I get asked, a lot, about what’s in my pantry and what others should stock in theirs. In fact, I’ve been asked so often, I offer a service called the “Pantry Raid,” where I come into your kitchen and rifle through your fridge and cupboards, help you to clean out the junk and give you personalized recommendations for things to stock depending on your lifestyle, family habits and tastes and dietary restrictions.

But today’s advice is free! Here’s my top-eight-great-go-to items to help you take your at-home meal prep to a new level . . . An easy, more carefree level! With these goodies in your arsenal, there’re a lot of choices when it comes to whipping up vittles on a whim. Be the master of your domain and stock these this weekend!

1. Prepared pesto: Sure, you can have it on pasta, but that’s trite. How about a dollop on some steamed or sauteed vegetables? Over a piece of fish? Whisked into a vinaigrette? What about swirled into mashed potatoes or polenta? Used as a sauce for pizza? Now you’re talking. Extra points if you make up a giant batch of your own pesto this summer and free portions – but if you’re not that kinda guy or gal, the supermarket has lots of varieties to choose from. We love this one I get at Whole Foods – spendy, but a little goes a LONG way.
2. Apricot Jam: Slather it on a chicken breast before broiling, or serve with pork chops after they’ve been cooked. Add a schmear to a turkey sandwich and add thin slices of brie and some arugula. You’ll feel so fancy! Use it instead of syrup on pancakes or waffles, or stir some into a bowl of unflavored yogurt and top with nuts or granola. Buy some pre-prepped crepes and layer jam and creme fraiche for a delicious sweet treat, topped with berries.
3. Roast Chicken: Takes minutes to prep and an hour or so to cook – but having one at the ready in your fridge during the week yields endless possibilities. Add it to soups, use as a base or a topping for salads, throw it into quesadillas, or serve it over brown rice. And don’t you dare throw away that carcass! Remember my Roast Chicken Twofer? Make stock and freeze it up for future use!
4. Lentils and Canned Beans: Lentils, white beans, black beans, kidney beans and chickpeas are super EZ to toss into salads, use in quesadillas, mix with sauteed greens, chicken sausage and pasta, or throw into soups. They’re all high in fiber and protein. Try to find beans that are packed in BPA-free cans, like Eden Organics.
5. Pre-prepped Pizza Dough:  From pizzas to flatbreads to calzones, breadsticks, pretzels, foccacia, rolls . . . the sky’s the limit for sweet or savory applications. Refrigerator leftovers seem a lot more fun if they’re atop a pizza or at the center of a pillowy calzone, don’t they?
6. Bagged/Boxed Baby Spinach:  The ultimate convenience food! Pre-washed and ready to serve raw as the base for salads or in smoothies. Or take 2 minutes to saute some, swirl it into your favorite soup or risotto, or use it to bulk up your favorite jarred pasta sauce with extra nutrition.
7. Whole Wheat Couscous: The fastest side dish in the East OR West. Heat up your liquid (use chicken or veg stock for extra flavor), throw in the couscous, take it off the burner, let it rest, and in a mere 5 minutes, it’s done. Whole wheat couscous is a great intro. to whole grain pastas because it’s still so mild in taste and the texture is the same as regular couscous – and yet, you’ll get health a boost from its fiber and protein content.
8. Quinoa: Either as a side dish, or as in our house, the main dish, quinoa cannot be beat for its versatility and nutritional profile. Cook a big batch and use it throughout the week for quick lunches and dinners: add some pre-cut veggies, a squeeze of lime or lemon, some soy sauce, some beans or tofu or edamame, and you’ve got a vegan lunch that’s packed with fiber and protein. Use some of that shredded roast chicken to whip up a salad with greens and quinoa and a light vinaigrette. Warm it in the micro with your favorite milk and top it with dried fruit and nuts for breakfast.

Ok, your turn! What do you have on hand all the time, and how does it save you time in the kitchen?

Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

© 2012, Sarah. All rights reserved.

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I’ve got a lot of kitchen stuff. Just ask my poor husband who put together a giant Ikea armoire to house extra pie plates, cake pans, cookie cutters, etc. etc. etc. We have a big kitchen with lots of cupboard space, but where to put the 3 (yes, you read that right) waffle irons? The juicer? The panini press? Downstairs.

But what do I actually use on a daily basis? That’s a whole ‘nother story. When push comes to shove, the number of tools I use regularly is pretty small, and I’d argue that you really don’t need too much to have a high-functioning kitchen. I’ve declared a moratorium in fact, on buying new things, and an all-out ban on any one-purpose tool. Here are my top 8 favorites, in no particular order – these are the versions I actually own. If you came into my kitchen right now, you’d see these all here!

Lodge 12″ Cast Iron Skillet: This is probably my number 1 most- used item. It’s for cook-top, for oven (you know I love a good frittata!) and it comes pre-seasoned, so you don’t have to mess with that. What’s more, once you cook with it for a while, it’ll get super-seasoned, such that it’s virtually non-stick. Yes, that’s right. I don’t own any non-stick cookware (Teflon’s evil, in my book) and yet I can prep all the same stuff w/the same lack o’ grease (if I want, remember, some fat is good, and in fact, in some cases, fat helps you absorb the vitamins in your food). I do wash mine with soap and water (this is controversial in the cast iron world) because I don’t want tomorrow’s flapjacks to taste like last night’s curry. But maybe you like curried flapjacks?

Breville Hemisphere Blender: I have a love-love relationship with this thing. I use it at least once a day for my a.m. green smoothie. It’s super-powerful – large chunks of frozen fruit are NO MATCH for this bad boy. It’s mostly glass, so I’m not freaking out about plastics, and it’s easy to clean, too. What’s not to love?

KitchenAid Manual Citrus Juicer: I have this exact one pictured. Got it at Target for $10, I think. It’s orange (I LOVE the color orange) and it’s low-tech and I use it almost every day for juicing fresh lemons, limes and/or oranges. Usually for salad dressing, because as you know, I think it’s a crime to buy the stuff. It’s amazing what a hit of fresh citrus will do for  a dish – this is simple to use and goes in your dishwasher.

Microplane Zester: Speaking of citrus, I use this thing all the time, too. Citrus zest adds great zing to dressings and sauces and adds a bright note to cooked dishes with few, if any, added calories. This is also great for very finely grated cheese – if you want it to melt quickly into your dish, this is the tool for you.

Digital food scale: This is an inexpensive digital food scale, goes up to 5 lbs. and has a tare feature (you can put your plate or bowl on it and then “zero” the scale so you’re then measuring whatever you put in or on that bowl or plate). I use mine all the flippin’ time. Just measured out 7 oz. of cantaloupe this a.m. for my smoothie, in fact. Want to see what 3 oz. of chicken really looks like? This here’s your friend. Whether you’re watching what you eat or not, a digital scale can be a useful kitchen tool – for instance, many serious bakers weigh their ingredients to get more precise measurements . . . this little puppy might help those pastries come out more gorgeous than evah!

Cuisinart: I love this thing. I’ve had mine since 1996. It’s beat up and the white base is yellow-ish. It’s not pretty, but it’s a workhorse and I use it often. I can slice potatoes wafer-thin for holiday gratins, grate a boat-load of cheese in a flash, whip up healthy edamame dips for parties, whirl up big batches of pesto with my CSA basil bounty . . . you can even make bread and pie crusts in this thing. See also: the Mini-Prep by Cuisinart – a mini version of this. Originally purchased to puree foods for baby L., I now use it primarily for chopping nuts and making small amounts of salad dressing.

Chicago Metallic Baking Sheets: Why, oh why do people buy baking sheets coated with non-stick coating? That coating’s toxic, my friends. It has PFOA in it and when you heat it up, it emits a gas that’s not good for you. And if you have pet birds, it’ll kill ‘em. What’s more, it’ll blacken the bottom of your muffin or cookie quicker than a jack-rabbit. Furthermore, most cookies and pastries don’t need to be baked on a greased sheet anyway, ’cause they’re greasy, all on their own. What you want, my friends, is a set of these. They come in lots of different sizes and they’re heavy (heavyweight = even baking) and uncoated and they’ll last you a lifetime. What if you’re feeling the need for non-stick? Zero mess? That’s where aluminum foil and parchment come in. These are worth the investment. I use at least one multiple times per week – from fish sticks to chicken nuggets to cookies to roasting veggies . . . DI uses the big rimmed sheets to prep items to put on the BBQ. Get one, test it. You’ll see.

Pepper Mill: This is my pepper mill. It’s fancy, no? I treated myself to this one, made by Peugeot, a couple of years ago when one D & I’d gotten for our wedding broke. That first pepper mill got me hooked on freshly ground black pepper. Great for adding a certain something to lots of different dishes, and for finishing dishes too. Crack some over salad. Add it to your soups. Lots of bang for zero calories. MUCH better flavor than buying pre-ground pepper. If you want to get really fancy, you can get peppercorn blends for slightly different flavors. And you don’t have to have this Rolls Royce of pepper mills. Target has pepper mills. Walmart does too.

These are just a few of my favorite things . . . as you can see, they’re not all fancy or super high-tech, but they’re multipurpose, sturdy and functional. What’re your top 8 kitchen tools?

{Disclaimer: These reviews are my own, unbiased opinions, and I was not provided with these products to review . . . bought ‘em with my own, cold, hard cash.}

© 2012, Sarah. All rights reserved.

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For a while now I’ve been telling you guys to avoid canned foods because of BPA.  And I know that many of you rely on beans as a source of quick and healthy fiber and protein in your diets.  And I also know that Eden Organic brand is, right now, the only brand of canned beans that doesn’t use BPA in the liner.  So . . . how ’bout avoiding the issue altogether, while saving time and money?  Cook your own!?  I think that home-cooked beans taste worlds better than canned.

But I can hear you now . . . it takes time to cook beans yourself!  You’re here reading Semi-Sweet ’cause you don’t have loads of time.  I understand – most beans will take 1 to 1 1/2 hours to cook until tender.  But maybe this handy-dandy primer will help?  I’m also including instructions on how to freeze your own beans – so you could do up a big batch on, say, a weekend or weeknight when you’re hanging around the house (the cook time is largely unattended time) so you can eat some that week and freeze some for the future.  Do this a few weeks in a row, varying your bean selection, and voila!  You have a store of beans in your freezer that’ll rival anything you’ve had in your larder.  

Cooking Beans

Super-basic method (requires no prior planning!):  Rinse and pick over the beans, removing any stones or debris.  Put your beans in a pot, cover them with about 2 inches of water, and bring the water to a boil.  Turn the heat down to a simmer and cover the pot loosely.  Cook, occasionally stirring gently, until the beans start to get tender.  Then add about 1 t. of salt per 1/2 lb. of beans and continue to cook, again stirring gently, until the beans are tender.  You may have to add more water during the cooking time so that beans remain covered.  Drain and serve, use them in recipes or freeze them for later use (see below). 

Faster-cook method (requires prior-planning):  Soak your beans in water to cover them for at least 6 hours or overnight.  Drain them, and then cook as directed above in fresh water.  Or, you can boil the beans for 2 minutes in water to cover, then remove them from the heat and leave them to soak for 2 hours in that water.  Drain them, and then cook them in fresh water.  These quicker cooking methods will reduce your cooking time by 15 to 30 minutes.

Freezing Beans

Get yourself some smallish, freezer-safe containers, and after you’ve cooked up your beans, measure out portions into the containers, along with their cooking liquid and pop ‘em in the freezer.  They’ll keep for months in there.  Defrost either in the fridge or microwave and enjoy.

Flavor Boosters For Beans

 I often cook my beans in plain old water with some salt because I like to use them as a blank canvas for recipes.  Here are some ingredients to add while cooking your beans that’ll jazz ‘em up:

1. Add a quartered yellow onion and two bay leaves when you cook the beans;
2. Add a quartered yellow onion, a carrot a celery stalk and 3 or 4 cloves of garlic when you cook the beans; and/or
3. Cook your beans in chicken, beef or vegetable stock.

 What Do I Do With Them?

1. Try searching Epicurious, plugging in the sort of beans you’re preparing along with any other ingredients you have on hand. 
2. A quick little Bittman salad:  Mix cooked cannellini or other white beans, chopped cherry or grape tomatoes and arugula or baby spinach. Lightly toast sliced garlic in olive oil with rosemary and red pepper flakes; cool slightly, add lemon zest or juice or both, then pour over beans.
3. Combine black beans, halved grape tomatoes and cubed avocado.  Top with a vinaigrette of sherry vinegar, good olive oil, salt and pepper.
4. Whip up some Taco Soup in your slow-cooker – people have been raving about this one!
5. This Chocolate Calypso Beans recipe from 101 Cookbooks is on my list – looks delicious, as does this different take on Kidney Bean Soup from Macheesmo.

However you make or eat them, beans are a super nutritious, delicious and inexpensive addition to your diet.  What’re your favorite ways to eat beans?  Share them in the comments!

© 2010, Sarah. All rights reserved.

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