Fat Chick Fed Up

If you missed the first part of this series yesterday in which I invite you into “My Happy Place”, click right here to catch up.

 

Today, I am going to walk you through a detailed look at my pantry-the good, the bad and the ugly. I didn’t clean, move anything or take anything out before I took these photos. What you see is what you get and I am sure you will see plenty of things on these shelves that probably should not make their way into my home. But hopefully, the majority reflects my philosophy on eating healthfully.

 

From front to back, top to bottom:

 

 

In the black bag on the top shelf is my kids’ Halloween candy. I am not sure they even remember it is up there because they haven’t had any in so long due to my daughter’s sugar restriction.

 

Right underneath, I have snacks and breakfast foods. Which is basically just oatmeal for making granola and steel cut oats for making…oatmeal. There are a couple of snacks up there that I use in extreme emergencies-such as when I need to keep the baby quiet during a Bible quiz meet or when we are traveling 1100 miles over 2 days to see Daddy.

 

 

Underneath my breakfast shelf is my produce shelf, filled with the produce that doesn’t need to be refrigerated. This week I have 2 pineapples, 2 bags of apples, 2 bags of bananas, a bag of potatoes, a bag of sweet potatoes, 2 bags of oranges, 1 bag of clementines and one bag of tangerines (we also just finished off our avocados and kiwi today). I try to keep only produce that is in season currently, because 1) it’s cheaper, 2) it’s healthier and 3) it’s better for the environment. Sometimes it doesn’t work out that way but I try to stick to that general rule of thumb. I like to freeze other produce when it is in season to have any time of the year. As long as they are frozen quickly, frozen produce is just as healthful as fresh.

 

Underneath this shelf, on the floor, I keep a tote or a box to which I add stuff to be put into storage. This helps  keep my home organized and relatively clutter-free. As soon as it’s filled up, I take it to our storage space. I am trying to be really ruthless about purging and getting stuff out that we aren’t currently using. This helps me to better be able to manage keeping up with the house for showings, and also means we won’t have as much stuff to move when we eventually sell.

 

Next are my bulk wheat and sugar. You can also see the little corner of my water bath canner that just doesn’t get much use this time of year. I am looking forward to getting to use it even more in Florida as the growing season is much longer.

 

 

Next, I have my coconut oil, condiments and a few canned goods. I like keeping these in boxes so they will sit more neatly on the wire shelving we have.

 

 

My pride and joy, my home-canned items. It doesn’t even look like very much but those jars represent hours upon hours upon hours of work in the garden, peeling, chopping, boiling etc… of my produce. I have applesauce, pear sauce, apple butter, strawberry jam, and tomato sauce. I love it!

 

 

More baking supplies. I also have 2 more drawers filled with baking supplies. What can I say? I like to be prepared for whenever baking inspiration strikes, which is pretty frequent this time of year. 

 

 

Then there are my two favorite kitchen appliances-my Nutrimill and my Bosch mixer. On the next shelf down I have two drawers, one with spices, cake decorating supplies, etc… and one with household items like lightbulbs and rubber gloves. I got these drawers from a used sterilite three-drawer plastic rolling cart. They are perfect for these shelves and help to keep everything contained in one place.

 

And yes, that is beer on my shelf. For making beer bread. Cross my heart. I’m actually more embarrassed by the Mountain Dew that’s up there. In my defense, we don’t drink it. It was given to us by some sweet friends when we thought The Chick Magnet was going to be driving to Florida, to help him stay awake. Then he ended up flying and it has been on that shelf ever since.

 

 

Next, I have a drawer full of all of my foil, plastic wrap, trash bags and the like and then under that is a drawer for towels, wash cloths, baby bibs, table cloths and hot pads. I have precious little drawer space in my kitchen so it helps to have them in here.

 

 

By the pantry were hung all the aprons with care.

 

An apron is a must-have in my kitchen. I’m messy, remember? Each of my kiddos has their own apron and the striped apron in the back is mine. I won that a couple of years back for winning a chili cook-off event at our church. I’m quite proud of that thing!

 

 

My lazy ingenious solution for shoe organization. Laundry baskets! Since we always come in this way, and I am anal about keeping shoes off of my very light-colored carpets, we take shoes off as soon as we come inside. Girls’ shoes on the left and boys’ on the right.

 

 

My craft drawers. You know, for all those crafts we never do.

 

 

We have a decent-sized storage area in the back of our pantry. This was originally slated to be the laundry room but we had that moved upstairs. My bookshelf holds all of my lesser-used items so they aren’t cluttering up precious kitchen space.

 

 

On the opposite wall is a small book shelf with cleaning supplies out-of-the-way of little fingers.

 

 

In the back is our dog crate and some empty boxes which I like to keep handy for purging and donating stuff around the house.

 

 

And some more Christmas sweetness, just because I love you.

 

There you have it. I hope you have enjoyed this scintillating tour of my pantry. It may not be all that interesting, but I love it!

 

What’s in your pantry?