writer: Chef

SITH stands for Stuff in the House. These are the ingredients to keep on hand that can help you both make great food and healthy food. At the top of the list is dried mushrooms. You might not be used to them, and for a lot of folks they will be entirely new, but they offer one great advantage (beyond their convenience, of course).

Umami.

Porcini mushrooms are full of great savory, umami flavor. It takes only a little practice to learn how to use them and the best part is that they keep really well so you always have them on hand. They seem expensive if you purchase them at the grocery store – an ounce can be $5.00 or so and given that a pound of crimini mushrooms is about $3.00 it doesn’t seem like much of a value. However, an ounce of dried mushrooms is the equivalent of one pound of fresh porcini and given that an ounce of fresh porcini would set you back about $20.00, it’s a pretty good value.

So a little goes a long way in volume, but but a little also goes a very long way in terms of flavor. Since an ounce of mushrooms comes in at under 100 calories a little goes a long way in terms of your health too.

The most common way to use dried mushrooms is to reconstitute them with boiling water. Place one ounce of mushrooms in a medium sized bowl and pour 2 cups of boiling water over them. Stir gently once and let them stand for about 15 minutes. Drain the liquid from the mushrooms but do not discard it (the broth may be the best part). Cut the reconstituted mushrooms into the size you need and then add them to your recipe. For example, if you have started a pasta sauce with some olive oil and diced onion (more about onions in another SITH column), you can add the mushrooms and sauté them along with the other ingredients (canned tomatoes are SITH also). The mushroom flavor is really rich, savory and meaty. Not expensive when you compare them to beef and they’re more flavorful.

More importantly, they’re right there in the house.

What about the mushroom broth (you did save the broth, didn’t you)? You can freeze it if you want and use it in a recipe later. The umami flavor that you get in the mushrooms themselves is in the broth too and you can use this for almost any recipe – soups, stews, beans – or you can reduce it to about 1/4 cup for use in a sauce.

The other easy way to use dried porcini mushrooms is to grind them into a powder. You can use a blender for this but you’ll want to make sure that the mushrooms are blended long enough to be a very fine powder. The powder can be used in pasta recipes, or even better, risotto or rice dishes. If you grind the mushrooms to about the consistency of cornmeal, they work great for a coating on chicken or fish, for example.

You can save a lot of money by ordering dried porcini mushrooms online. A pound can be pretty reasonably priced – Amazon has some very good ones for about $1.50 per ounce when you buy in bulk. Divide them into individual Ziplock bags and seal them in a plastic container and they will keep well so you always have them on hand.

These recipes use porcini dust. Use them as a model to add porcini dust’s umami flavor to your own recipes:

Fettuccine with Roasted Mushrooms and Cipollini Onions
Porcini Mashed Potatoes
Mushroom Chili
Mushroom Jus (Mushroom Gravy)
Sea Bass with White Beans and Tomato Vinaigrette | Low Sodium Version
Wild Mushroom Gnocchi

 

There is a great method for using all of the scraps and peelings from vegetables in the kitchen to make vegetable stock. You start with “Trash and treasure.” If you keep the “treasure” you have a base for making your own vegetable stock at home. While you can also use these for chicken or fish stock, making vegetable stock is incredibly easy and both saves money and makes your recipes so much tastier than if you used water or store bought stock.

The “treasure” items are those vegetables and aromatics that are going to create a rich, silky aromatic sauce. “Trash” are those scraps that will make the stock bitter or cloudy, such as cabbage or potato peelings.

As you are prepping fresh vegetables for other recipes, place the pieces you’d usually discard from your “treasure,” like celery tops, tomato cores, mushroom stems, or the peelings from carrots, in a 1 gallon Ziplock bag. (This is also a great way to make use the bits of fresh parsley or cilantro that might otherwise go to waste.) Store the bag in the freezer, and keep adding to it until the bag is full. That’s the perfect amount to make stock in a 4 quart saucepan. Place the chopped vegetables and aromatics (list below) in the pot and then fill it with cold water.  Bring it to a slow boil and then simmer the stock for about 2 hours. Taste the stock while you are simmering to check for flavor. If it is weak, keep letting it simmer until it is strong, dark and flavorful.

After two hours (or however long you end up simmering the stock), strain the cooked veggies and discard them.  Let the stock cool, then divide it into containers. Put one cup in a single plastic container so when you need a couple of cups of stock they are ready to go.

Treasure	Trash
Vegetables
carrots (peels ok) onions garlic (skins, too!) celery peppers tomatoes mushrooms mild flavored greens such as spinach	citrus cabbage broccoli cauliflower pepper seeds potato scraps asparagus brussels sprouts bitter greens (kale, broccoli)
Aromatics
parsley thyme basil whole peppercorns bay leaves	cilantro citrus rosemary lemongrass

Now start your own “treasure” bag, and soon you’ll have your own delicious, home made vegetable stock.

Use your vegetable stock in these recipes:
White Bean Chili
Sun-Dried Tomato Soup
Rosemary Tomato Soup
Lentil and Chickpea Soup
Creamy Vegetable Soup
Broccoli Cheese Bake
Vegetable Etouffee

The technique of cooking in parchment has been around forever and it should be one that is part of your weekly routine. Meals are easy to assemble quickly and there is almost no clean up after dinner.

There are a lot of variations when cooking in parchment or foil pouches, and you can use leftovers or that small amount of a vegetable that is left in the crisper drawer. Beyond tasting great, you can use the last carrot, a couple of green onions or the lonely green pepper in the fridge. Here’s a guide to mixing and matching so that you can start building your own meals. Be creative.

For 2 servings

Start with a base of starch.

Try one 15-ounce can of no salt added beans, drained and rinsed. This can be anything from pinto beans to garbanzos.

Rice is great and brown rice is best. Use 1/2 Cup brown rice, cooked before assembling.

If you are going to use potatoes or sweet potatoes, it is best to cut them into a fine dice. These should be no larger than 1/4 inch cubes. It takes a bit more time to cut the smaller pieces, but after 20 to 25 minutes in the oven they will be cooked perfectly.

Veggies can go on top of the starch base or be sprinkled randomly.

Generally use 4-6 ounces vegetables per serving.

Bell peppers should be julienned or diced. As with the potatoes, you want your carrots or parsnips to be cut smaller – no larger than a 1/4 inch dice or cut into matchstick.

Onions, garlic and shallots should be minced fine. If they are too large, they will not cook well and taste too sharp and raw, spoiling the flavor of your dish. Green onions should be thinly sliced crosswise.

Protein

Use a standard serving of 4 ounces protein per serving. Fish is best in in 4-ounce filets.

Pork tenderloin, beef tenderloin or chicken (both breasts and thighs are great) are best in thin strips or small cubes.

Shrimp should be peeled and deveined and not smaller than 21/25.

Liquid

The liquid can be one of the trickiest ingredients. It is going to add moisture through steam to help cook your meal, but it can also add a lot of flavor. You need less than you might think (both vegetables and meats will give up some liquid during cooking), and it is good to balance liquid and fat.

Aim for a total of about 3 tablespoons of liquid per pouch, including all of the various liquids and liquid condiments (like mustard or tomato paste).

Wine, beer, water or stock will all make good bases for your parchment recipes. Use about 2 tablespoons maximum.

There are a lot of sauce choices that you can use for flavor, such as soy or tamari sauce, teriyaki sauce, tomato paste, hoisin, Pickapeppa or chutneys. You don’t need much – generally around 1 to 2 teaspoons per pouch.

Fat is an important part of the meal for a lot of reasons. It adds both flavor and great texture. Aim for about 2 teaspoons per pouch. Much more and the meal will be greasy. Combine 1 teaspoon olive oil with a teaspoon of unsalted butter, for example. Flavored oils like basil or truffle oil are great choices.

Seasonings and spices.

Use a light hand with your seasonings.

It only takes 1/4 to 1/2 of teaspoon salt for two servings, bearing in mind that other ingredients in your pouch will contain salt – especially soy or tamari sauce. Add black pepper to taste.

The other spices and herbs also don’t take much to add a lot of flavor – no more than about a half teaspoon of any one spice divided between the two pouches will be enough. The more pungent the spice, the less you will need. For example, use 1/2 teaspoon of something milder, like dried oregano or basil, but use less with stronger flavors like ground cumin or curry powder. Fresh herbs take more. You will need at least a tablespoon of fresh herb per pouch for added flavor.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but that’s the great part. You can mix and match so easily. Have a great flavor combination that you have tried? Share it in the comments or on our Facebook page.

Here are some great parchment recipes:

Southwestern Beef in Parchment
Salmon in Parchment with Mangoes
Sole in Parchment with Vegetables and Mushroom Sauce
Shrimp Scampi in Parchment
Southwest Chicken in Parchment
Asian Pork in Parchment
Halibut in Foil with White Beans and Olives | Low Sodium Version
Mediterranean Whitefish in Foil
Whitefish in Foil with Mustard Sauce
Whitefish in Foil with Vegetables and Tomato Sauce

 

There are a few nights a month you might not have time to cook and need something simple to put together.  This can take the form of a quick Mediterranean sauce. You can use this on almost anything – fish, beef, pork or pan roasted chicken. Each time you can make theme a little bit different. There is a pattern to how to create this, however.

Start by placing a large skillet in the oven and preheating it to about 375°F. This is the pan that you will roast the protein in, making it easy to cook the meat but also allowing for simple clean up. Set the olive oil spray next to the oven because you will need it in a bit.

Next is to place a large non-stick skillet on the range top to make the sauce. Begin with good quality olive oil.  It is generally best to cook with good quality oils and save your extra virgin for salads and such. This will be the foundation of the sauce, however, so you want the best flavor. Start with about a tablespoon for two servings.

The second step is garlic or onions (or both). Use a single clove of garlic along with some sliced or minced shallots. Very thinly sliced red or white onion cooked slowly and allowed to caramelize is delicious as the beginning of a topping for your chicken or fish.

Add a little texture with pine nuts or pumpkin seeds in the pan before the onions. Let them toast just a bit before adding the garlic or onions to bring out the most flavor. This does add some fat but keep in mind that the nuts and seeds are good, monounsaturated fats.

A favorite ingredient is a handful of grape or cherry tomatoes. They are generally great year ‘round, having a fresher, more tomatoey flavor than larger varieties like roma tomatoes. Cook them along with the onions or garlic so that they will brown a bit on the outside before crushing them to allow the added liquid for the sauce. Alternatively, a tablespoon of tomato sauce with just a bit of water will make for a rich, savory sauce.

Try adding something tart. By starting with the sweetness of the onions, the savory nuts and tomato, balancing with ingredients like capers or olives is just right. It doesn’t take much. A tablespoon or so of capers or 4 diced olives is enough. For example, the little red pepperoncini that from the olive bar at the grocery store. They add both the tartness and a bit of spice.

All of the ingredients should be sautéed together over medium heat at the most. The goal is to have a blend of flavors that can still be tasted separately. Overcooking will spoil the topping. Add 1/4 teaspoon of salt as well as some pepper. Using one of your favorite herbs in small amounts will add a lot of flavor. Focus on a single herb and use fresh whenever possible.

While the topping is cooking and after the oven is preheated spray the skillet lightly with oil. Place the meat or fish in the pan to sear and cook for between 10 and 20 minutes depending on what you have chosen. Your sauce will be equally good over seared flank steak as well as halibut or salmon. A pan roasted chicken breast is perfect as well.

Depending on your choice of ingredients consider about a teaspoon of unsalted butter to add richness to the sauce.

Here’s a table to help you make some new combinations (this is enough to make two servings of sauce):

Base	Extras	Liquid	Tartness	Flavorings
1 clove garlic sliced	8 cherry tomatoes	1/4 cup chicken stock or white wine	1 Tbsp. capers	1/8 tsp. salt
1 large shallot (minced or sliced)	1 ounce prosciutto	2 tsp. coarse ground mustard	6 black or green olives (coarsely chopped)	Black pepper
1 small red onion (sliced)	2 Tbsp. nuts or seeds (pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, slivered almonds, pecan pieces, etc.)	1 teaspoon unsalted butter	4 pepperoncini	1 Tbsp. fresh herbs
6 scallions (sliced)	1 Tbsp. tomato paste	1 Tbsp. maple syrup		2 tsp. coarse ground mustard

When the meat or fish is done, simply top it with the sauce. We have a lot of alternatives for side dishes that are also super simple here: Sides and Extras.

It takes some time to stock your kitchen, but you can purchase one or two ingredients each time you are at the grocery. After a while your kitchen will be stocked for a healthy, quick, easy, delicious and elegant meal.

Carbohydrates are not your enemy. After years of research we do know what we have known for a long time – poor quality calories are bad for you. It doesn’t really matter whether the focus is on carbs or fat or protein, if the quality of the food is great, the food is great for you.

So what are the best quality carbs for your pantry?

Bread is a great place to start because so many people fear it. Don’t. Breads are a great part of a healthy diet. The key is to choose whole grain breads and looking for the highest fiber is key. A slice of white bread has little nutritive value with sometimes less than 1 gram of fiber. Look for breads with at least 2 grams of fiber or more.

The other carb that people love to hate is pasta. The issue is not that pasta makes people gain weight but that too much of a good thing is just that – too much. A serving of any pasta is 2 ounces and choosing whole wheat pasta is the way to better quality carb calories. As with the bread the difference in fiber is almost double. There’s less than 2 grams in 2 ounces of pasta but almost 5 grams of fiber in whole wheat pasta.

The same holds true for rice.  You’ll find that there’s a lot of choices of brown rice in the market now. You can easily find brown long grain, short grain, basmati and jasmine rice. Almost any of your recipes that call for white rice work well with brown rice.

Choosing a breakfast cereal is a bit like choosing who to marry. For most of us it has to be just right. The key is to look for cereals that are higher in fiber and lower in sugar. It really is just that simple. Sugared cereals like Fruit Loops and Lucky Charms are easy to see how bad they are for you. Looking carefully at the package, trying different cereals and keeping the best quality in your pantry is the strategy.

Choices like oatmeal or Cheerios are low in sugar and high in fiber. If you have a sweet tooth, you’re better off sprinkling a teaspoon of sugar on your cereal since that’s only 4 grams of carbs (about 16 calories). Compare that to some raisin brans that have both added sugar and high fructose corn syrup at 19 grams of carbohydrate per serving.

Start by looking at the amount of fiber and, as always, the higher the better. Just the opposite with sugar – choose the lowest. Don’t stop there. Look at the ingredient list. If there’s sugar, high fructose corn syrup or honey, it’s best to think twice. Certainly if any sugar ingredient is listed in the first three it’s best to leave it on the shelf.

The big one that folks want to avoid is potatoes. This is a real shame. Fresh potatoes are a great example of quality calories. The problem is not that potatoes make you gain weight or that they are bad for you, but that people just plain eat too much (mostly in the form of greasy french fries or potato chips).

A serving of potatoes is no more than about 6 ounces, but some Idaho baking potatoes can weigh almost three times as much. Yams are a great alternative to potatoes. There are fewer calories and about 2/3 more fiber.

As with many considerations for eating healthy, choosing the best ingredients – the best quality calories – is the way to success. You don’t have to cut out carbs but watching the portion size and selecting the best quality is key.

Here’s how to make quick changes for you:

Not the best	Better choices	Serving Size
white bread	whole wheat bread	1 slice
English muffin	whole wheat English muffin	1 muffin
regular pasta	whole wheat pasta	2 ounces
potatoes	yams	4 ounces
white rice	brown rice	1/4 cup (uncooked)
white rice	wild rice	1/4 cup (uncooked)
grits	oatmeal	1/3 cup (uncooked)
sugared cereal (like Fruit Loops)	Cheerios 100% Bran Shredded Wheat & Bran Total Whole Grain Total Raisin Bran Kashi GoLean Kashi Cinnamon Harvest Kellogg’s Special K Kellogg’s All Bran	1 cup
Fruit juice	Fresh fruit

 

Carbs to REALLY avoid	Great snack choices
candy bar	fresh fruit
cookies	fresh fruit
cake	fresh fruit
potato chips	popcorn
crackers	nuts
soda	iced tea, coffee or water

 

Your favorite recipe is often the most comforting. We are all about making sure that comfort food continues to be a part of your diet. While there are a lot of recipes for you to choose from, we often receive questions about how to make changes in your own beloved dishes to make them healthier.

Here are four simple things you can look at in your recipes that will help:

1. Check the oil or fat

Many recipes simply have too much. Where a recipe calls for 1/4 cup of oil or a half stick of butter, these amounts don’t actually add all that much to the recipe. Use sparing amounts of canola or olive oil to sauté veggies in. Use spray olive oil with a non-stick pan when searing on top of the range.

For dishes that have herbed butters, use Promise or Smart Balance spreads. Look for reduced fat cheeses to use instead of the full fat kind.

2. Add salt carefully

As with the fat, in many recipes salt is often overdone. There are a few places to look for added sodium other than just the table salt you put in your dishes.

Look at every processed ingredient, like meats, sausage and spice blends. Whenever possible, choose lower sodium or salt free products.

When you do add salt to a recipe, a good rule of thumb is that for a main course dish just 1/8th of a teaspoon is about salty enough, flavor-wise, for each serving. If you are making a recipe that will serve 4, that works out to 1/2 tsp. of salt total.

3. Choose ingredients carefully

While this may seem obvious, just looking for a leaner version of an ingredient can make so much difference. For instance, regular sausage can have as much as 14 grams of fat in a 2 ounce serving while the leaner version has only 2.5 grams of fat. That’s a saving of over 100 calories per serving by changing a single ingredient. Look for the leanest meats, lower fat dairy products and the freshest ingredients you can.

This means checking the package for calories, fat, saturated fat, sodium and fiber and comparing with other products to choose the best and healthiest.

4. Go with whole grains

This is one that can have a major impact. We know that using high fiber, whole grain products has an profoundly positive effect on your health.

• If you’re making French Toast, sandwiches or Grilled Cheese, use whole wheat bread. Use whole wheat hamburger buns.
• For Mac & Cheese, Spaghetti and Meatballs, Fettuccine Alfredo and pasta salads, use whole wheat pasta.
• Choose brown rice whenever possible instead of white rice.

With just a few simple changes, you can make your favorite foods healthier!

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.

What should I have in my kitchen?

For the most part this list contains canned or bottled foods that will keep very well. You’ll always have a back up and can use any of them to make meals in a hurry.

While this isn’t a complete list of items you might want in your pantry, it is a good starting place for you. Each time you go to the grocery, add two or three of these to your list and in a few months time you’ll have a well fitted pantry.

Canned tomatoes – Keep whole, peeled tomatoes on hand and have a couple of 15 ounce cans.

Beans and Legumes – Canned no-salt-added beans are readily available in most groceries. There are some recipes that call for dried beans but you can use canned.  1 cup of canned beans is the equivalent of about 1/3 cup dried beans.

Canned:
Garbanzos (chick peas)
White beans (both cannelllini and great northern beans)
Red kidney beans
Black beans
Blackeye peas
Pinto beans

Dried:
Lentils (green, red and yellow)
Split peas
White beans (both cannelllini and great northern beans)
Red kidney beans
Black beans
Blackeye peas
Pinto beans
Light coconut milk
Roasted peppers – Consider jars of red peppers on hand and possibly the yellow peppers as well.

Stocks – If you are cooking for only two get the 15 ounce cans otherwise purchase the quart carton. Keep at least 2 or 3 cans or a carton of chicken stock on hand.

You are better off making your own vegetable stock.

Pasta – Keep your pasta in plastic Tupperware type containers. I always have on hand:

Spaghetti
Penne
Ziti
Fettuccine
Linguine
Orzo
Riso

Consider a number of Asian noodles such as udon, buckwheat udon and soba noodles.

Rice –
Short grained sushi rice
Long grain jasmine rice
Medium grain brown rice
Short grained brown rice
Arborio rice (for making risotto)
Purple sticky rice
Basmati rice
Wild rice – I like to collect wild rices too because there are so many different varieties.

What should I have in my kitchen?

Butter: Use butter it in sparing amounts. Because it’s so high in saturated fat, use it to finish a sauce and measure out about a teaspoon or so to help tighten up the sauce, add flavor and a rich taste in the mouth.

Purchase unsalted butter. Keep it tightly sealed in the fridge because it will pick up flavors from almost anything else that it is stored nearby.

Olive oil: This is the granddaddy of “healthy” fats and well established as being really good for you. It is chock full of all kinds of great stuff, the most important being monounsaturated fat (the type that helps prevent you from getting heart disease). There are some research studies that even show that you can use as much olive oil as you want and not gain weight, but you will still significantly improve your cholesterol profile. Even so, measure your fats and oils and use them carefully.

Purchase a good quality extra virgin olive oil for making salads, dressings, sauces and the like. Use less expensive olive oils for cooking if you are on a budget. By using an oil sprayer because it lets you easily coat a pan or food without using a lot of additional oil.

Canola oil:  Canola oil is essentially flavorless and works well in dressings and recipes where you don’t want any additional flavor. It also works great in baked goods.

Mayonnaise: You probably don’t think of mayo as a fat, but you should. Regular mayonnaise is pretty high in fat and calories, but there’s great low-fat and non-fat ones on the market. Choose the reduced-fat versions for making salads, like potato and pasta salad, and for dressings.

Cream cheese: Like mayo, you might not really have put cream cheese in the fat category, but it’s got almost as much as butter. The great thing is that reduced-fat cream cheese or Neufchatel is a perfect alternative, and there’s never much reason for the full-fat version.

Spreads: Just don’t buy margarine because most solid and even a lot of the tub margarines still have trans-fats in them. The good news in all of this is that “spreads” are trans-fat free and a good choice in a number of recipes.

Nuts and seeds: Yep, these are considered fats. Purchase them raw and get only a handful or so at a time so that they don’t go bad (they will last about 2 months sealed in plastic).

Keep your favorites of these on hand:

Almonds (whole, slivered and sliced)
Pecans
Walnuts
Sesame seeds (white and black)
Poppy seeds
Sunflower seeds
Peanuts
Pinenuts
Pumpkin seeds

What should I have in my kitchen?

By focusing on baking items you’ll stock your pantry with a lot of the raw ingredients for cooking healthy. Here’s a list of items to have on hand. It’s best to go out and buy what you don’t have in a single shopping trip so that you have things on hand but you can add items as you need them if you prefer.

Whole Wheat Flour – Look for the words 100% Whole Wheat on the label.

All-purpose Flour

Baking Soda and Baking Powder

Quick Acting Yeast – Keep this in the fridge.

Wheat Germ – Best to buy “toasted” wheat germ. Keep it in the fridge after you open it.

Yellow Cornmeal – great to have on hand for cornbread but also making whole grain pancakes.

Granulated Sugar

Light Brown Sugar

Confectioners Sugar

Dutch Process Cocoa – Like Hershey’s®.

Egg Substitute – If you have a couple of the small cartons in the freezer, you’ll always be ready.

Large Eggs

Light Spread such as Promise Light, Smart Balance Light or Take Control Light.

Non-fat Yogurt – If you like yogurt and are going to eat it for breakfast, it’s economical to buy the quart size. Otherwise, buy it as you need it.

Buttermilk – This is the best stuff in your fridge. It really helps make baking easy. Because it is slightly acidic it reacts with the Baking Powder and Baking Soda to give the right lift to your muffins and quickbreads. It’s the best choice for pancakes by far.

Applesauce – This doesn’t work in every recipe but in some it can really help reduce the need for added fat. Buy the small single serving sizes so you don’t have to open too much.

Canned Pumpkin – This is so versatile and so good for you it’s a good idea to have a couple of 15 ounce cans on hand.

Spices:
Ground cinnamon
Ground nutmeg
Ground cloves
Ground ginger
Ground allspice
Pure vanilla extract

Nuts
Pecan halves
Slivered almonds
Sliced almonds
Dried pumpkin seeds

Seedless Golden Raisins

There are a lot of other ingredients used in recipes like dried dates, fruits and other nuts, but if you have these basic ingredients on hand you can make hundreds of healthy baked goods. At the same time, most of these are ingredients you might use to make main course recipes. For instance, having the flours on hand along with the yeast will mean you’ll always be able to make your own pizza dough.