I love cooking nutritious meals at home! One key to making my life much easier is having a pantry stocked with healthy foods. I always joke that Isaac and I have way too much food in the house for two people, but then again, I don’t ever complain when I look up recipes and already have all the ingredients on hand!
I’ve teamed up with my local Whole Foods here in Richmond (Short Pump) as part of the Choices Count healthy eating initiative and the Pantry Stock Up Contest, to show that stocking a healthy pantry can be done pretty easily and doesn’t have to blow your bank account. Whole Foods gave me the healthy pantry shopping list and a $50.00 gift card so I could buy the pantry stock up items and experiment with some of the Whole Foods recipes. If you know me and my love for Whole Foods, you’ll know that I was all over this idea!
Whole Foods Healthy Pantry Shopping List
- 1 lb black beans
- 1 lb lentils
- 1 lb quinoa
- 2 lbs brown rice
- 3 (32-oz) boxes vegetable broth
- 1 (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 soymilk
- 1 (32-oz) box unsweetened almondmilk
- 1 (5-oz) can tuna
- 3 (15-oz) cans diced tomatoes
- 1 package no-oil sundried tomatoes
- 1 jar pasta sauce
I think Whole Foods did an excellent job crafting this list. If you were to check out my pantry at any given time we’d typically have most of these items on hand. Beans, as well as, whole grains like quinoa, oats and brown rice are a big component of my diet. And although I don’t eat pasta all that often, we always have whole grain noodles because Isaac loves making big batches of pasta.
Many of the items were on sale at the time I was shopping and I found some good deals in the bulk bins (my favorite place to stock-up) so I actually spent a little less than $50 on everything! Definitely not bad when you think about how many different meals these ingredients will make.
In terms of the meals, Whole Foods gives a list of recipes on their blog that can be crafted with these ingredients (including soups, pasta, pancakes and overnight oats). I’m definitely going to be trying some of those out – in fact, I’ve already gotten started on that and I’ll be sharing those details soon. In the meantime, definitely check out the Whole Foods blog as the Pantry Stock Up Contest is national campaign and they are giving away a ton of great prizes if you enter before January 31, 2012:
$50 Pantry Staples Stock Ups – 31 winners will receive a $50 Whole Foods Market® gift card along with a list of suggested pantry staples needed to make 14 of our healthy recipes.
Five grand-prize packages include:
- Pantry Staples for a Year – Each grand-prize winner will receive a Whole Foods Market gift card for $599 to use for stocking your pantry for a year.
- Customized elfa® pantry system from The Container Store ($500 value) – Each grand-prize winner will receive a customized pantry design from The Container Store and a $500 elfa Store More Card to makeover your pantry.
Definitely worth checking out!!! $599.00 gift card – yes please. Fingers crossed that I win one of those! 
Do you keep your pantry stocked with healthy foods? If so, what are your key items? In addition to the items on the Whole Foods list, I like to have lots of spices on hand so I can add flavor to things without extra calories. 
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Brittany Mullins, HHC
