My small kitchen pantry was borne from necessity; I had two children under five and a husband between jobs. I was supporting my family on a waitress’ income. It was January and for those of you who are not familiar with the ebb and flow of the service industry the months of January through to March are generally the most sluggish time of the year. Notoriously slow, less hours, and customers scarce, after Christmas is a tough time. Financially things were tight. I realized I was going to have to get creative in order to make ends meet. I borrowed cookbook after cookbook from my local library and shortly thereafter my tiny pantry was born. While the variety of items may have changed, the size has not. I still have my plucky little pantry and it is integral to my kitchen.

Start with the basics

If I can start a pantry on a tight budget so can you. Start by doing one thing: Prioritize! Look at the foods that you eat regularly and ask yourself, “what do I need to stock for what I currently cook?” I’m not telling you not to be adventurous in the kitchen, but starting out you should to focus on building the basics. Having a smaller kitchen pantry isn’t a hurdle; in fact its easier to focus on building a foundation when your space is limited and as we all know having a strong foundation is key.

1. Location for Pantry.

Choosing a location for a small pantry doesn’t need to be hard. You also don’t need to have an extra room for a pantry, ( Although if you do that’s amazing; next to a home library, a room for a proper pantry is my dream) choose a cupboard that is dry and not near too much heat. Also, one that is going to be easy to access, if you have to get a chair and take things out of the cupboard over the fridge not only are you going to be irritated you are also going to be less inclined to cook. Think about the days when you are not in the mood to cook ( everyone feels this way… everyone) and think about how you could make it easier to cook in your own kitchen. Keep it simple.

2. Basic items for your starter pantry.

For this one I am going to give you a list of items I think are important to start a pantry. If you have dietary issues you can substitute where necessary. This list is not extensive by any means, there is plenty of room to customize based on your own personal tastes and dietary issues. . Keep in mind, everyone’s kitchen is different, some kitchens are feeding kids, some are feeding couples, and some are feeding a single person. Adjust where necessary. A pantry is necessary for everyone; your kitchen can be a place of inspiration and play as well as providing sustenance. Having a pantry is a perfect place to start.

FLOUR : Absolute staple item in the pantry. Number 1 cannot live without.

YEAST: SEE ABOVE.

SUGAR/SWEETNER OF CHOICE: 

BAKING POWDER: Baking powder is a definite for a starter pantry. It is a leavening agent that no pancake is perfect without.

BAKING SODA: also a leavening agent typically used for quick recipes.

CHOCOLATE CHIPS:  chocolate chips are a staple in my pantry, we use them for pancakes and cookies mostly. 

VANILLA: all-round flavoring

COCOA: always keep cocoa on hand for baking.

OIL: I would suggest you do your research here, seed oils are on the bad list right now. I typically have olive oil and a generic vegetable oil on hand. Olive is a little heavier than veg oil so sometimes its not always the right choice.

PASTA: Perfect for quick meals.

BEANS/LENTILS/RICE: Good side dish options.

SPICES: This is where you will need to think about what you typically cook to determine what spices and herbs you will stock. Salt and Pepper are musts; I also keep chili power, paprika, curry powder, cumin, oregano, and sea salt, ( I prefer to season with sea salt instead of table salt)

                                                                                        Eggs the perfect companion to the small kitchen pantry

YOU WILL ALSO NEED A FEW ITEMS ON HAND IN THE FRIDGE SUCH AS:

EGGS: Quick and easy to cook when you’re in a rush.

BUTTER/MARGARINE: Yes I know, margarine is evil. I get it, it’s not the healthiest choice, but as much as the conversation is about what’s healthy it’s also about being budget conscious. The cost of butter has skyrocketed and it may or may not be feasible to cook or bake solely with butter. ( I bake with margarine and I typically cook with oil of some kind).

MILK: Again dairy or not dairy depending on your dietary needs.

Those are the bare basics, there are a thousand things I could add to this but this will give you a start with your home pantry,  then you can add to your pantry every grocery day. Once I built my pantry and began reading cook books I realized that the options were vast. I  starting learning how to make homemade versions of the processed meals that we stocked our freezer with.

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3. Organizing your small kitchen pantry and storing food.

Again, keep it simple, if your pantry cupboard is anything like mine, you won’t have a whole lot of space for organizing containers. There are a couple of things I cannot live without:

A container for flour. The size will be dependent on the size of your cupboard and how much flour you keep on hand. One thing I would suggest is to make sure the lid is easier to remove especially if you intend to use it frequently. I would also suggest that if you are keeping sugar in your pantry to also keep it in a container.

Sugar and flour typically come in bags which are susceptible to changes in temperature and anything that might get into the cupboard ( let’s not get into details, we’ll just hope that it never happens). Using jars for sugar and flour will help keep them dry and extend the life of both.

Other than that I would suggest if it is easily accessible ( kept in a box or bag) that you try to keep it in a separate container, if that is not possible, use some plastic wrap or reusable storage bags which come in all sizes and can be washed if needed and depending on what’s in them.

Spices should be kept in a cupboard. I know its easy to want to keep them out on a spice rack to everyone to see, but the point is to keep them as fresh for as long as possible so putting them in a cupboard is the best option. You can use spice racks designed for cupboard use and there are a multitude of sizes depending on what you need. A good choice for storing your spices is the extendable spice shelves, they are small, compact and still allow you to see all your spices when you need them, plus they are extendable so if your moving you can make them larger or smaller depending on the size of my pantry. Perfect for a beginner because as you expand your culinary horizons you can expand your spice rack as well.

4. Working with your small pantry

Let’s take a quick look at how to combine these items:

BREAD: FLOUR+YEAST+SUGAR+ WARM WATER

PASTA: FLOUR+EGGS

PANCAKES: FLOUR+SUGAR+BAKING POWDER+EGG+OIL (OR BUTTER)+MILK

WAFFLES: SEE ABOVE—DIFFERENT MEASUREMENTS

Pizza Dough– FLOUR+WARM WATER+SUGAR+OIL+ SALT+SEASONING (OPTIONAL)

COOKIES:FLOUR+BAKING SODA+SALT+EGGS+BUTTER+VANILLA+CHOCOLATE CHIPS

Now that you’ve built a basic pantry

These basic items in your pantry open the door to a wide variety of possibilities. You can add to it, and building a foundation means when you shop you are not continually starting from scratch. It helps to keep overall food costs down and if you choose to make and freeze some of the food items you can save yourself ALOT. In my next post I will include some recipes using these basic items, and how to shop for versatile grocery items