Deciding to make the vast majority of our meals from scratch at home was an easy choice. Stocking a pantry full of things I would need to make the majority of our meals from scratch at home was a bit more of a process. Figuring out what we would use enough to actually buy in bulk and what we wouldn’t use before it expired took a lot of trial and error, and a decade in, I finally feel confident when I’m shopping.

Ultimately, I figured out if I break it down by categories, I can stay better organized. I can figure out a good amount of one particular category I’ll need for a set amount of time and make sure I have a variety of those things.

There are seven things I know to keep in stock in our pantry to be sure and have a successful month with our meal plan.

1. Dry Goods

For me, this means a *lot* of flour. I usually buy 100 pounds at a time, and it doesn’t take us nearly as long as you’d think for us to go through it. We bake some sort of bread product almost every single day, so flour is something we absolutely have to have in bulk.

In this category, I’d also include:

• baking powder
• baking soda
• cocoa powder
• oats
• corn meal
• masa
• yeast

2. Sweeteners

Because we do so much from scratch, we also need to be sure we have plenty of sweeteners on hand, so this one gets its own category. We use way more than just granulated sugar, though. (Some of these things can be used to make other things on our list, but I want to make sure I have at least a canister full of each at any given time.) We also need:

• brown sugar
• powdered sugar
• maple syrup
• molases
• honey

3. Proteins

If I can make our breads and tortillas at any time- which I can if we have all the dry goods and sweeteners we need- the next must have for us will always be proteins. I’m pretty sure my family could live a happy little life off breads and proteins. Most of these things we buy in bulk and keep tucked away in our freezer so we have it available for months after we bring it home from a store. One thing I do find really useful is to buy meats we can use in multiple different ways. I can make a roast in the crock pot. I can smoke it. I can shred it for sandwiches. I can make taco meat with it. I can serve it with potatoes or rice. A simple roast can be used in so many different ways, so it’s always something I’ll keep tons of in my freezer. We might not have everything on our list at all times, but we always have multiple options available. My proteins list is:

• roast (preferably with little marbling and fat)
• boneless skinless chicken breast
• chicken theighs
• whole chickens
• pork roast
• ground beef
• bacon
• Italian sausage
• shrimp
• eggs
• beans (dried and canned)

One thing I will add here is I also always keep an ample store of bone broths available. I prefer to make and can it myself, but even before I did that, I made sure my pantry stayed stocked with lots of bone broths. I use it for cooking so often, but it’s also a super nutritious addition to any meal.

4. Fats

I’d say for us, fats are some of the most important items on our pantry and refrigerator shelves. I can make bread without a fat, but it’s almost always better with it included. Fats make cooking meat a much better experience (and flavor!), and sometimes without the fats, the proper cooking method isn’t even possible. They help meats brown and breads to not stick. They make cakes rich and moist and crisp up some homemade fries. The fats we don’t let run dry in our house are:

• olive oil (extra virgin, mostly)
• butter
• beef tallow
• lard
• bacon grease

I will note that I take great care to source our fats in the best possible places. I prefer to render our own bacon grease and beef tallow. I look for a good source of lard, and our olive oil is single origin as often as possible. We stay away from seed oils and fats not derived from animals for the most part.

5. Produce

For us, this one is less of a pantry staple because we swap out so often what produce we have based on the seasons. There are a few things I make sure we keep, though. We use them to make smoothies when fresh fruit isn’t an option or to add veggies into our diet when we aren’t getting things from our own back yard. Much of our produce on our shelves can be found in sauces and salsas we have made from the previous summer’s gardens. Things we can’t do without are:

• frozen fruit
• frozen vegetables
• pasta sauce
• pizza sauce
• salsa verde
• salsa

6. Dry Carbs

Some of these things are things we can make from scratch, but I have found life is much simpler when I can be sure and include some of these into our pantry. If I need a quick meal, there’s no way I’m making pasta from scratch for it. We like to keep:

• dried pastas
• rice
• egg noodles

You can really go as crazy here as you want. You can have ten different shapes of pasta or keep it to just spaghetti. You can have every variety of rice or only use long grain white rice. Personally, I like to have a long and a short pasts as well as a couple of rice varieties at all times.

7. Fun Things!

I can use all of those things to make some really great food, but it’s always so wonderful to have something extra fun. Most of these stay in our pantry rotation, but we don’t usually have all of them all the time. These things include:

• chocolate chips (mini, semi sweet, milk, and dark)
• vanilla (and other flavors) of extracts
• marshmallows
• nuts
• dried fruits like cranberries and cherries
• freeze dried strawberries
• apple sauce
• crackers

Breaking this down into these seven categories can help keep you organized and make sure you’re not over buying things you won’t use or not keeping enough of what you use often!