The Survival Pantry

I came across this post over at the Simple Dollar today and it got me thinking about one of the most important parts of the survivalist's home, the pantry. Many people think about food preps as a separate entity from day to day living. In your food stores you may have bags of rice, bags of wheat, and a vat of cooking oil, but it is the items contained in your pantry that will pull the stored items together to make a meal. Having a full pantry also means that you never have to run to the store at the last minute or order out because "there is nothing to eat".
Here's the items that I keep in my pantry and which I also keep back ups of in my survival food supplies:

• Rice (white, brown, and sweet)
• Flour (white, whole wheat, Maseca, and rice flour)
• Corn meal (fine ground, polenta ground, and grits)
• Dried beans (all kinds: soy beans, pintos, split peas, navy, lentils, black beans, garbanzos)
• Salt (iodized table salt and the Kosher variety)
• Spices (pepper, garlic, cinnamon, basil, oregano, mustard, vanilla extract, maple flavoring, lemon flavoring, curry powder, garam masala, crushed red pepper, dill, etc)
• Oil (soybean oil bought in huge containers at Costco for cooking, baking, and frying)
• Olive oil (for cooking and salad dressings)
• Baking needs (sugar, baking powder, baking soda, brown sugar, cake/brownie mix, cocoa, shortening, molasses, corn syrup, shortening, yeast, cornstarch
• Vinegar (for cooking, pickling, and salad dressings)
• Oatmeal (also bought in bulk as it can be used for oatmeal porridge, granola, and baking)
• Pasta (spaghetti, Asian noodles, assorted Italian pastas such as manicotti, etc; you can make your own pasta but this is a quick standby))
• Canned/bottled food (fruit, vegetables, tuna, salmon, sardines, olives, pickles, soup, tomatoes, beans, coconut milk, etc)
• Sauces (salsa, mustard, ketsup, BBQ sauce, Tabasco, soy sauce, steak sauce, Worcestershire sauce, spaghetti sauce, mayonnaise)
• Sweeteners (honey, maple syrup)
• Beverages (juice mix, coffee, tea, soda, dried milk)
• Other stuff (peanut butter, jelly, lemon juice, lime juice, bullion cubes, gravy mix, Parmesan cheese, dried fruit, nuts, seeds, butter flakes, grits, sun dried tomatoes, jerky, dried milk, dried egg substitute, processed cheese)

With the above food in your pantry you can easily make a range of meals and desserts. For variety you will also want to add fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, fresh dairy products (eggs, milk, butter), fresh meat, and fresh seafood. There are plenty of other processed food that you can add to your pantry such as cookies, salad dressings, biscuit mix, cereals, however all of these things can be made from scratch with the items in your pantry!