Spring Cleaning Your Pantry
Our health journeys are continually evolving and changing! Spring is the perfect time to reflect, grow, and rid out your pantry of things that aren’t moving you in a healthier direction! Throwing away expired food and using glass jars to make it easy to see what you have will go a long way in reducing food waste.
To begin with, search your pantry for old or expired food. Expired food should not be donated to protect the safety of those in your community. However, expired rice and beans can be set aside for counting or art activities with young children.
You may find processed foods in your pantry–food that comes in boxes from the grocery store like crackers, cookies, chips, and other snack foods. First of all, ignore the catchphrases like “all-natural,” “plant-based, or “good source of fiber/vitamins/etc.” that may be plastered on the front of the package. Flip the box over and take a moment to read the ingredients list. Sugar should not be on the list! Ingredients are listed by quantity, so the first two or three ingredients are present in the largest amount. Items at the end of the list are present in small quantities. If “sugar” (or one of its many other names) is listed near the end of the ingredient list, or not at all, that’s a good sign.
Other common names for sugar include fructose, sucrose, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), agave nectar, barley malt, beet sugar, brown rice syrup, cane juice crystals, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, dextrose, Florida crystals, fruit juice, or fruit juice concentrate, golden syrup, maltodextrin, sorghum syrup, sucanat)
You will not want to see any refined grains (white flour, enriched wheat flour, all-purpose flour, white rice) or hydrogenated oils in the first 2-3 ingredients. Better grains to look for include gluten-free, whole grains like wild and brown rice, quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat, and whole corn. Processed foods are accepted at local food banks, so don’t let unopened boxes go to waste. Set them aside to donate next time you go out.
Once expired and processed foods are removed, wipe down the shelves and sweep the floor. It feels good to get the dust out!
When replacing items into your pantry, using glass jars will help you see what you have to cook with and when you are running low on certain foods. Glass jars also have a beautiful way of making things look tidy and organized. You may want to leave your most frequently used ingredients on your countertop or an open shelf once they’re in glass jars because they look so attractive and will motivate you to prepare healthy foods!