5 Things You Must Have in Your Pantry

Hope: [00:00:00] Do you want to wake up feeling like you are stepping into who you are meant to be? Into the best possible version of you? What if I told you that the key to your best life, health, and happiness are all around you? You just have to find what works for you. I’m Hope Pedraza, and I believe that there isn’t just one way to live a healthy and meaningful life.

And that all you need is a little inspiration to make changes that last from the inside out. Each week, I’ll be sharing tangible tips and inspirational interviews to help you on your journey. These are the steps to take to improve your life Live with purpose. This is hopeful and wholesome. Hey y’all, and welcome to Hopeful and Wholesome.

So I’m hopping on to do a quick little solo episode about things you should always have in your pantry. I get this question a lot about, you know, what’s your go-to for this? Or what things should I always have on hand? People really always wanna know that magic food that they need to eat every day, or that thing they always need to have on hand for, you know, quick meal or whatever.

And while there [00:01:00] I don’t think there’s any one magic food or the one food you should always eat There are some foods that you really should always have on your pantry to keep around For a quick meal or for quick and easy meal prep or healthy snacks So I wanted to go through a few of my recommendations so you can Stock your pantry with things that will help you for quick and easy meal prep and for healthy foods in a pinch.

So first, let’s look at some quick cooking staples. Now, these are some go to foods that should always be in your kitchen for those quick throw together meals that have to be done with a little or no preparation. So when you’re like, dang it, I gotta cook dinner and it’s too late to go pick up anything and I need to cook something fast.

So we all have busy lives and with work and kids and families and sports and all the other things you have going on, there are always times where you need to eat, but there’s not enough time to cook or there’s very little time to cook. So these things, stocks in your kitchen will really help you out in situations like that.

So first is something like quick cooking brown [00:02:00] rice or a similar grain. And this is a good foundation for any meal. So when you’re putting together meals and especially if we’re talking plant based meals, Thanks. You know, I kind of break it down to, you know, what’s going to be my carb, what’s my protein, a little bit of fat and some veggies.

So you want to have kind of the basis of those. And if you keep those elements and if you keep some quick cooking grains in your pantry, you’ll always have that as a good foundation for any meal. Really, anything can be served over rice, right? Anything. And it doesn’t have to be rice. It could be if you’re doing grain free.

It could be something else that’s similar. It could be quinoa, which is technically not a grain. It’s a seed. It So it could be something like that too. So not only is this a quick fix, but all of these grains, no matter which one you pick, they’re all full of fiber and magnesium and B vitamins. And if you’re picking something like quinoa, it’s also really high in protein and some other great vitamins as well.

So having some quick cooking grains in your pantry or great quinoa can literally be cooked in less than 20 minutes. It’s like [00:03:00] 18 minutes on the stove and it’s done. So all of these can be cooked pretty quick. Another quick cooking carb you can use, I say carb, but really it’s a great protein source, is protein pasta.

Now this is kind of a trendy thing these days, you’ll find pretty much every pasta company is making some version of this, and you know, they have it marketed under their label, but there, you’ll find it in the pasta aisle, and you might have tried it before, but These can be made with, this protein pasta can be made with chickpeas or black beans, edamame, my favorite is the lentil pasta.

Lentils are typically digested a little better than some of the other beans or legumes, and so lentil pasta is usually what I go with. Now, these pastas all cook in less than 10 minutes. They have really good flavor and texture. So I know sometimes, especially if you’re, like, trying to go the gluten free route, these, the gluten free pastas can be kind of gummy.

The texture is just, it’s just not pasta, right? It just, it just doesn’t hit the same. So, in my opinion, these protein pastas really do, and [00:04:00] especially the lentil pasta. I think sometimes the other bean pastas don’t have the same texture as the lentil pasta, but this is what we use at my house. Any pasta dish you’d make with any other regular pasta, I just use that.

They come in all kinds of shapes, so really you can incorporate it into any traditional pasta dish. It has less than half the carbs of regular pasta, none of the other processed junk that you’re trying to avoid. And it’s got a ton of protein. So some of these, especially the lentil, I mean, these, it can have up to, you know, 14 to 20 grams of protein per serving.

So I mean, it’s as much as any other, you know, animal based protein and you’re getting it with, you know, I’m using air quotes, your, your carbs, right? Cause normally when you’re eating pasta, that would be your carb source, right? So it’s a really good way to Get in some extra protein, but then also you get to eat your favorite pasta dish.

So it’s a win win, right? And it’s really quick to cook. Another pantry staple you should always have is canned beans. Typically, I would say black beans or chickpeas. Those are usually my go tos because they’re the best in terms of, you know, [00:05:00] balancing out carbs and fiber and protein and all that, but they also have a ton of other vitamins and minerals.

Beans are high in folate. They’re high in iron. So really these can replace meat in just about any dish and it’s good to just toss into whatever you’re making. And you know, when you don’t have time to cook whole chicken breasts or ground turkey or whatever, these cans are perfect. I mean, you just crack open the can and toss it into whatever you’re making.

So it’s super quick. And then not to mention you’re adding in some extra fiber and texture and a bunch of other great vitamins and minerals that you wouldn’t necessarily get from animal based protein, right? So I also want to kind of switching gears here. I also want to look at some other nutritionally dense foods that should always be kept on hand to add to your snacks or your meals, really all of these really keep a healthy immune system, healthy digestive system, and just, just all around healthy body.

Right. Healthy fats are essential for heart health, for your skin, your nerve, and your brain function. And there’s some ways to incorporate [00:06:00] these into your diet and the stuff that you should always have in your pantry. First and foremost are nut butters. Mostly almond butter or sunflower seed butter.

There’s some really cool nut butter blends. You do want to read the ingredients on these because there’s a lot of brands out there, even the brands that are, I’m using your quotes again, that are healthy brands, they add a bunch of stuff. So you want to look for added sweeteners, added sugar or weird oils that they add to them.

So just read the labels and you notice I didn’t mention peanut butter. I’m not anti peanut butter and I’m not demonizing peanut butter, but I know that the other nuts are sometimes tolerated better than peanuts. Peanut is actually considered a legume. It’s not a nut. So sometimes the other nuts are better digested and better metabolized than peanut butter.

So if you’re good with peanut butter, go for it. It’s a great source of protein. But these other nuts, especially almond, almond butter is really our go to at our house, and it’s just full of some other vitamins and minerals that you don’t necessarily get in peanut butter, and it’s digested a little bit better.

Something else to keep on [00:07:00] hand that’s quick and easy is just a good quality protein powder. I like to say organic. I know not everybody can find organic or they they are they do get a little pricey, but my recommendation is to always find a plant based protein powder rather than going for, you know, the way based powder, which way, if you don’t know, way is a derivative of dairy.

And so a lot of times it can cause digestive issues for people like gassiness or just kind of just. rumbling tummies and for some people it can cause even worse things like diarrhea and stuff. So if you’ve ever tried a protein powder and you’re like, this does not sit well, I would go for a plant based powder to kind of get away from those extra side effects that you might be getting from whey.

In any case, find a good quality protein powder that’s free of fillers, artificial ingredients, artificial sweeteners. Again, read the ingredients because, especially, I will say this, side note here, when you go find a protein powder, I’m not going to lie, the better quality ones, they’re going to [00:08:00] cost you a little bit more.

In my opinion, it’s worth buying that because a you’re getting better quality ingredients because I mean, it’s a powder. It’s already processed. So you want to find as minimal process as possible when you’re looking for protein powders, but then to, I mean, you’re getting what you pay for, right? So it’s going to digest better.

It’s going to sit better. You’re going to get more out of it. So I would, I wouldn’t go for the cheap ones. So, yeah. I’m stepping up my soapbox. That’s my spiel on that. But point is read the ingredients, make sure it doesn’t have any weird ingredients in it. You want to get a protein powder. That’s, you know, it’s very straightforward.

There’s a lot of really good, I actually have a blog about this, about my recommendations. I’ll put a link to that in the show notes. You can kind of see my recommendations for that, but there are a lot of great ones out there that add other things to like greens and digestive enzymes and probiotics. So.

Finding something with those ingredients too is really helpful and just kind of an added benefit to your protein powder. So yeah, keeping a good quality plant based protein [00:09:00] powder in hand. This is something good you can throw in a shaker bottle with some water as a snack when you can’t eat a real meal.

You can throw it in your smoothie in the morning. But it’s great to have on hand to give extra boost of nutrition, some good quality protein. And just something easy to have to, you know, toss in your shaker bottle when you need it. So these are my recommendations. I could make this list a mile long. Of course, there’s a bunch of other things that you could have in your pantry on hand, but I think this list I’ve given you here is a great starting point to really create a nutrition packed pantry with some really great quick cooking options.

So things just to toss in your meals. When you’re in a pinch. So if you have any questions about any of this, do you let me know and I will see y’all in the next episode. Thanks guys. Thanks for listening to Hopeful and Wholesome y’all. If you found value in this week’s episode, please subscribe on iTunes wherever you get your podcasts and leave a review to let me know what you thought.

I love to know what you find useful in these episodes so I know how I can provide the most value I can to my listeners. And if [00:10:00] you have topics that you want to know more about, I’d love to hear those as well. So shoot me a message on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn It’s at the Hope Pedraza or visit my website, hopefulandwholesome.com. Thanks, y’all!