Home Dinner Diva: Stock your fridge and pantry for Paleo
Local

Dinner Diva: Stock your fridge and pantry for Paleo

Contributors

dinner diva leanne elyWhen you start looking at Paleo and regular old gluten-free recipes, you may notice that you could stand to do a better job of stocking your cupboards so that you’re not always either running to the market or passing over recipes due to lack of key ingredients.

Now, this obviously doesn’t happen when you follow the plan in my menu mailers and ebooks because I lay out the shopping list for you! But hey, the odd time, you’re going to be looking elsewhere for recipes. So here I’m going to give you some suggestions on what you should be keeping in your fridge and in your pantry so that you always have the basics you need to put together a killer Paleo meal for the family.

Note: always look for organic versions of each of these items!

 

Spice Rack

One thing that’s absolutely essential for your kitchen is a well-stocked spice rack. You should always have the following spices on hand:

  • Sea salt (preferably Pink Himalayan)
  • Pepper
  • Smoked paprika
  • Chili powder
  • Basil
  • Curry
  • Coriander
  • Turmeric
  • Cinnamon
  • Thyme
  • Rosemary

 

Pantry

A little note here that when I suggest canned foods, I only want you to buy them if you know they are  BPA-free. Otherwise, look for the items in glass containers. That being said, a well-stocked Paleo-friendly pantry should contain:

  • Tomatoes (a variety of crushed, diced and whole)
  • Coconut milk (full fat)
  • Tuna, salmon, crab and other canned fish
  • Virgin organic coconut oil
  • Coconut flour
  • Arrowroot flour (excellent substitute for cornstarch)
  • Almond meal (also called ground almonds or almond flour)
  • Pecans, almonds, brazil nuts (make sure they’re raw and unsalted)
  • Local honey
  • Vanilla
  • Cocoa powder

 

In the refrigerator

Stock those shelves with lots and lots of fresh veggies. On the Paleo plan, you eat fruit sparingly, but you’ll be eating as many vegetables as you possibly can. Be sure to check the Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen lists when choosing which items to buy organic.

Make sure you have a good variety of frozen and fresh wild-caught fish, red meat, pork and chicken. Always look for pasture-raised and grass-fed local meats.

Keep a couple dozen farm fresh eggs in your fridge-always free range!

It’s more Primal than Paleo to eat dairy, but my recommendation would be to use only whey protein powder, Greek yogurt and cheeses aged over 120 days and even then, use these items sparingly.

That’s about it! With these items you’ll never be stuck for meal options again . . . Paleo or not!

Are you on Pinterest? So are we! We’d love to see you on our Pinterest page pinterest.com/savingdinner/ and we’d LOVE to see pins about Saving Dinner! Let us know if you’ve blogged about us we’ll share it too!

Leanne Ely is a NYT bestselling author and the creator of SavingDinner.com, the original menu planning website, bringing families back to the dinner table for over 15 years.

Contributors

Contributors

Have a guest column, letter to the editor, story idea or a news tip? Email editor Chris Graham at [email protected]. Subscribe to AFP podcasts on Apple PodcastsSpotifyPandora and YouTube.