Monday, September 13, 2010



The contents of our dry goods cabinet (well, the main one). We have one of those corner cabinets with lazy susans in it, and it's a little busted. So Eric took all the stuff out to look at it but it's not fixed yet. All stacked up like that it's sucking up counter space and blocking the microwave, but it looks cool, so I took a picture, which I'm following up with my top ten dry staples.

1. basic short rice, of course. I'm lumping white and brown together as number one. It's a rare week that we don't eat this, usually several times. Plus I think it's better the next day than basmati, which gets dry really fast.
2. other rice--basmati, arborio, wild rice, jasmine. I once did a presentation for Relief Society on vegetarian cooking and food storage, and when I said I had several kinds of rice, several ladies were surprised there even were several kinds. *sigh*
3. wheat--I don't actually use the wheat, but Eric makes bread with it every couple of weeks, so I reap the benefits of his wheat usage, mostly in the form of toast.
4. quinoa--when I feel like we've eaten nothing but rice all week, I make quinoa instead. It's cute and round, so you've gotta love that.
5. pasta--I like different shapes because they fool me into thinking I'm eating different foods. Yay!
6. lentils--these are pretty much the only 'beans' I cook from their dry state because I am too lazy for other beans. Lentils usually means green lentils to me (or cute French blue ones) but I also use red lentils sometimes. I make a pretty tasty lentil salad, maybe I'll post the recipe later on.
7.peanuts, for cooking and snacking.
8. millet--I only have one recipe for this, but it's got a great, nutty flavor so I'd love to expand my millet use.
9. split mung beans (moong dal)--I also only have one recipe for these, but I also throw them into soups.
10. barley--you can cook this up like rice and put stuff on it, but I rarely do that. But I throw it in crockpot soup to add texture. It keeps its chewiness even with long cooking.

2 comments:

  1. years and years ago i interned at a waldorf school. it's very new-agey/old traditioney and weird. but they used to have golden millet every day as a snack, and the kids could choose to put honey in it, or a savory salt blend. either way it was simple and delicious. that is my two cents about that.

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  2. You are so organized!!! I feel bad now :( I agree with you that it is sad that some people are strangers to the wonderful variety of rice out there...

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