That Pesky Pantry

While reorganizing my pantry today I discovered that a lot of items that belong in the basement food storage area had somehow 'walked' up the stairs and were now dwelling in the overcrowded nooks and crannies of my pantry. How and when does this happen???

PANTRY BEFORE REORGANIZING

Back to the reorganizing...it was fun, didn't take an inordinately long time (taking photos made it even more of an adventure) and gave me an opportunity to check the ingredient labels (primary reason for reorganizing in the first place) on all of my food stuffs. Looking for that culprit HFCS. There were a few unpleasant surprises in the store. Perhaps you have a pantry not unlike mine.

PANTRY AFTER REORGANIZING

Case in point: Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce - brand new bottle. This product has been in production since 1835 (long before HFCS was available) and I am presuming that HFCS has recently been added as a replacement for the more expensive cane or beet sugar that was once contained in this pantry staple. There are other ways to flavor food - more delicious and healthy ones in fact - so this item will not be missed.

Graham crackers. Admittedly, this was a store brand as opposed to a name brand item. I am going to check the ingredients of the name brand ones next time I shop. Graham crackers dipped in milk is a favorite of some of my grandchildren. Even my bird dearly loves them. If the name brand ones have it too - out they go! Somewhere I have a recipe for homemade graham crackers.

Hershey's Chocolate Syrup. HFCS was the first ingredient on the list actually. I have decided that once this new (and fairly large) jug is gone (I may even toss it out before then) I will be making my own chocolate syrup from cocoa powder. It's simple and quick to make so I don't know why I would have picked the syrup off the grocery shelf in the first place. Lesson learned.

This was the extent of my findings. Not too bad for an afternoon hunt. When the mice come in out of the cold this fall they will be happy to know that all of the items on the pantry shelves are healthy. They contain simple, basic ingredients. Good news.

From here on out I will judiciously check ingredient labels on each item that rides home with me from the grocery store.