How stocked is your kitchen?

[mombrontrent]

How stocked is your kitchen food-wise? Can you open a recipe book and make a meal without needing to go get 5 ingredients? Can you come home from work late one night and whip up a quick meal? Or do you rely on take-out when you are in a pinch?

I have a problem. My kitchen is overstocked. My fridge, deep freezer, cupboards and pantry is busting to the seems. I have resorted to the cold celler, basement shelving and mini fridge in the basement to hold "overstock". I don't hoard food, coupon or buy alot of the same things I just have a huge variety of food on hand. Ask my kids though and they will tell you we have nothing to eat It's there you just have to make it. I do buy some prepacked sancks for school only, mostly fruitcups, fruit leather, applesauce cups, rice chips ect.

I don't meal plan so I like to be able to come home from work and whip up a quick meal. I keep tons of diffenent pastas, grains, dried beans, lentils on hand. The only cans I buy are tomatos and coconut milk but I have alot of them. I have every spice you can imagine and they are all fairly new as I use them ALOT and frequently replenish. I have the ingredients to bake just about anything, mind you I am vegan so my ingredients might look alot different than most peoples cupboards. I have lots of different oils and vinegars. I always have TONS of fresh fruits and veggies on hand, I like to buy what looks good and then make meals around those. I have breads, bagels, tortillias, pitas on the counter and in the freezer. I keep some frozen veggies and have about 5-6 different kinds of frozen fruit on hand for smoothies (made daily). I make beans, sauces, soups ect and freeze them. I have a wide variety of nuts and seeds in the freezer.

I need to start planning meals and using up alot of my stuff because we spend way to much on groceries when we could easily eat out of the pantry for months (besides fresh produce.) We shop at Coscto alot so have a bulk size of about everything. All the stuff I previosly mentioned is Costco sized. I can easily open up a recipe book and make an Indian, Asian, Mexican, Middle Eastern, ect. meal as I have so many ethnic ingredients on hand. I could also whip up a cake, muffins, cookies, granola anytime.

Now my mother on the other hand hates shopping and cooking so never has much food in her house. She likes to drop by here for dinner a few times a week as she knows there is always something good on the menu. I don't mind at all, we love having her here and she always helps with the cleanup and compliments my cooking, a wonderful guest that is welcome anytime

So how does you kitchen look?

 

[MIGrandma]

I don't think anyone "stalks" my kitchen....

But as far as it being well "stocked", then yes, it is quite well stocked.

I keep a lot of staples on hand, spices, flour, sugar, pasta, meats in the freezer and frozen vegetables, etc. so I could whip something up easily if we had unexpected guests for a meal.

 

[topolino]

How stalked is your kitchen food-wise? Can you open a recipe book and make a meal without needing to go get 5 ingredients? Can you come home from work late one night and whip up a quick meal? Or do you rely on take-out when you are in a pinch?

I have a problem. My kitchen is overstalked. My fridge, deep freezer, cupboards and pantry is busting to the seems. I have resorted to the cold celler, basement shelving and mini fridge in the basement to hold "overstalk". I don't hoard food, coupon or buy alot of the same things I just have a huge variety of food on hand. Ask my kids though and they will tell you we have nothing to eat It's there you just have to make it. I do buy some prepacked sancks for school only, mostly fruitcups, fruit leather, applesauce cups, rice chips ect.

I don't meal plan so I like to be able to come home from work and whip up a quick meal. I keep tons of diffenent pastas, grains, dried beans, lentils on hand. The only cans I buy are tomatos and coconut milk but I have alot of them. I have every spice you can imagine and they are all fairly new as I use them ALOT and frequently replenish. I have the ingredients to bake just about anything, mind you I am vegan so my ingredients might look alot differnt than most peoples cupboards. I have lots of different oils and vinegars. I always have TONS of fresh fruits and veggies on hand, I like to buy what looks good and then make meals around those. I have breads, bagels, tortillias, pitas on the counter and in the freezer. I keep some frozen veggies and have about 5-6 different kinds of frozen fruit on hand for smoothies (made daily). I make beans, sauces, soups ect and freeze them. I have a wide variety of nuts and seeds in the freezer.

I need to start planning meals and using up alot of my stuff because we spend way to much on groceries when we could easily eat out of the pantry for months (besides fresh produce.) We shop at Coscto alot so have a bulk size of about everything. All the stuff I previosly mentioned is Costco sized.

Now my mother on the other hand hates shopping and cooking so never has much food in her house. She likes to drop by here for dinner a few times a week as she knows there is always something good on the menu. I don't mind at all, we love having her here and she always helps with the cleanup and compliments my cooking, a wonderful guest that is welcome anytime

So how does you kitchen look?

I've never caught anyone peering into the windows, so my guess is that my kitchen is stalked very, very poorly.

 

[happygirl]

We are over stalked. I would rather have to much then not enough

 

[Janepod]

We mainly eat fresh vegetables, chicken and fish. I don't like food that has been frozen. So usually the fridge is full, and we have all the basic staples like herbs and spices, salt, flour, sugar, etc., but really not much in the way of packaged/canned goods. There's one or two boxes of Pop Tarts, a jar of nuts, a couple of cans of soup, one jar of pasta sauce, some apple sauce ... that's pretty much it.

However, the bar is fully stocked, and when my family visits it's fully stalked.

 

[luvmy3]

We mainly eat fresh vegetables, chicken and fish. I don't like food that has been frozen. So usually the fridge is full, and we have all the basic staples like herbs and spices, salt, flour, sugar, etc., but really not much in the way of packaged/canned goods. There's one or two boxes of Pop Tarts, a jar of nuts, a couple of cans of soup, one jar of pasta sauce, some apple sauce ... that's pretty much it.

However, the bar is fully stocked, and when my family visits it's fully stalked.

My kitchen is rarely stalked, I think its the builders grade oak cabinets. I do keep them stocked with lots of food though.

 

[afnaechiquita]

Not very much at all. I have produce to last through the week. If I want to make something specific, I check the ingredients and buy what I need. I don't cook meat at home very often so I have pretty much zero of that, and really nothing in the freezer at all.

My mom's kitchen is much like yours - she has tons of stuff that you can make anything, you just have to know what to make. It overwhelms me to have that much food just around.

 

[mombrontrent]

I don't think anyone "stalks" my kitchen....

But as far as it being well "stocked", then yes, it is quite well stocked.

I keep a lot of staples on hand, spices, flour, sugar, pasta, meats in the freezer and frozen vegetables, etc. so I could whip something up easily if we had unexpected guests for a meal.

Darn it, I knew something didn't look quite right with that word, I can't believe I didn't catch that, and I can't edit the title either

 

[topolino]

Darn it, I knew something didn't look quite right with that word, I can't believe I didn't catch that, and I can't edit the title either

Sure you can. I believe after you go into "edit" you can go to "advanced" or something like that.

 

[Buckalew11]

I keep my kitchen well stocked.

I even have a recipe book called "The Stocked Kitchen."

I'm not as stocked as you sound. But I do keep most of the same thing, in smaller quantities, as you. I keep frozen fruit and veggies, meat (although I just used almost all of it up!), I freeze nuts, ginger, bacon to keep on hand. One could easily make a meal in my house on a whim.

I have finely chopped pecans in the freezer, frozen in recipe quantity, to make Pioneer Woman's Oatmeal Crispies. Think I'll make some today.

 

[MIGrandma]

Darn it, I knew something didn't look quite right with that word, I can't believe I didn't catch that, and I can't edit the title either

Yes, you can edit the title if you want to.

I've done it. You just go "advanced" after hitting the edit button and you will be able to.

 

[Buckalew11]

However, the bar is fully stocked, and when my family visits it's fully stalked.

 

[mombrontrent]

Sure you can. I believe after you go into "edit" you can go to "advanced" or something like that.

Thank you so much! It's all fixed now so maybe all the jokes at my expense can stop now. Not that I didn't deserve them all of course

 

[ForMyBoys]

The title threw me off... Given the word stalked I thought the question would be more like: who likes your kitchen? I want to re-do mine so show me pictures! Ha!

OK so for stocked. I think I'm in between you and your mom. I do meal plan (obsessively). So we generally use most of what we buy each week for meals that week. BUT I always have enough on hand for a few throw together meals. So for instance I'll always have brown rice, frozen stir-fry fixings so we can quickly throw together a stir fry meal. We always have the makings on hand for spaghetti. And generally have everything we need to make some sort of casserole. We always have a few pounds of red potatos and some sort of frozen meat so we can always make a meat and potatos meal too.

Its funny, I had friends over for dinner and we made french fries using red potatos. I thought nothing of it since that is always how we make them. They just buy the frozen ore-ida stuff I guess and had forgotten what a real potato had tasted like.

 

[topolino]

Thank you so much! It's all fixed now so maybe all the jokes at my expense can stop now. Not that I didn't deserve them all of course

Ah, it's all in good fun. Those of us who cast stones have certainly had them cast at us as well. At least I know I have.

Anyway, to answer your question, my kitchen is stocked at all times to get us through the next three or four meals only, since we are the type that grocery shop frequently. The staples, of course are usually always in stock, as we rebuy them when they start to run low.

 

[crashbb]

Darn it, I knew something didn't look quite right with that word, I can't believe I didn't catch that, and I can't edit the title either

I thought you were going to ask about people stalking the kitchen while you were trying to cook dinner!

Mine is relatively well stalked, but I live in a 600 sq foot apartment with a tiny kitchen (not even a separate kitchen) and not much storage place. Plus the grocery store is downstairs (i.e. very easy to get to).

My freezer is well stocked - I live alone and most recipes are for more than one person. I tend to make biggish things on the weekend (this weekend is broccoli vegetable soup and chicken pot pies, keep a couple of servings for the week and then freeze the rest in single serve portions. I use zip lock bags and freeze them flat so that they don't take up as much room. Then, on days I don't feel like cooking, I can just grab something (or grab something to take for lunch).

 

[design_mom]

Mine is not as well stocked as most people's seem to be. For the most part, we plan our meals for the week and buy what we need.

I always have pasta and staples (flour, sugar, oil, vinegar, etc) in the pantry. There's usually frozen chicken breasts and some kind of frozen vegetables in the freezer. But by the end of the week the cupboards are looking kind of bare.

If there was an emergency, I'm sure I could keep us alive for a few days by cooking from what's left in the house -- but it wouldn't be a matter of picking a favorite recipe and making it. I suspect it would resemble what I remember from school lunches: "You put those sides with that entree?!"

 

[Acklander]

Personally, the bulk of what I eat is fresh fruits/veggies and that has a pretty short shelf life. DH likes to bake homemade bread so a corner of the pantry has different flours and whatever else he needs for baking. Whenever dh makes a big pot of soup he'll package off and freeze extra portions and I'll freeze berries when they are selling cheap to use in smoothies or muffins. Other than that I think I have a bag of frozen chicken breast and a bag of frozen shrimp.
So while we don't have a huge variety of stuff, we have enough to survive about 10 days beyond our normal shopping day but not enough to cry if we lose electricity and everything spoils.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I have plenty of staples but I don't like frozen meat, fish, or veggies.

In addition I was running into the same issue. Spending way too much at the store when I tried to be "well stocked" We ended up throwing things out.

Since my grocery store is 3 mins away, it is just easier to buzz in grab some fresh meat/fish/veggies and then buzz out.

 

[BearcatsFan]

My kitchen is very well-stocked. I can usually throw something together anytime. Not much storage space, so I expanded to a set of shelves in our basement for dry goods. We also have a spare fridge/freezer in the basement that we keep stocked with pop, beer, and extra meat when it's on a good sale.