Stocking the Kitchen

Grocery shopping is a challenge. Many people believe it is easy because a Parent or Guardian buys food. Trying not to be wasteful and have enough food for survival depends on lifestyle.

As a busy person, always going to the store wastes time. My Grandparents went to the store everyday. It was nice always having fresh food, yet it is not convenient for modern living. Even though they went to the store everyday, it was important to have food storage.

Food storage is great. Dedicate a third of the cupboard to storage of canned and dried food. Some might want storage in a cellar or pantry. Sometimes emergency food is kept in a closet with other survival equipment. As a Child, I had a backpack with a flashlight, windup radio, strike-anywhere matches, a candle stove, another set of clothes, a few bottle of water, dry soup mix and granola bars.

In the event of a fire, the backpack would be useless. A person has to leave the house immediately through emergency exits. In most events, it is a food supply for a couple days.

A person has to eat the storage food; otherwise, it goes bad. After a few years, I have found preferences. Marking it with a date is helpful. I also enjoy knowing the food is edible when there is an emergency. This means it will taste good after boiling water opening the wrapper or opening the can. Insects have an attraction to grain. Without ever opening the box or bin, the food might be eaten or too gross to want to eat.

It is good to have a fair amount of vegetables, fruit, grain and beans in canned or dried form. They should also be easy to prepare. It should taste good without excessive preparation. Clean the cupboard once-a-year to throwout expired food. Do not give expired food to charity. It is a good idea to give almost expired food to charity and refresh storage. Some of my favorites are granola bars, popcorn bags, trail mix and salted nuts. It is an easy snack, so I eat it before the expiration date.

Next, it is important to have condiments. As much as I do not like running out of food and only having condiments in the fridge, it is not difficult to go to the store and buy food for condiments. Ketchup, mustard, salad dressing, salt, pepper, spices, cooking oil, cooking wine, mayonnaise and jarred foods fit into the category. Jarred jams, jellies, peanut butter, banana peppers, beets, soy sauces and spaghetti sauce do not make a full meal. They make a meal taste better.

It is nice to have an additional freezer. There are freezers that plug into any outlet. It is possible to freeze bread, meat and butter. Frozen diners and vegetables are nice to keep frozen for quick meals.

After having a well stocked kitchen, it is easy to go grocery shopping once-a-week. It is a good time to buy fresh vegetables, fruit, meat and whatever sounds appealing or necessary to make a recipe. Milk and eggs need to be bought fairly consistently. Fresh vegetables and fruit are perishable (go rotten quickly). It is also better to let them ripen on a table or counter over placing them in a refrigerator.

Though having many options, there are always foods everyone enjoys eating. Replace food storage, condiments and frozen foods on occasion. With everything available, there is always time to make quick meals.

As a person who does not always enjoy spending a great deal of time cooking, I prefer: frozen chicken nuggets, frozen stir-fry vegetables, frozen hamburger paddies, frozen dinners, canned beans, canned broth, pasta, noodles, rice and bread.

Modify proportions to the size of residence. One or even two people, who love rice, do not need a five pound bag of rice. Spending the entire food budget on one item means, there is less variety. Variety is important to creating nutritious proteins and advance amino acids.

When moving, living alone or attempting to eat-at-home, it is better to buy foods to eat. Whether being able to successfully cook a recipe or enjoying the tastes of certain foods, it is like exercise. The only exercise that works is the one a person actually does. The only food that counts is the food someone will actually eat because they know how to cook it or it is naturally delicious.

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