My “Real Food” Pantry
I’ll take you through my house (shh…it’s in a bit of disarray!) and show you where I store my food.
Just a couple things to remember:
- It’s Monday and I don’t clean over the weekend. Hence the mess.
- It’s right after the holidays, hence some of the non real food.
- I have not grocery shopped in over a week, so I have little on hand.
- I have also run out of a lot of my homemade items so the dressings and condiments you see are all my husband’s store bought stuff. (yes, there are a few things he refuses to eat homemade. Stinker.)
- I was having a bad day last week and running on little sleep, my husband brought ice cream home for me. He gets me.
About donielle
Donielle is an amateur herbalist and natural momma to two littles (with another babe in heaven) after dealing with infertility. She has a passion for nourishing nutrition, natural living, and spreading the word on how food truly affects our health. Her blog Naturally Knocked Up focuses on fertility and reproductive health and her book on natural fertility will be available in June 2012. She also runs a local blog (Grand Rapids Natural Living) and is active the local community in order to provide the area with resources and information for natural families.
Please elaborate on the frozen zucchini. How did you freeze it, what will you do with it out of the freezer? I tried to freeze our zucchini harvest 2 yrs ago and it was an EPIC FAIL! It was kind of gross when I took it out, only good for bread but even then soggy.
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donielle Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
@kia, I just shred and freeze. It only gets used for muffins and bread – so I’m gonna be baking a lot! One year I tried to squeeze out the excess moisture, but found it was still very wet when thawed, so now I don’t bother! I just thaw and let it sit in the strainer for awhile before I use it.
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I just have to say that I appreciate that you didn’t clean to make the video
. It just shows that you’re a real person like the rest of us!! 
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donielle Reply:
January 7th, 2010 at 12:18 pm
@Courtney, lol That’s what I told my husband when he was flabbergasted that I didn’t clean first. Eh – it happens.
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Thanks for sharing!! I “toured” my pantry a few months ago on my blog. At that time we had more boxed junk than we do now. I think I only have one box of all that left, actually. I’ve been slowly trying to make more and more at home. We recently made lacto-fermented ketchup and love it so much that Jason said he can never buy Heinz again LOL
I haven’t been able to get mayo down yet though …. need to find a different oil to use because we don’t like it with the extra virgin olive oil. Salad dressings is another thing I need to try to conquer lol
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donielle Reply:
January 7th, 2010 at 12:15 pm
@Brandy, Mayo is definitely on my to do list! I’ve heard the regular olive oil has a better taste and that Chaffin Orchards has a really mellow evoo that works well.
I need to make more in a couple weeks and thought I might try something a bit different.
Have a link or care to share your ketchup recipe? I like the stuff I make just fine but my husband is not a fan!
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Brandy Reply:
January 7th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
@donielle, Thanks for that tip. I was tempted to just give up after 6 unsuccessful tries … but I’ll keep with it.
I just followed Kelly The Kitchen Kop’s recipe: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2009/11/is-lacto-fermented-homemade-ketchup-worth-the-trouble.html
It’s my first time making any, so I haven’t done any fun tweaking yet lol
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Thanks for sharing your home. I love seeing other people’s food storage! I can’t wait to do my canning this year, I’ll be back here for tips I’m sure!
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I really enjoyed viewing your pantry and LOVED seeing all your canned goods. You really were busy last year! I agree that it was nice to see that you are real, just like me, with a “lived in” home and a DH that still insists on having his store-bought dressings. Thanks for sharing!
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So did I hear correctly – you soak things ahead of time and store them that way???…cause that would be just AMAZING to be able to soak a whole package of brown rice at a time instead of every time I need it.
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donielle Reply:
February 24th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
@Kelli M, You can soak thing ahead of time, but you’ll need to dehydrate them as well. My next venture will be to germinate the rice before we cook it! Supposedly that’s even better than just soaking.
But I do all my nuts and seeds that way, and normally some oats as well.
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Kelli M Reply:
February 24th, 2010 at 3:59 pm
@donielle,
So you soak and then dehydrate? Do you use a machine or just leave them out to dry?
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donielle Reply:
February 24th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
@Kelli M, Yup! I do have a machine, but you could also use the oven on the lowest temp and just open the door ans stir them around every so often until dry.
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annalise Reply:
April 7th, 2011 at 6:26 pm
@donielle, What kind of peanuts do you buy? Raw skinless and then soak and dry? thanks!
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donielle Reply:
April 7th, 2011 at 9:53 pm
@annalise, Exactly, I buy the raw, skinless ones, soak them, and then dehydrate.
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So where do you get the plastic lids for all those mason jars? And where can I get gallon size mason jars?
(love you website)
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donielle Reply:
July 11th, 2010 at 7:37 pm
@Kimlyn, I got mine from our local supermarket right by the canning supplies. They’re made by Ball, so if you can’t find them locally I’m sure you can somewhere online! And the gallon and half gallon jars I have to get at hardware stores like ACE Hardware. (I have not idea if that store is national though
Like a small Lowes!
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