If you are trying to put together a store cupboard of essentials for self-catering, think about the different types of foods that you like you to eat.  It will be important to have the necessary essentials that you need to make these foods.  If you do not have these essentials, you are going to find the process of eating to be rather depressing so plan ahead to avoid this situation.

You don’t have to survive on bread and water, do you?

Two store cupboard essentials that most people are going to want to have readily available are tea and coffee. When you first wake up in the morning, there are few things that smell better than a freshly brewed cup of coffee.  If you agree that starting your day without a delicious beverage is disagreeable, make sure you keep those cabinets stocked with plenty of tea and coffee.

Flour is an essential ingredient to store in the cupboard as well.  If you intend on baking, whether it be fresh biscuits or a cake, this is a staple that you will not be able to do without.  There are a variety of different types of flour such as strong bread flour, plain and self-raising flour.  It will be up to you to determine which type of flour will work best for your needs.  In some cases, it might be necessary to stock a few different types of flour.

Flour’s pretty good, isn’t it - but you can’t eat it can you?

Just as important as flour, sugar is an essential ingredient to store in your cupboard.  You can use sugar to sweeten your tea or add a little flavour to your pie.  Sugar is not limited to just sweets though.  Many cooks add a bit of sugar to their vegetables and even tomato sauce.  Many recipes will call for a sauce which has sugar in it.  Needless to say, don’t forget to grab a bag of sugar when you shop for supplies to fill your cupboards.

If you like to have some easy meals to prepare, pick up a few boxes of pasta.  Without much effort you can cook the pasta and serve it with sauce for a delicious meal.  Luckily, pasta can be stored in your cupboard for a number of months before it goes bad.  This makes it a great ingredient to keep stocked at all times.  You can buy pasta in a wide variety of shapes and sizes so have fun picking your selection.

Many people that cook find that olive oil is an essential ingredient.  This ingredient is frequently used in place of vegetable oil as it is thought to be healthier for you to consume.  If you find that you do a lot of cooking in a skillet, you will probably want to add this to your list of store cupboard essentials.  This ingredient can be a bit expensive so you will want to pick a size that accommodates your cooking needs.

Olive Oil - very good with spinach I understand

Having some oats in your cupboard is also a great idea.  They have a number of cooking applications which makes them rather useful.  You can also store oats for a number of months as well.  You can eat them for breakfast or add them to a batch of cookies.  With so many uses, it seems silly not to purchase some oats for your cupboard.  Of course everyone has different tastes so if you simply do not like oats, avoid this section of the store when you are shopping!

If you like to make soup, it is probably in your best interests to keep a variety of stock cubes on hand.  These are inexpensive to purchase and can be stored quite easily. Whenever you want to make your soup, just pull a few of these from your cupboard and get started.  There are a variety of different flavours available so pick the ones that suit your tastes.  If you like soup but maybe not cooking, you can always by soup in a can which you can store in your cupboard as well.

When you are trying to make a meal quickly it is nice to have a few cans of vegetables that you can pull from the cupboard to prepare.  Canned vegetables such as corn and green beans can be stored for several months so you do not have to worry about them spoiling before you use them.  Whenever you need a can, simply pull one down and heat up the tasty vegetables to complete your meal.

Tinned foods aren’t that bad, some of them are edible

Making mashed potatoes can be a time consuming process.  It takes a while to fully cook the potatoes and then you have to actually mash them until they are nice and smooth.  While these might be tasty mashed potatoes, there are easier ways to go about this.  Simply store a few boxes of instant mashed potatoes in your cupboard.  In a few minutes, these potatoes will be ready to eat and you hardly had to exert any effort at all!

Another store cupboard essential that is useful to have around is rice.  It is delicious to eat plain and even better if vegetables are added to it.  Much like a number of other cupboard essentials, rice has a longer shelf life which makes it a valuable item to keep around.

There are a variety of different spices that you are going to want to keep in your cupboard as well.  Because tastes vary dramatically, it is hard to pinpoint the specific ones that everybody should keep on hand.  With that being said, one of the most popular spices that can be found in cupboards is black pepper.  Other popular spices include chilli powder, basil, cinnamon, and garlic.

Garlic - now we’re talking!

There are clearly a variety of different store cupboard essentials to choose from.  Many people will find items like flour and sugar to be obvious selections while others who do not like to cook will avoid them altogether.  The trick to picking the right cupboard essentials is to base your selections off of the foods that you enjoy cooking and eating the most.  If you love to make chilli, make sure chilli powder is in your spice rack.

Subscribe for free and recieve the latest Self-Catering-Breaks news and stories
Filed under Blog

• No Related Post

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 21st, 2009 at 9:43 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.