pantry make over

Pantry Makeover + Shopping List

A beauty regime shouldn’t be confined to your bathroom…it should be part of your daily life. Think of your kitchen as the powerhouse for you to be delicious inside and out. A place filled with the food active goodies your body needs and craves for beautiful skin, lustrous hair, strong nails, endless energy and a lean body. If you Cleanse, Tone and Moisturise your skin OUTSIDE IN now apply a similar beauty philosophy to your skin from the INSIDE OUT and Cleanse.Nourish.Hydrate. How to make over your pantry with beautifood. Your pantry and fridge is the go-to place for the foods to make meals and snack. Most of your goods should be real food – unprocessed whole foods, like spelt pasta, red rice, brown rice and quinoa, legumes, dried (preservative free) fruit and nuts, seeds, oils. –A good rule of thumb: Foods without ingredient lists or heavy-handed health claims on their packaging are the best choice. Those foods with short ingredient lists made up only of items you recognise and can pronounce are good, too. Many numbers are a no no and oils & sugars are a minefield, so take note below.

1. START WITH A CLEAN SWEEP

Step one. Sadly but necessary, you won't be able to see what you're working with until you've completely removed everything from your pantry. Clear out all your shelves of your pantry and get everything out on the counter where you can see it and deal with it. You don’t have to throw out everything that does not fit the beautifood mantra yet but it’s best to know what not to buy again and what needs to be swapped with a better choice when you shopping next time. By emptying your pantry, you may uncover a few hidden gems that you'd completely forgotten!

2. SORT AND PURGE

Step Two is to spend some time going through everything to see if it loosely fits within the †˜shopping list’ and to see what you've been squirrelling away. Mark the poorer choices with a black texta cross. Eg canola oil, or muesli bars, because I have a thrifty side – keep these til they are used up but don’t buy again. Items you should also toss include:
      1. Dented cans
      1. Bags and boxes with rips or tears
      1. Spices older than one year
      1. Items that are expired
      1. Anything with an infestation (moths, weevils or ants!)
Inspect ingredient labels. Look for these controversial food additive culprits and remove as you work your way through: Colours (code numbers in the 100 range) add or restore colour to foods. Preservatives (200 range) 'help protect against food deterioration' caused by micro-organisms. Antioxidants (300 range) slow or prevent the oxidative deterioration of foods, such as when fats and oils go rancid. Artificial sweeteners (including intense sweeteners in the 900 range, and bulk sweeteners such as sorbitol, 420) chemicals that impart a sweet taste for fewer kilojoules than sugar. Thickener & emulisfiers (mainly 400) there are some ok ones like locust bean gum. Flavour Enhancers (mainly in the 600 range) 'improve' the flavour and/or aroma of food. Target the undesirables. Hydrogenated or highly processed polyunsaturated fats which contain anti-oxidants from the above list, GMOs (genetically modified), high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) – tho it is not used much in Australia, sugar as the 1st or 2nd ingredient + keep an eye out for where the total sugar content is more than 8%. (eg many cereals and muesli bars) Ditch the junk. It’s just better that it is not in your kitchen to tempt you and you learn to find simpler, healthier choices including making your own. If you always have colourful salt and sugar laden packages handy for children to eat they will believe it is the food they should be eating and get accustomed to. Bypass BPA. Notice how many cans containing BPA you have (especially anything with tomato) and next time you go shopping start buying only BPA-free brands or food that comes in glass jars instead. BPA is a hormone disrupting chemical known as bisphenol-A, a synthetic oestrogen. Read more. Check containers. Choose glass, ceramic and stainless steel over plastic whenever possible. These materials are long-lasting, can often be transferred directly from the pantry or fridge to the oven or microwave, and – most importantly, they won't leach chemicals into your food. Ikea have some fabulous economical jars that seal well and look smart. I love the Burken from IKEA .5l – 2.2l $3.99 to $9.99. If you're keeping some plastic around, purge anything marked with a recycling code No. 3 or 7 first. Those numbers are used to mark hard plastics that often have the hormone-disrupting chemical bisphenol-A. If you’re using those Chinese food take-out containers to store your healthy, homemade leftovers, you’re definitely not doing yourself any favors! Look for glass or BPA-free plastic containers. And never microwave or reheat food in a plastic container, even if it says microwave safe. Be understanding. There is always a place for regular table sugar and wheat flour in baking (provides lightness and lift) so make better choices – organic and in the case of flour wholemeal too. It’s the way you use these ingredients that needs to be considered. Eg adding nutrient rich ingredients such almond flour or chia seeds to a pancake batter. See recipe

3. CATEGORISE

Once you've purged your pantry, categorise your remaining items as per The List below. Eg Grouping canned goods on one shelf and condiments on another, creating a baking centre and breakfast centre and so forth. I keep a section with all the snacks (crackers, nuts, dried fruits, home baking etc) accessible to the kids – just below the bowls of fresh fruit – not to mention tubs of cut carrots, celery and snow peas in the fridge on a low shelf. Keeping your pantry organised in this fashion will make it easier to identify the items you need when heading to the shops or making a meal.

4. CLEAN

Obviously, before restocking your pantry make sure you thoroughly clean out the space. Start at the top shelf and wipe down all surfaces with a warm, damp cloth, then dry the shelves completely. If any of your food containers are sticky or dusty, wipe them down before placing them back in the pantry. If you are like me ….once you put your goodies in to glass jars 1) you never have enough and 2) they don’t fit into the space you have. Hmmmm!

5. ORGANIZE

It's one thing to clean out your pantry and get the right foods on the shelf; it's another to keep it clean and organised. By putting in a little effort initially, you'll save yourself the hassle down the road. Tubs for roots vegetables, shelf racks and under-shelf baskets can help you keep things in their place. Consider what you use and how often and place them that way too and don’t forget to date things if they have a short life. (like spices) Label the jars and pantry categories so your family will know where things are and where to replace supplies after using them. If you are like me grab some frosted stickers from Avery and a big thick black marker - otherwise get super stylish and visit Down That Little Lane or Etsy or Pinterest for gorgeous ideas. I had visions of using fancy blackboard labels and those chalk pens but ……another time.

Shopping List

This downloadble master list gives you ideas on what to foods to stock in your pantry and what foods, by default to avoid. Pantry Polish shopping list
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