I am NOT going to talk about people hoarding food in grocery outlets like crazy bats, it's ridiculous. We are on lockdown here in France and we have to limit our moves to the strict minimum, so of course we are a buying a little more than average and buy products with longer shelf life.

So here is a post that will take you through our pantry, how we store and use what we have! Of course you'll have to adapt the quantities to the number of people you're feeding, there is just 3 of us so we don't need a whole lot.

Starch/grains :

We are big rice eater here in my household. Several times of week. So I ordered a bulk bag of 7 pounds of rice that I keep in food safe containers (because we do have some issues with mites so it keeps them at bay).

We're having rice with chili, stews, roasted chicken... Basically with everything! It makes an outrageously easy dinner with a can of beans and a burger patty.

Pastas keep for a long time but I didn't buy a ton, just because we don't eat that much of pasta. We have about 2 to 3kgs in stock and that is it. I also keep some noodles on hand! A rule I set for myself when food shopping is : buy what you eat not what you think is logical to stock on but will stay in the pantry uneaten for years after lockdown. I have a rather small kitchen and not a thousands cabinets to put food in so... Optimization is key. I keep pasta in their boxes/bags until I open it and then transfer leftovers to glass jars.

Do I really need to give you ideas about using pastas? Alla carbonara, with meat sauce, lemon, casseroles, soups... There are plenty of pasta recipes on the internet. The blog's readers favorite pasta recipe is my ricotta & spinach tagliatelle and I also love doing this tuna & fusilla in tomato sauce recipe with pantry ingredients.

Okay, not exactly a pantry ingredients but you can keep a bag of potatoes (10-20 pounds), it always gets used up! All potatoes recipes of the blog are here. I love the idea of making a shepherd's pie because you can use whatever veggies you have on hand and switch the meat too if needed.

I always have couscous, bulgur, quinoa on hands too to change things up!

Legumes :

I like to keep canned red beans, white beans and other beans varieties on hand. I also keep dry chickpeas, green lentils and red lentils. Lentils do not need to be soaked before cooking, it's fast and delicious to eat. Click the links on the ingredients to see all the blog's recipes with that particular ingredients!

To use these, we make lockdown chili with red beans. Lentils salads or soups, hummus with chickpeas, baked beans... So many possibilities!

Canned goods :

Cans shelf life is like... eternal! So practical and it doesn't take much space. I don't keep a lot of canned veggies because I simply don't like the taste of it. I just keep a few beans which I don't mind the taste of. But if you like it, stock up a bit, it makes easy and varied sides (green beans, green peas, carrots...).

I (almost) always have on hands :

• sweet corn
• tomatoes (peeled, chopped...)
• canned fruits
• tomato paste
• tuna in water

For baking :

When I ordered rice in bulk, I also bought a big bag of flour because we bake a lot and make breads and flour goes by fast! I keep it in the same food safe container as my rice.
Brown sugar, white sugar, quite a lot of baking powder and dried yeast to make bread, cakes and all sorts of treats.

Little extras for fun :

Nothing really essential here but a few extras to make lockdown extra fun in a lot of ways.
A lot of seeds (for bread making and desserts) : pepitas, pumpkin, chia, sesame, poppy... I keep it in airtight glass jars!
Dark chocolate to bake or to make homemade chocolate chunks to put into cookies.
Nuts of all kinds (to snack as is or to incorporate into recipes) : pistachios, peanuts, almonds... I always buy it roasted and unsalted so I can use it how I want.
Popcorn kernels so you can have movie nights at home. I really love eating it with a salted butter caramel on top, the best.

And that's it for my non-exhaustive pantry list. This is what we like to keep and eat! Would you like to see a similar post with fresh ingredients? Let me know in the comments below.