The Veggie Pantry: Grains

Today, I’m starting a new series, based on a suggestion made by my mom!  She reads my blog everyday, eats mostly vegetarian, whole foods, and enjoys making the recipes on here.  However, she told me that she’ll often times have to go out and purchase quite a few ingredients in order to make the recipes, because she doesn’t already have them on hand in her pantry.

I’m sure that there are many people out there transitioning from a more mainstream food lifestyle, that might be curious about what goes into a whole foods pantry.  I figure, that instead of showing you all at once, and overwhelming you with it all, I would go one food category at a time, starting today with grains!

I keep a variety of grains stored in my pantry.  Different grains have different uses, so I keep quite a bit on hand to make sure I always have what I need.

• Steel-cut oats- breakfast cereal

• Rolled oats- breakfast cereal, snack bars, granola, raw in smoothies, etc.

• Buckwheat- breakfast cereal, side dish, grain entree,can be sprouted, gluten-free, complete protein

• Brown rice- side dish, grain entree, gluten-free

• Millet- side dish, grain entree, gluten-free

• Quinoa- side dish, grain entree, can be sprouted, gluten-free, complete protein

• Popcorn- popcorn, gluten-free

When shopping for grains (and many other items), I suggest finding a grocery store that has bulk bins.  You’ll save quite a bit of money on packaging and branding.  I bring my grains home and store them in mason jars. It’s a cute, functional, easy-to-see-what-I’m-grabbing, storage method.

As for cooking, I cook pretty much all of my grains (the obvious exception being popcorn) in my rice cooker, with a water to grain ratio of 2:1.

What grains do you keep in your pantry?  What is your favorite grain?

Happy stocking!

<3 Lindsay