A Give Away | Pantry Staples

A New Year! New Beginnings! And for a home-chef, that means a Clean Pantry! In our case, it is a new pantry to boot. This is the first time in our adult lives, that we actually have a pantry. Remember our tiny 20 sq. ft. kitchen? We only had one big cupboard, which kept all of our pantry items, as well as dishes.

Now we have a six shelve pantry to fill, I have vowed not to overstock it with things we would never use. I have also dedicated only three shelves to ingredients. Just because we have space now, I refuse to over-stock the kitchen with food items that we don’t use, and that will go to waste.

We were thrilled when Whole Foods reached out to us about contributing to their event, Win Pantry Staples for a Year. The premise behind their event is that you can stock the pantry with healthy and affordable items for $50; enough items to create 14 meals. All you have to add is some fresh ingredients and spices. Fifty dollars may not seem like a lot of money to stock your pantry; but, if stick to buying their brands and/or shopping in the bulk area, that money will go far. I shop the bulk area very often, as I have control over how much of an item I need, and I only buy what I will be using. As well, their brand items are a lot less than “other store” brand items.

Here, is their list of items that will help you stock your pantry:

1 lb black beans
1 lb lentils
1 lb quinoa
2 lbs brown rice
2 (32-oz) boxes vegetable broth
2 (32-oz) box chicken broth
1 lb rolled oats
2 cans cannellini beans
1 lb orechiette pasta
1 lb pasta, your favorite kind
1 can black beans
1 jar unsweetened applesauce
1 (32-oz) box unsweetened almond milk
1 (5-oz) can tuna
3 (15-oz) cans diced tomatoes
1 package no-oil sun-dried tomatoes
1 jar pasta sauce

We were working a lot this week, and having dried pasta and a jar of sauce that was full of veggies, on hand was nice. We used some sauce and put the rest into the freezer for another quick meal. As well I made a delicious curried lentil dish using some of the lentils and diced tomatoes. I am excited to make these staples last another couple weeks; cannot wait to share the recipes with you!

In addition to sharing the Whole Foods pantry list, I thought I would share our Pantry List:

Olive Oil - 2 bottles, one for cooking and a high quality for dressing dishes and salads
Canola Oil
Tea Seed Oil or Grape Seed Oil – for high heat cooking
Coconut Oil – for baking
AP Flour
Unprocessed Sugar
Baking Powder
Baking Soda
Honey - great drizzled over oatmeal, ricotta or yogurt. Also good in tea and hot toddys
Kosher Salt
Mixed Peppercorns – I mix black, pink and white together
Chocolate Chips – for those last minute baking sessions
Chickpeas – great in soups, stews, dips or on their own
Pasta – always have one kind of pasta in the pantry for late night dinners

Here is our “fresh” pantry list – these are fresh items that we always have on hand:

Shallots
Fresh Garlic
Yellow Onions
Butternut or Kambocha Squash
Lemons – can use in savory or sweet dishes, as well as in tea
Limes – need for cocktails
Parsley or Cilantro
Rosemary
Thyme
Fresh Ginger Root – great for cooking and in tea

To get you started on stocking your pantry, healthy, we are giving away a $50 gift card to Whole Foods. Details below.

Recipe: Curried Lentils with Spinach

Recipes from Whole Foods using their pantry items.

Thank you, Whole Foods, for providing this giveaway!

Giveaway Requirements:

Answer the following question in the comments section: How are you going to make your pantry “healthy in 2012?
You may NOT enter using multiple email addresses. Automatic disqualification.
Additional entries must leave a separate comment.
Contest ends January 31, 2012 at 11:59 p.m. PST.
Winner will be chosen via random.org and will be announced on February 1, 2012. Winner will have 2 days to respond before being disqualified and a new winner chosen.

Extra Entries:

Additional entries can be earned by doing any of the following, giving you a total of 6 entries. Leave a separate comment for each of your entries.

Follow Chez Us and Whole Foods on Twitter and ReTweet the following message: Win a $50 Whole Foods gift card @chezus http://tinyurl.com/78f9lae #giveaway – come back here and leave the tweet in the comments.
Become a fan of Chez Us on Facebook – come back here and leave a comment that you did so.
Become a fan of Whole Foods on Facebook - come back here and leave a comment that you did so.
Subscribe to the Chez Us RSS Feed “The Daily Dish” - come back here and leave a comment that you did so.
Subscribe to the Chez Us monthly newsletter “Culinary Capers” - come back here and leave a comment that you did so.

Other Give Aways we have going until January 31, 2012

Disclosure: This post was written as part of my participation with Whole Foods Stock Your Pantry event. I was given $50 worth of staples to facilitate my review, as well as a $50 gift card to give to one of our readers. All opinions expressed are my own.

The winner of the $50 Whole Foods Gift Card is Kristina of Former Chef! Congrats Kristina. Drop us an email with your mailing address and we will get you your gift card.