We all know how important a good home-cooked meal is, but we also know what it’s like to get home after a trip to the store and not have all the ingredients we need for that night’s dinner. That feeling is even worse when we choose not to buy something because we thought we already had it at home! Luckily, this can be fixed by realizing what those important staple ingredients are and always making sure we have enough on hand all the time.
Olive Oil
Olive oil is one of the best cooking oils out there. Aside from having nutritional benefits, you can use it to cook a wide variety of different foods as well as pour it (moderately) over a salad as a dressing.
Your Favorite Hot Sauce
Whether you’re using it on a container of leftovers or topping your side of rice with it, hot sauce is a versatile staple in many kitchens and pantries across the globe. Always good to have extra on hand!
Salt
Another versatile staple, salt is used in so many different things that we make. As long as you keep some salt stored up at home, you won’t ever have to have the realization that you forgot something as simple as salt!
Flour
Flour is a key ingredient when baking. We use it in so many different things, from cookies to bread, that it’s best to make sure we always have some on hand back home. The best kind of flour to get, if you don’t have a specific purpose in mind, would be all-purpose flour.
Butter
Although not technically a “pantry” item, butter is one of the oldest American cooking and baking staples. Butter not only gets used up pretty fast in a lot of households, but it also can last a fairly long time in the fridge, so you won’t ever have to worry about it going bad if you keep a lot on hand.
Anyone can forget a key ingredient at the grocery store. Don’t make the mistake of forgetting something as simple as flour or butter by always keeping some on hand in your home!