
Let’s consider what I consider “good food”. Simply, I regard organic whole foods, fresh vegetables, beans and legumes, local organic meat and eggs, organic full fat diary products, herbs and spices, as a good starting point. I avoid processed food in boxes. I avoid refined sugars and grains. You see that I say “avoid”, because I also believe in “moderation”. Most of the time my plate is mostly vegetables. Most of the time everything I make is chopped and cooked myself. Occasionally I open a box of gluten free macaroni & cheese. Occasionally we have nachos for dinner. The key word is “occasional”. We all have days where we resort to some comfort food, or those busy days when we can't imagine spending even 10 minutes preparing something fresh. Those days are ok, as long as they are in moderation.
So let’s talk about what’s in my kitchen! Over time we have stocked our kitchen with pretty much everything we need for our gluten free, vegetarian recipes. We re-stock every Sunday and then have pretty much everything we need for the week. Everything that is in my kitchen is purchased from the health food store Mosaic Market here in Windsor, NS, Sobeys, Superstore, local farmers markets, and our CSA food share from Taproot farm. If you ever have a hard time finding ingredients, I recommend speaking with Michelle at Mosaic Market. She is a wealth of knowledge and if she doesn’t have it in her store she can tell you where to find it!
What’s always in my cupboard:
We always have a plethora of canned chick peas, kidney beans, black beans, and lentils in our cupboard. We go through a lot of beans because as a vegetarian I use legumes as a major source of my protein. We also have cans of diced tomatoes and tomato paste.
We also have jars of walnuts, cashews, pecans, chia seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds at all times.
In terms of grains and carbohydrates I have oats, quinoa, rice, organic cane sugar, brown sugar, chocolate chips, buckwheat flour (which is gluten free), rice flour, thai rice noodles, and gluten free pastas stocked.
... We also have coffee. Lots of free trade locally roasted coffee.
Condiments we use on a regular basis: wheat free tamari (a soy sauce substitute), Bragg’s sauce, tahini, sweet chili sauce, mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, maple syrup, olive oil, grapeseed oil, coconut oil, sesame oil, balsamic vinegar, apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, nutritional yeast, peanut butter, and homemade jam.
Vegetables: purple cabbage, white cabbage, peppers, kale, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, beets, tomatoes, avocados, cremini mushrooms are always on hand and whatever else we receive in our veggie food share on a weekly basis, or what we find on sale at the grocery store!
We always have rice milk, hemp protein powder, soda water, lemon juice, lime juice, pickled beets, dill pickles, organic butter, local farmed eggs, fish oil, and probiotics in our fridge.

What’s always in my freezer:
Frozen blueberries, gluten free bread, gluten free pizza shells
Onions, garlic, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, ginger root
Fruit: bananas, apples, berries, and whatever is fresh and delicious in season!
Herbs and spices: basil, bay leaves, black pepper, cayenne, chili powder, cinnamon, cloves, cumin, coriander, curry powder, garlic, garam masala, nutmeg, onion powder, oregano, paprika, thyme, rosemary, sage, pure vanilla extract, and Himalayan salt.