The Conscious Plate Guest-Purging your Pantry

Randy Rabney is the founder of The Conscious Plate; a company dedicated to helping people learn how to make educated decisions about their daily diet. She is committed to helping clients bridge the gap between what they want to eat and what their bodies need them to eat. Drawing on her extensive experience as a Chef, Board Certified Health Counselor, food lover and busy working parent, she offers a variety of signature programs, both virtually and in-person, where participants learn the key secrets to finally changing their relationship with food so they can easily and enjoyably shop, cook and eat! She is a graduate of the Chef Training Program of Natural Gourmet Institute for Food and Health as well as the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, both in NYC, and has cooked in the kitchen of the Golden Door Spa in CA. When not coaching private clients, hosting classes at Whole Foods or educating people on how to create fast, healthy and delicious meals from minimally processed and unprocessed ingredients, Randy can be found in her own home’s kitchen, doing what she loves best.

Conscious Food Expert, Teacher and Chef Randy shared the following with this Morselist so that I could share with my favorite Morselites.  She offers FANTASTIC tips for purging your pantry. ENJOY!!

A Conscious Guide to Purging Your Pantry

“Laughter is brightest where food is best.”
~ Irish Proverb

I’ve written often about the importance of keeping the right ingredients on hand so that you can make a quick, healthy and great tasting meal even on your busiest day. I have shared my pantry basics list with you on several occasions, you can see it both in my book “Delicious For Life: Your Everyday Guide to Making Quick & Healthy Meals.” Having a well-stocked pantry is essential to making quick, healthy and delicious meals on a regular basis.

The truth is that stocking a pantry actually serves a two-fold purpose.

1. Getting rid of any ingredients that may not support your health or “the pantry purge”. To make healthy meals you need to know that you are starting with the highest quality, wholesome ingredients. Many people’s pantries, refrigerators and freezers are unknowing filled with artificial colors, flavors, unwanted sweeteners, GMOs and a host of ingredients that are negatively impacting their health.

1. Keeping items in your home that allow you to make great tasting, quick meals. Keeping the right condiments, herbs, spices and basic ingredients in your home all the time will make it possible for you to make great meals even on your busiest days.

Let’s focus on purpose 1 above.

In today’s world, it’s gotten to a place where it is often necessary to do a “pantry purge” before we re-stock. Often, when I work with clients, one of the first things that we do together is go through their pantry, refrigerator and freezer. Little frustrates me more than when someone is trying really hard to make healthy food choices for themselves and their family and they have been misled into buying products that are completely artificial or contain a number of artificial ingredients.

When deciding what to replace I don’t focus on the carbs, fat count or calories. I use this rule of thumb ingredients should be as close to the way nature created them as possible and have nourished generations of people.

Here are some the most common places where you’ll find you can begin to consider replacing items:

1. Bottled salad dressings: This can easily be substituted for the highest quality ingredients to make your own which can even be made in advance and kept in your refrigerator

1. Pancake syrup: Real maple syrup is the sap from a tree. It’s a delicious natural product that contains vitamins and minerals. Don’t be seduced by reduced-calorie versions or imitation products.

1. Frozen vegetables: Check out the ingredients, many contain sauces that are full of additives that won’t support your health and to make matters worse, people then microwave them in a plastic bag. It’s super easy to roast or sauté or grill fresh vegetables or if you want to keep frozen on hand, pay attention to everything that is in the package.

1. Pre-packaged side dishes: A common place to find things like artificial colors and flavors, MSG and other additives.

1. Seasoning packages: Another place to find things like artificial colors and flavors, MSG and other additives. Something like taco seasoning can easily be home-made with a little cumin, garlic powder, chili powder and sea salt.

It’s very easy to upgrade your pantry so that when you begin to cook, you know that you have a healthy foundation.

Action steps:

1. Set aside some time to look through your pantry, refrigerator and freezer.
2. Do you know what all of the ingredients are in your food?
3. Consider replacing things that you know are not good for you.
4. Make a conscious decision to purchase items that are free from things like artificial colors, sweeteners, flavors, hormones and MSG.

As always, please share and post your comments.