Yes, yes, the Carnivore and the Vegetarian blog still lives! It has been a while since my last post. I’ve been pretty busy with a variety of things and have neglected the blog for way too long. Anyway, I came across an interesting article on The Kitchn, which provides the 5 Pantry essentials when cooking for Two. This got me thinking, since I primarily am cooking for two, do these ingredients line up with what I like to have on hand? Let’s do a quick run down on The Kitchn’s list.
- Eggs
- Onions
- Cans of diced tomatoes
- Jar of Roasted Peppers
- Chicken Sausage
Looking at this list, I think that eggs and onions are definitely two of the most important things to have around. When in doubt, make scrambled eggs with onions. You could also toss in some sausage and roasted peppers and take down four out of five of these ingredients. The last one, diced tomatoes, isn’t something I have on hand, but I do always have crushed or whole peeled tomato cans for a quick tomato sauce.
While this is a pretty good list, and you can see more explanation on the blog itself, I think a few more could be added, including dry ingredients that can be made into a quick meal. For me have pasta and quinoa are essential. These can compliment onions, tomatoes and sausage (or another protein that keeps in the freezer). Also, having canned beans, specifically white and black beans can be made into a variety of meals — you can go in an Italian direction with white beans or Mexican direction with black beans (or plenty of other directions as you wish).
What pantry items do you find the most essential?
Over the next few weeks or months, I hope to try and post some quick meals that you can make on the fly for when you are feeling lazy, but want to avoid delivery.
We always try to have some canned chickpeas on hand. Great for a shelf stable protein. Can make hummus, falafel, or add to soup or stew, etc.
I didn’t used to have those on hand a lot, but last night I made a quinoa/tomato “stew” and tossed in chickpeas. No meat, but lots of protein