10 Must-Have Healthy Pantry Essentials

Building a healthy pantry, full of essential ingredients and adventurous flavor-potential, is a major step towards making healthy eating a true lifestyle. Save time, money, calories and stress with these simple tips for stocking your pantry.

I live in a super rural area in central Vermont. That means that the local grocery store is a 20-minute drive away. A trip to Trader Joe’s requires half a tank of gas. The closest Whole Foods is in New Hampshire and meal delivery services? Forget about it.

Which means I’ve had to make a major adjustment to how I grocery shop! When I lived in Boston, I got very used to being able to hit the local, high-end grocery store on a daily basis. I worked for Whole Foods for years – which made it even easier. When I lived in Hawaii (and still worked at Whole Foods), I walked to work! Now, keeping my pantry stocked with enough healthy foods to get through the week takes a bit more planning.

To make matters even more interesting, we are definitely not a soup-and-sandwich-for-dinner kind of couple. Ronnie and I both love to cook and we enjoy cooking together. Which means invollllllved just begins to cover it!

The Benefits of Building a Full Pantry

Why stock up in the first place?

For us, if we’re out of food we’re out of luck. But the benefits go beyond our access to food in the mountains of Vermont =)

See No Junk, Eat No Junk

Fact: if there is junk food readily available in your home, someone (you, a loved one, a pet), will eat it eventually.

Set yourself up for success by getting rid of the junk food that doesn’t make you feel good and doesn’t support your fitness and health goals! You know yourself. You know what foods you have a hard time saying no to. Pretzels, chocolate, ice cream, chips…whatever it is, if it’s not there in the first place then you don’t have that decision to make!

Get started with a Kitchen Makeover.

The checklist above is simple and easy to follow. For a more in depth how-to, check out this article from August 2019!

Beat the Boredom

One of the biggest misconceptions with healthy eating is that it’s boring. That’s just not true! You just have to learn to do it right.

Here’s what that means for me:

• Variety. A variety of proteins, grains, vegetables, fruits, fats and flavors!
  
• Flavor Boosters. Low-to-no calorie flavor boosters (as I call them), are healthy eating essentials! I’m talking about vinegars, hot sauces, spices, herbs and mustards. Stock up and you’ll never run out of flavor combos. Most flavor boosters will stay fresh in your pantry (at least until opened).

Save Money, Calories and Time!

Think about the money you could save by not ordering out! Think about the calories you’ll save by skipping the delivery pizza and replacing it with a homemade meal. And never mind how much time you’ll be saving by not grocery shopping on a daily or every other day schedule!

I can go on and on about the benefits but you already know. Just think about the last time you ran out of food in the house and had to scramble to pull a meal together that every one will enjoy. If you could plan ahead and never experience that stress again, would you do it?

Me too.

10 MUST-HAVE HEALTHY PANTRY ESSENTIALS

So what kind of foods make up a healthy pantry? Keep in mind that this list only includes non-refrigerated items that can be stored at room temp, at least until opened.

Grains and Rice

• Quinoa
• Farro
• Couscous
• Brown Rice
• Jasmine Rice
• Wild Rice

Beans

• Black Beans
• Kidney Beans
• Garbanzo Beans (Chickpeas)
• Cannellini Beans

Oats

• Steel Cut Oats
• Rolled Oats
• Quick Cook Oats

Stocks and Broth

• Low-Sodium Vegetable Broth
• Low-Sodium Beef Stock/Broth
• Low-Sodium Chicken Stock/Broth
• Bone Broth

Nuts and Seeds

• Walnuts
• Almonds
• Pistachios
• Peanuts
• Flax Seeds
• Hemp Seeds
• Sunflower Seeds
• Pumpkin Seeds

Canned Tomatoes

• Whole Peeled
• Diced
• Tomato Paste
• Tomato Sauce
• Low-Sodium Pizza Sauce

Vinegars

• Balsamic
• Apple Cider
• Rice Wine
• Red Wine
• White Wine
• Fruit Vinegars

Canned Tuna

Look for solid white albacore tuna canned in water.

Dried Fruit

• Apricots
• Blueberries
• Cherries
• Cranberries
• Pineapple
• Raisins

Spices and Dried Herbs

This list goes on forever but to start stock up on the essentials (listed below). Start to branch out after your set with the basics.

Kosher salt and black peppercorns are a must. There is absolutely a chef’s difference between iodized salt and kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper and the powdery stuff from a box!

The basic herbs:

• Dried Parsley
• Dried Bay Leaf
• Dried Basil
• Dried Oregano
• Dried Dill

The basic spices:

• Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
• Garlic Powder
• Onion Powder
• Cayenne
• Cinnamon
• Cumin
• Paprika

Starting to get adventurous:

• Curry Powder
• Dried Ginger
• Smoked Paprika

Shop my favorite pantry containers below!