Healthy Cooking Columns

In Your Pantry: Refrigerator Items

What should I have in my kitchen?

Fruit
Pick what you love. Apples, oranges, peaches, pineapple, grapes, plums… Every time you go to the store buy some fresh fruit. Some will keep better but by having a variety on hand there’s always something sweet in the house that’s really satisfying. (See the Health and Nutrition Bite “Chocolate joy, chocolate guilt”)

Veggies
Like the fruit each time you go to the store your first stop should be in the produce department. You don’t have to get a lot but you should have things like red and green peppers, celery, onions, shallots, and garlic as basic building blocks on hand always. More importantly, get some to eat — broccoli, spinach, cauliflower, squash — it doesn’t matter but veggies are key to eating great healthy meals.

Cheeses
Consider at least a good quality Parmigiano-Reggiano and a Romano . Keeping some fresh mozzarella means you’re always ready to make pizza. And low-fat Monterey jack cheese is easy to find.

Stores these days will cut you little bits of cheese if you like and keep in mind that a little goes a long way. Consider a good quality blue cheese as well as a little feta in the fridge as well.

Lemons and limes – Try to keep at least one fresh lemon and lime on hand. The stuff in the bottle is not “real” even though they call it RealLemon — it tastes like plastic.

Roasted garlic – Kee[ roasted garlic on hand. It’s easy to cook, inexpensive and a great start for almost any recipe. Roasting the garlic mellows and sweetens the flavor, and with almost no calories, a little goes a long way to enhance any dish.

Maple syrup and honey – adds a lot of flavor with just a touch of sweetness when used sparingly. A teaspoon is all it takes to enrich a dressing or lightly sweeten greens.

Mustards – Start with a Dijon mustard like Gray Poupon and a coarse grind mustard as well as an American style yellow mustard.