Sustainable Pantry Makeover Wrap Up

Awhile back I had a pantry makeover which the lovely Kat won. I brought my friend Joshua with me to capture some of it on video which I’ll be editing sometime this month (maybe when we are on vacation?) But rather than waiting I really want to wrap up what we found and our suggested alternatives.

Darn if she wasn’t pretty squeaky clean when we got there! I was really impressed with the things I found, although there were some things (mostly gifted by friends and family) that we had to work with. The first thing we did was go through all the cupboards, fridge and freezer. We talked about what she used some of the ingredients for and I went away for several weeks while I pulled together alternative ingredients and replacement recipes for things she was currently buying.

Then we went back again, arms laden with gifts and examples, grain grinders to demonstrate how they are used and left her with a loaf of 100% whole wheat bread dough in her bread maker to wake up to.

I had a blast meeting Kat, her garden and her young chickens. She is the perfect example of someone making a difference: an ethical pescitarian volunteering in the greater community, committed to biking, consuming less and producing more. My kind of gal.

My goal with this makeover was not only to reduce the number of non-local, not-so-environmentally-friendly or produced by mega corporations items, but also to help Kat reduce her grocery bill. Rather than list the entire contents of her kitchen since most of it was great local stuff I’m going to list the dirty laundry along with my replacement suggestions.

Dirty Laundry List – with Replacements

Canned beans – replace with local beans, cooked and frozen until needed.

Hot house red peppers – replace with canned roasted or pickled peppers from the farmer’s market.

Lara bars – replace with Wardeh’s larabars

Costco Popsicles (gifted) – replace with smoothies or juices frozen in popsicle molds

Jello brand pudding (gifted) – replace with pantry pudding

Boxed breakfast cereal – replace with waffles, pancakes and muffins for freezer

Libby’s canned pumpkin – replace with local sweetmeat or pumpkin pureed and frozen

Sweetened condensed milk for fudge – replace with a recipe not using this ingredient

Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup – replace with a white sauce based recipe or a great mushroom casserole recipe

Canned coconut milk – replace with Wilderness Family Naturals dried coconut milk

Boxed vegetable broth – replace with homemade

Morningstar Burgers – replace with bean burgers for freezer

Great Harvest Bread (not dirty but spendy) – replace with homemade whole wheat bread

Crisco and Vegetable (soybean) oil – replace with Napa Naturals Olive and Sunflower Oil

Local Beans

Because beans represent a large part of Kat’s vegetarian diet, she needs a local, non-canned source for them. Rockridge Orchards just took over the country store in Enumclaw and is now carrying a wide selection of organic, local beans for just over $2 per pound. It’s worth the trek out to stock up. Dried beans last quite awhile stored in air tight jars in a dark location like a pantry. I cook up a pot at a time then drain and freeze them in ziplocks so that I can take out a can’s worth as I need them. I am using plastic in the storing of them but I feel it’s a much more sustainable method than paying for beans from China which are then trucked around the country in BPA laden cans. If you don’t want to use plastic bags for freezing you could freeze them on a cookie sheet and then pour them into a re-usable plastic freezer container. The idea is to be able to remove them one serving at a time rather than freezing them into one big blob.

Red Peppers

Kat frequently makes grain salads with fresh red peppers. In a few short months you will begin to see local red peppers at farmers markets near you. Peppers are easy to roast and can (in jars of course), or pickle without roasting. Sometimes you can find an enterprising farmer selling pre-roasted peppers and save some time. We found over the winter that canned red peppers retain a beautiful texture and color that tomatoes just don’t. They easily replaced hot house tomatoes or peppers in sandwiches, salads and pizzas and look great on any appetizer platter. I plan to put up more jars of these this summer because they make delightful gifts and require no special canning skills. Look for a recipe soon…

Larabars and Granola Bars

I’ve trialed a few granola bar recipes this year and not found one yet that I’m completely satisfied with. This is the closest I’ve come but I’m still not completely happy with it in terms of replacing portable granola bars. However, I think Wardeh has come up a great replacement for Larabars and so has Kimi. These would be great substitutes for Kat to keep in her desk drawer at work or bring in her backpack to fuel her while riding her bike across town.

Costco Popsicles

I found a Costco box of popsicles in Kat’s freezer which appeared to be an impulse buy on the part of her husband. But can you blame him? Popsicles are one of those things that take you back to carefree no-shoe days as a kid and that’s something I don’t want to deprive her of. Popsicles are one of those things I think everyone needs to be making. Kat admitted she frequently does make homemade popsicles. I have several popsicle molds that are in constant service in my house. You can juice any type of fruit (and frequently veggies) for sugar free treats but we most often fill them with extra smoothies from breakfast. You can also freeze Rockridge Orchards apple cider for quick and easy popsicles, or be like me and freeze chai or coffee lattes for an afternoon pick me up.

Pantry Pudding

In my household pudding and ice cream are pretty much disguised omelets so I serve them with abandon. Kat had several flavors of pudding gifted by her mom for use in beloved childhood recipes. Homemade pudding is as easy to make as the cooked kind that you get from a box. The cool thing about it is you can customize the flavors to suit you. Like mint and chocolate together? Steep some of your chocolate mint in the milk first. Replace some of the milk with strong espresso or chai latte, or replace some of the sugar with brown sugar and add scotch for a knock-your-socks-off butterscotch (or scotch butter as I like to call it.) You are only limited by your imagination with this master recipe. I’ve even been known to eat it for breakfast and if you make it yourself with lots of eggs and dairy and less sugar why not? It’s still way healthier for you than the next item, boxed breakfast cereal.

Breakfast Cereal

Cereal is one of the hardest things to give up. It makes a quick breakfast you don’t have to think about while you are still blurry-eyed and fumbling to get ready for work in the morning. However, environmentally and health-wise it’s appalling, not to mention it’s one of the items with the largest profit margin for manufacturers. We eat a lot of power pancakes, overnight oat waffles or overnight wheat or spelt waffles at my house, which I make in big batches to freeze and pop into the toaster as needed. I also make large batches of morning glory muffins using seasonal fruit and dried apples as the year wears on. Zuchini can be replaced with carrots or beets or winter squash, giving you options regardless of seasonality. You can also freeze muffins and thaw them the night before then pop them in a 350 degree oven or toaster oven for 5-10 minutes in the morning. We also eat Swedish pancakes once or twice a week and I’ve not yet posted my recipe. I use about 1 cup of ground spelt, 1/2 stick melted butter, 2 eggs, 1 cup of milk, 1 dash salt and 1 teaspoon of sugar for some nice browning. If you omit the sugar you can fill them with savory things like cheese and chives but right now we are serving them filled with whipped cream and berries. They don’t store though so plan to eat them all in one sitting or bring the rest to work for lunch.

Canned Pumpkin

Winter squash are one of the most gratifying things for a new gardener to grow but they are also inexpensive to buy at the farmer’s market in the fall. Sweet meat, kabocha and pumpkin all have similar flavors. It’s easy to remove the seeds, cut them into quarters, roast in the oven and then puree in a food processer before freezing. No trucking or BPA required. I brought Kat a quart of frozen sweet meat squash that I had processed last fall. It makes a tasty pumpkin curry soup, quick bread, muffins or pie.

Sweetened Condensed Milk

Kat had several cans of this on hand for making fudge to take to work. Rather than buying heavy cans filled with BPA I found her a fudge recipe that didn’t need it.

Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup

Kat had a can of cream of mushroom soup on hand for using in casseroles. I showed her how to make a simple white sauce like the one I use in my Can of casserole which can be used as a base for any casserole, pot pie, creamed spinach or kale or the basis of cheese sauce to cover pasta or veggies. I also shared a great recipe for mushroom casserole with her.

Canned Coconut Milk

Despite that coconuts will never be local I have no plans to give them up. But rather than buy heavy cans of coconut milk shipped from overseas in BPA lined cans I now buy dehydrated coconut milk powder from Wilderness Family Naturals. It’s shelf-stable and a great addition to our emergency kit in case we ever need to filter and drink lake water following an earthquake. I particularly love that it reconstitutes beautifully and can be added to just about any recipe in strength without affecting it since it’s not liquid. I add it to pancakes, ice cream, smoothies and Thai-style curries. I think this is such an undiscovered product – I love it! It’s nothing like it’s cousin, dehydrated cow’s milk which makes me shudder to think.

Boxed Vegetable Broth

Kat mentioned she wanted to start making her own vegetable broth so I found her this recipe which is straightforward and simple to make plus who doesn’t want to read through one of Molly’s blog entries to find the recipe?

Morningstar Soy Burgers

Morningstar burgers used to be a staple in my freezer as well. They were a beloved camping breakfast, easier to cook and clean up after in the great outdoors than sausage and eggs, and quick to throw on the grill for a last minute dinner. Back in the day they were a staple for me, just as they are for Kat. But genetically modified soy, Kellogg and MSG are not things I want to support any longer so they’ve long been banned from my freezer. Instead I gave Kat a recipe for bean burgers that she could customize depending on the type of bean and mood she is in. These are also easy to par-fry then freeze so you can later pull them out and grill. By adding mushrooms and rice to the mix you can get something closer to the texture and flavor of Morningstar, otherwise you can alter the spices and bean varieties to your liking.

Great Harvest Bread

Great Harvest is an amazing company, making wonderful whole wheat loaves. The only problem I have with them is the bread costs around $6 per loaf! But the grains aren’t local, nor are they soaked overnight to improve digestibility. So I left Kat with my recipe for whole wheat soaked bread. I use this base loaf to make hamburger and hot dog buns as well, simply by shaping them into other things. Getting her own grain grinder would allow Kat to buy local grains and grind them fresh to increase her mineral uptake as well.

Crisco

Kat doesn’t fry frequently but when she does she’s using Crisco or Vegetable Oil. While she knew the Crisco contained trans fats, she was surprised when I had her read the ingredients on the vegetable oil and saw it contained 100% soybean oil.

Your turn

Kat’s makeover was fairly easy, even though it’s taken me so long to wrap this up. What I’d really like to do is open this up to YOU. Do you have any suggestions or recipes that would replace some of her demons? And what are YOUR demons that you would like help with? I’d love to open this up, both for you asking for replacements and for you with suggestions. Let’s make this a community pantry makeover!