons) the addition of lots of chocolate in various forms! 😉 Stopping by from The Alder Collective!
Yes to chocolate! Thanks for stopping by Elizabeth!
Love the list! And love your full pantry staples print out, too! Our top 10 probably includes a combo of onion, zucchini and cauliflower. I like to throw those into tacos, meatloaf, or any dinner food really to add bulk healthy-stuff.
Ooh, I love that idea of throwing those veggies into meals. I may try that too, especially as summer is coming and zucchinis will be plentiful!
Great list. I think just about everything you listed is a staple in our house too. Thank you for sharing at Merry Monday!! Pinned.
Thanks Amanda! Thanks for hosting too – Merry Monday is full of wonderful posts!
Popcorn is a must on our list too and if you asked my husband he would say chocolate is a priority! 😉
Popcorn and chocolate are a must in our house too – but they don’t last very long!