The Good Pantry: Homemade Foods & Mixes Lower in Sugar, Salt & Fat

by Cooking Light

Restock your pantry from scratch with Cooking Light's guide to healthy homemade staples.

Filled with creative recipes and expert advice, The Good Pantry puts a DIY spin on kitchen basics, offering healthy alternatives to common store-bought products. Discover more than 140 ideas for great-tasting sauces and spreads, ready-made baking and cereal mixes, make-ahead doughs, crowd-pleasing snacks, and more. These re-crafted recipes replace the additives and preservatives found in packaged products with fresh ingredients and more whole grains, creating delicious and long-lasting items that you'll feel good enjoying. Each item comes with instructions for storage, and a variety of gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, and egg-free options are flagged for those with food allergies and restrictions.


Home cooks of all levels will appreciate the wide-ranging variety of kitchen essentials included. And with a pantry full of appetizing ingredients, it's easy to whip up a tasty, good-for-you meal in minutes.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published May 5, 2015

About the author

Cooking Light is an American food and lifestyle magazine founded in 1987. Each month, the magazine includes approximately 100 original recipes as well as editorial content covering food trends, fitness tips, and other culinary and health-related news.

Reviews

[Penmouse · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a bit disappointed in the Cooking Light The Good Pantry as I bought the book to prepare food mixes as I have food allergies. Sadly, there are a lot of nut and oat recipes. I am allergic to both nuts and oats. If you don't have problems with either food ingredient you'd probably like this cookbook.

Some of the recipes you'll find include:

French Toast Sandwiches (uses homemade Chocolate-Hazelnut Spread)
Apricot Fig Chutney
Caprese Salsa Zucchini
Smoked Chicken Tacos (uses either homemade corn tortillas or purchased corn tortillas)
Pasta Dough
Slice-and-Bake Cookies

I'd recommend buying Make Your Own Groceries. Jams & Preserves, Baking Mixes, Ice Cream, Yogurts, Breakfast Cereals..... or Make-A-Mix as both books offer a better selection of homemade food mixes and recipes. You can adapt the recipes, if needed, to make them healthier. In fact, I adapted to the Oatmeal food mix (found in the Make a Mix cookbook) long ago when I was able to eat oats.

Recommend with caveats given

[Tamara]

Some solid, low-packaging recipes. Excited to try Lemon-Parmesan Popcorn, Nutty Whole-Grain Granola and Plantain Chips.

UPDATE/CAUTIONARY TALE: For the Nutty Whole-Grain granola recipe, I replaced the 2 TBSP corn syrup with honey because I didn't have corn syrup and burned the shit out of the whole batch. Personally, I think cooking it at 400 degrees is just too hot, but I'll admit it's possible I did this to myself...

[Dundee Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Good Pantry is a excellent book for the DIY person. Learn how to save money and make healthier staples by making your own mixes, spices and more! This book includes a lot of adaptation for diets that include eating GF, Vegan, DF and more!

[Monique's booklist · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this cookbook. I purchased 2 copies, One for me and one for my mom!

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book! Highly recommend.

[Marathon County Public Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

This new cookbook is packed full of homemade mixes, meals, doughs, snacks, and jams utilizing pantry items. I appreciated that each recipe is fully illustrated and is marked if nut-free, dairy-free, egg-free, and gluten-free for all of us allergy sufferers. I was surprised that even though I can't have soy, dairy, or egg, I was still able to find a few recipes to try. On my list are homemade dressings, graham crackers, and a spiced mocha drink.

Sarah M. / Marathon County Public Library
Find this book in our library catalog.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've seen lots of pantry themed cookbooks recently, but this one is the best so far in my opinion. I love Cooking Light magazine anyway, so this is more great stuff from them. There are a few pages of pantry tips and the best ways to store food at the beginning. Then here is where it gets good - there are tons of recipes for pantry staples like pancake and waffle mix, biscuit mix, etc. and then a few recipes featuring that "staple." There are also lots of great make-ahead recipes for dough, sauces, stocks, etc. and lots of homemade condiment recipes too. This cookbook is right up my alley and I'm excited to try out lots of these recipes!

[Kim Thomason · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has great basic recipes for keeping a "stocked" pantry: Baking mixes, soup stocks, pastry and pie crust, granola and cereal mixes, etc. It goes further by including lots of related recipes. For example, the basic muffin mix is followed by more involved, specialized muffin recipes that build off the mix. The double chocolate muffins are amazing! I also love the curried chicken steam buns. They were time-consuming, but not difficult. My family loved these exotic buns and I was pleased that they turned out just as they should the first time around. I look forward to eventually making everything from this gem!

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

The jam recipes sound really good.

[Kat Arnett · Rating 2 out of 5]

This would probably be great for someone who has never had a kitchen or is just learning to cook. Personally I felt it was really remedial for my skill level.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really beautiful book with easy to follow recipes and so many gluten free choices!!!