Eating (Pretty) Well on a Budget: Build a Better Pantry

A couple of years ago when we decided to really try eating healthier, one of the big changes we made was to cut back on processed foods. We didn't eat a whole lot of processed foods because Greg has never liked frozen meals and many processed foods, but we did eat Pasta Roni and lots of dishes that used canned condensed soups. We're not perfect of course so we still occasionally have chicken in the crockpot with cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup, but we've significantly cut back compared to the first couple of years of our marriage. So for a while there we stuck to pretty much only the outside aisles at the grocery store. That's our favorite way to eat, fresh ingredients, meat and seafood, and dairy so we were pretty excited about it. But the costs didn't really fit with our budget. I did some research to find healthy, cheap foods. I was surprised to see canned and frozen foods on all the lists I looked at. That's what we were trying to get rid of I thought! But not all canned or frozen foods are full of processed stuff. You can find canned beans with just beans and water as the ingredients. Canned tomatoes mostly just have tomatoes, tomato juice, salt, and citric acid. Frozen fruits and vegetables usually don't have anything added (check labels) and are frozen when they're freshest so they might even have more vitamins than fresh produce if they aren't in season.

So now that I know we just needed to read labels more, we could work on building a healthier pantry for cheap. Thanks to my pantry now, even after we come back from a long trip and haven't been to the grocery store, we can still eat a healthy and tasty meal just using what's in the pantry or freezer. When we came back from London and were just going to turn around and head to Utah, we wanted something healthy but didn't have any fresh food in the house since we knew before we left we'd be gone for so long. So pasta and canned tuna from the pantry, frozen broccoli from the freezer, garlic, olive oil, and crushed red pepper made a surprisingly delicious pasta in about 15 minutes that cost us less than $2 to feed both of us. This pantry isn't just great for feeding you when you haven't been to the grocery store, it's also great for if you want a fast and easy meal without reaching for the boxed mac and cheese. Just on Monday night I knew I wanted to do a brown rice bowl but didn't really plan more for that meal. So I put my brown rice in the oven to cook, sauteed some green beans in a garlic/ginger butter and added some black beans (meatless Monday!). When the rice was done, I added some soy sauce to the rice and then spooned lots of veggies on top of the rice. So easy, so cheap (about $2 again to feed both of us) and it was super good even though I was worried about it being a little weird.

Now that you know not all canned food is bad for you, what should you fill your pantry with to help you save money?

• Canned tuna-$1 a can at any time, sometimes on sale for 75-80 cents. Tuna is awesome to add to pasta dishes (I've really come to love it in pasta, I used to only eat tuna in tuna salad sandwiches but it's one of my favourite proteins right now), in salads, or on sandwiches. Fun fact about canned tuna, it's the cheapest source of protein. $1 for a can gets you almost 30 grams of protein! 
• Canned beans-our grocery store's generic brand is 67 cents a can, but we just discovered the generic non-organic cans of beans at Whole Foods that's just beans and water and costs 75 cents a can. It's going to be worth the 8 cents to us to get the beans with no chemicals added. We add beans to rice bowls, tacos, burritos, salads, etc. Dried beans are cheaper, but I love the convenience of canned beans
• Canned tomatoes-I always have tomato sauce for quick homemade pizzas, diced tomatoes for soups and fast pastas, and crushed tomatoes for soups and spaghetti sauce. Price ranges depending what kind of tomatoes you get, but we can get a 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes for about $1 and a 14 oz can of diced tomatoes for 67 cents
• Vegetarian refried beans-it's just beans, water and sometimes some seasonings and makes for great fast meals when you want Mexican. Refried black beans at Whole Foods is $1 and our grocery store has normal refried pinto beans for $1
• Pasta-our Costco occasionally has Barilla pasta on sale for 75 cents a box, so we buy that when we can, otherwise we buy generic brands when they go on sale for 75 cents a box. This is never something I pay full price for since I know I can get it for cheaper. We sometimes buy whole wheat pasta too, but that does cost more. Pasta is great for fast meals, it's cheap, it's filling and it's satisfying!
• Rice-Jasmine rice I get for about 50 cents/pound at Costco, the only down side is, it comes in a 25 pound bag. But it's delicious and cheap and super easy/fast to cook in my rice cooker. Short grain brown rice we get from Amazon for about $1.50/pound. It's more than white rice but it's also delicious and it's better for you. It does take longer to cook, but again, it's better for you. I like having both rices on hand for different things
• Dried lentils-these are cheap, like canned beans, and they're super good for you. It's $1and change for a pound of lentils and they are great to add to soups and I am going to start trying more recipes with them, like sloppy Joe's but just use lentils instead of ground turkey
• Oats, flour, and whole wheat flour-these are all cheap pantry staples. Oatmeal is one of the cheapest breakfasts you can have. Always having flour on hand means you can make your own pizza dough, pancakes/waffles, breads, biscuits, etc which are all cheaper to make from scratch than buying mixes or store bought. We buy sandwich bread because I haven't found a recipe I really like for it, but lots of other things we make from scratch. Less chemicals, and it's cheaper
• Oils/Vinegars-we splurge on olive oil to get good olive oil, but Costco helps us get good olive oil for a pretty decent price. I cook almost everything in olive oil because we LOVE it. I use it to make my own vinaigrette for salads. That's where vinegar comes in. Apple cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, balsamic, white wine vinegar, there are a lot of options out there and they are all pretty cheap. Vinegar is a great way to mix up your salad/veggie game for cheap. Another bonus of making your own vinaigrette is there's no sugar or hydrogenated oils. I also keep canola oil on hand for baking/frying. It's not as healthy as some other oils, but it's cheap
• Other baking/cooking supplies-sugar, honey, baking powder/soda, cornstarch, salt, pepper and plenty of spices and dried herbs. The baking ingredients help with making lots of things from scratch, and it's great to not have to run out for baking powder last minute because you forgot it. Seasonings are a great way to add flavour and switch up dishes. Bonus! With the exception of specialty spices, they're pretty cheap!

I don't have a Pinterest worthy pantry because I don't know that I'll ever be able to justify the cost of fancy looking containers that will sit behind a closed door 99% of time, but here are some pictures of my pantry. We do have more snacky stuff than normal right now because we have a Disney trip coming up in a few weeks and we like to bring our own snacks to save money.

Those oatmeal cups on the top shelf are an awesome, pretty cheap way to get a healthy and filling breakfast while traveling. You just need to add hot water to them and they cost $1-$1.25 depending what kind you get. On the can rack you can see the beans, tomatoes and coconut milk which is something I love having on hand

Tuna, refried beans, baked beans, and proof that we still eat condensed soups sometimes and that I love pasta. The bottom shelf is my hodge podge of baking supplies, different flours, oils, sugars, etc.

I bought a cheap shoe organizer and I keep all of my vinegars and Asian pantry items in it and it's so handy!