Day 5- Keeping the Stock up— essentials to have on hand

I grew up in a home where my mom always had baking items on hand. Not brownie mix, mind you, but, flour, sugars, butter, etc. She always kept a stock of many different things to avoid stressing or running to the store in order to prepare a last minute dessert or dish.

Here are a few tips I like to use in our kitchen stock pile:

• Find a favorite recipe for a soup, dip, dessert, and main dish and ALWAYS have those ingredients on hand.
  • These don’t have to be fancy dishes and could maybe only include a few ingredients, but it can be a life saver when you have to prepare something quickly.

Here are 4 of my quick choices. I have several others that I use very often, but these are just 4 that I’d thought I’d share with you and that I love having this stuff on hand.

Here is a list of ingredients I keep a stock of that are essential for making last minute things not so stressful:

• Flour & Sugar
  • You can always throw the flour in the freezer if you don’t use it fast enough.
• Chocolate chips
  • Throw them in the freezer
  • Throw Chocolate candies leftover from Holidays in the freezer-you can crush them and throw them into many desserts
• Box mixes
  • I am a scratch baker and cook, but I still have a few boxes set aside for a just in case rough day in the kitchen. Plus, one of my favorite muffins calls for a spice cake mix!
• Butter
  • When I see a sale on butter I grab as much as I can and have them on hand for the rainy day or for when the grocery budget doesn’t allow me to get what I need. When you accumulate sale items you are less likely to actually run out. Butter freezes great!
• Chicken
  • Chicken is the “cheap” meat of the day. Chicken is also incredibly easy to throw in the crockpot or prepare quick, yummy meals. My freezer almost always has chicken of some kind stashed away.
• Oils
  • Olive oil is a must for cooking and vegetable oil is usually needed in baking. Make sure you keep up with this especially if you are a boxed mix kind of baker.
• Eggs
  • Eggs are needed in MANY recipes. You cannot buy these in bulk since they will go bad, but if you bake a ton and have littles who love scrambled eggs in the morning you can get a better deal buying a larger box.
• Cheese
  • Who doesn’t love cheese? Well, this Wisconsin girl, doesn’t! But, my family does!!!! And, I do use it a great deal in my cooking.
  • Cheese freezes great, but make sure you shred the blocks before to make it easier and not so crumbly.
• Pasta
  • Pasta is CHEAP! It may not be incredibly healthy, but there are many yummy brands out there with tremendous options. They have whole wheat now and gluten free too. Pasta can fill any menu with spectacular flavors. Make sure you have several different kinds, shapes, & sizes for many fun dishes.
• Yeast
  • This may not be an ingredient that many use as often as myself, but it is one that I have to have in my stock for my bread baking.
  • Buy it in bulk at Sams and freeze what you aren’t using!
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Hope this can help some begin keeping their stock up realistically for their kitchen.

Join us tomorrow for help in preparing a menu when guests are coming.