Setting Up Your Freezer and Pantry: A Primer

The best way to enjoy cooking in your kitchen is to be prepared. A properly stocked freezer and pantry can help you with meal planning and creating meals when the cupboards are getting bare. If you can still make it out to the grocery store, this is a GREAT time to set up your supplies for the long social isolation period ahead.

Before you can fill your shelves, you need to purge them. Go through your pantry and throw away anything that is past its expiration date, and anything that is taking up space but won't be useful. If you have little bits of things left (like cereal, boxed pasta/rice, etc.) remove it from its bulky packaging and put it in a smaller food storage container or bag, and label it.

Go through your freezer and toss anything that you can't recognize, anything with freezer burn or ice crystals, and anything you know nobody is going to eat.

Now take inventory on what remains and sort the items into categories. If you have a large pantry, group like items by shelf. If not, share shelf space with what fits together in the space. Some good categories are canned goods; cereals, pastas and rice; breads; sauces/condiments; coffee, tea and other beverages; baking (flours, sugars, salts, baking powder/baking soda, chocolate chips, etc.); oils and vinegars; dried herbs and spices.

In the Freezer, separate your remaining food into groups and sort - veggies/fruits; meat/fish; breakfasts; ice cream/desserts; breads/pie crusts/pastry dough; frozen meals/pizza/snacks.

This is when you can finally make a list of what you need. Remember, many people are ransacking grocery stores right now and hoarding items, so be a good neighbor and only buy what you need. You can always restock in the future using a delivery service if you can't get out to the store. Also, don't panic buy food you know nobody in your house is going to eat. There are lots of shelf and freezer stable items you can stock up on that will please even the pickiest eaters, and this might turn out to be a good opportunity to get your family to try new, nutritious foods.