A Foodie Wants to Know…

Rice, long grain and arborio
Eggs,
New potatoes
Baby spinach
Onions
Parmesan cheese,
Feta
Farmhouse Lancashire cheese, to be eaten with
Nairn super seeded oatcakes
Extra mature cheddar
Butter
Tuna
Tinned sweetcorn
Apples
Clementines
Lemons
Brazil nuts
Chicken
Smoked bacon
German bratwurst
Parma ham
Hot-smoked salmon fillets
Red peppers
Cous cous
Panini rolls
Bacon
Hellmans mayonnaise
Peanut butter
Tinned tomatoes
Red kidney beans
Schwartz chilli mix
Pasta
Knorr stock pots
Bovril
TickTock red bush tea
Pukka lemon ginger and manuka honey tea
Anglesey sea salt
Black peppercorns
John West sild in tomato sauce.
M&S lemon and dill sauce
Henderson’s relish
HP sauce
Ready salted crisps
Salted cashew nuts
Red wine
Highland Park malt whisky
Bombay Sapphire gin.

Back to Marinara - a red herbed tomato sauce that is the base for spaghetti sauce, lasagna, ziti, any pasta, etc. Just delicious!

If your pasta sauce is white - it’s called alfredo or bechamel. I prefer red, but eat both.

I’ve noticed so many lists are similar and very healthy. I also missed some of my absolute must-haves by reading yours. I think we all do at times buy too much unnecessary food and then there’s waste, which I abhor, but it happens. My love/hate relationship with Bananas! 🙄 For what I save by cutting back, I can go out for a nice lunch, dinner now and then.
Thank you! Great ideas!
USA Gundy

I live alone, am a lazy cook and only cook properly when family comes over! This is my absolutely essential list, just for me!:
Good granary bread
Flora low fat spread
Skimmed milk
Good coffee
PG Tips teabags (biodegradable)
Smooth peanut butter
Marmite
Bananas
Pears/apples
Cucumber
Cherry tomatoes
Sugar snap peas
Honey
Dried fruit
TUC biscuits
Cadburys milk chocolate (large bar lasts me a month)
Ardennes pate
Red pepper hummus
Chicken breast
Baking potatoes
Brie cheese
Light Philadelphia
Assorted canned soups
Baked beans
Bacon
Cranberry sauce
Hellmans light mayonnaise
Tinned fruit-mainly apricots and rhubarb
Bags of mixed salad leaves (2 a month)
YOGHURT- Fage Total 2% fat (can only find at Waitrose). My FAVOURITE FOOD!
Bonne Maman yoghurts with fruit purée are also good!
Probably left out a few things but as long as I have plenty of yoghurt, I’m ok!

Grantanow

Bonne Maman Fig Conserve (goes well with butter croissants).

I like apricot conserve with croissants (as a treat!)

But I have an aversion to figs, probably because of the Syruppy Figs (Syrup of Figs) I was given as a child. Today I tried a fig yogurt and it tasted ok but then came across a piece of fig and decided, no, I still don't/ like figs.

Coffee beans. Grind it fresh every day.

Onions
Garlic
Butter
Olive oil
Pasta
Parmesan
Bacon
Eggs
Tinned tuna
Tinned tomatoes
Agog at the lady who buys ‘marinara’ sauce when it’s so cheap, easy and altogether better when home made)l.
Multiseed bread from good bakery
Homemade marmalade (not easy or cheap to make but streets ahead of absolutely anything commercially available. So well worth it.)

Bonne Maman Fig Conserve (goes well with butter croissants).

Vital to my life is
Ground coffee arabica good quality both normal and decent decaffinated coffee for the evenings (never the rubbish from taylors!!)
semi skim milk
free range eggs
duck
prawns
brown rice
pasta
big selection of fruits,
no garlic but plenty of onions, fresh and pickled , green peppers pimentos, lots of other veg.
home made wholemeal bread
home made jams
lemons
oil
soy sauce
selection of fresh and dried herbs etc

MrsKen33

Arewethereyet It’s a lot like ours. But I do have porridge occasionally and very little bread

In the Winter we occasionally make porridge over night in the slow cooker. It's lovely getting up to something hot on cold days. We used to do it a lot when we were both working. I stay away from bread as much as possible but we make flatbreads with almond flour that we use as wraps or sometimes toast them and use them for dunking.

Arewethereyet It’s a lot like ours. But I do have porridge occasionally and very little bread

Thanks everyone for the explanation about marinara sauce. I suppose a sauce chasseur doesn't contain game, so I can see the logic.

Milk
Potatoes
Eggs
Onions
Lemons
Grapefruit
Instant Vegetable stock
Nuts

I purchase "essentials" in bulk or at the cheapest possible price for my pantry. Janie's Mill sends me 3 - 25# bags of Rye berries at a time, enough to get the free delivery charge. I make sourdough breads in small 4" rounds for the freezer so hubby can take them to work with his homemade guacamole. I buy 6 avocados at a time and make a big batch and freeze in 4 oz. jars. I buy green and purple cabbage, peppers, onions and organic celery which I slice thin in the food processor along with shredding/slicing carrots. These are then recipe-ready for homemade wraps, salads, stirfry and soups. Broccoli and Cauliflower are prepped as well. Summer squash and zucchini if it looks good. I grow my own greens and herbs in a small greenhouse. I buy old-fashioned Quaker Oats from Walmart and source organic raisins from Amazon wherever the price is best. I save a lot by pricing things before buying in bulk. Potatoes and sweet potatoes, winter squash. I just bought 10 bags of dried cranberries for baking with my pears (I have hundreds from my tree) to make breakfast bars. My latest happy food is fresh rolls so I bought 6 packages (cheaper online) of brown rice wraps to make those. I have lots of rice, lentils, grains, dry beans and canned that I bought in 2020 in case family needed to move in with us so I'm still using those. Popcorn is always a nice treat.... airpopped, no oil. Organic coffee, raw cashews, walnuts, Tofu and mushrooms are also a must-have along with Tamari. Vegan all the way.

Urmstongram - there are many misconceptions about (white) potatoes in relation to one’s diet. I too (being Northern European), never spent a day growing up without potatoes. Seventy-six years later I’m STILL having that love affair.

When you eat a baked (jacket?) potato make sure you consume the well-scrubbed crusty skin - that’s where all the fiber, vitamins and minerals are! I’m sure you do. Who would ever leave the best part behind?

Be not afraid - you can offset potato consumption by switching in/out other carbs and veggies daily.

I could write a whole thread about “spuds.” ❤️

We eat a very low carb diet so our shopping list is pretty much a mix of the following:

Kerrygold butter
Almond milk
Coconut milk
Organic, free range eggs
Bacon
Gluten free sausages
Meat of some kind
Fish of some kind
Cream (double)
Yoghurt
Cream cheese
Hard cheese
Lemons/fresh or frozen berries/oranges
Ginger/black pepper
Veg - sprouts/broccoli/leeks/onions
Gluten free flour and ground almonds
Coconut/olive oil

Additionally some fresh herbs from the garden. Not a typical GN diet

Dog treats (for my son's dog)
Milk
Coffee
Tea
Decaff tea
Bread
Honey
Raspberry jam
Cheese
Baking potatoes
Butter
Free range eggs
Tomatoes
Oranges
Bananas
Have recently moved house and will only be staying a few months. It has a stunning aga but I don't enjoy cooking and it would cost a small fortune in oil to use. Unfortunately no cooker until builder installs new kitchen island so I am managing with a kettle, microwave, toasted sandwich maker. Do miss my homemade soup and roast dinners.

Apples
oats
frozen berries
satsumas
bananas
prunes
kefir
nuts (walnuts, cashews, almonds and pecans)
seeds (flaxseed, sunflower, pumpkin and chia)
dark chocolate

Forgot various fruit and veg

Cat food
Dog food
Bread
Butter
Free range eggs
Smoked salmon
Cheese spread
Pasta
Yoghurts
Milk
Baked beans
Mince
Blueberries
Snacks for grandkids

Good bread and red wine. I call it " the Jesus diet" !

JackyB

I am always puzzled as to why Americans call tomato sauce "marinara" when it contains absolutely no seafood.

i had never heard of marinara before reading this thread so I looked it up. Found this:

“Marinara” translates to “seafaring”—or colloquially to “sailor style” or “mariner style.” It was given the name marinara not because it was once a seafood-style sauce, but because it was the preferred meal of Italy's merchants during long expeditions at sea.

I'm very fond of food and my list would include the following "must haves"

Chopped tinned tomatoes
Brown rice
Noodles
Worcestershire Sauce
Fresh ginger
Indian spices
Marmite
Weetabix, Shredded Wheat
Blueberries
Fat free Quark, Greek Yogurt
All vegetables (I can't think of any that I don't like)
Most fish.

Block jersey butter which is put onto baked potatoes (salt & black pepper first). Food of the gods indeed. I was gutted when years ago I found out potatoes weren’t one of my 5-a-day!

Any left over butter (hehe! 🤣) is spread onto crumpets and eaten with 2 Burford Brown eggs. That, plus Weetabix with thick Greek (not style) yoghurt in a bowl with Scottish raspberries and milk could see me through just about forever.

Other major players are sprouts (I could eat a plateful), porridge on a winter’s morning and Horlicks.

Wine/malt whisky 🍷🥃 are occasional treats. I could live without them in my life but then again why would I?
😁

We always have wheat flour, potato flour and corn flour in the house, as I bake my own bread, plus yeast. Milk, cream, butter , cheese, cooking fat and oil, coffee, rice, both basmati and pudding rice, pasta, potatoes, onions and eggs. Cat food, tinned beans, and in the freezer mince, sausages, chopped leeks, carrots and root celery for making soup, meat stock, some chicken. Home made jams and marmelade, cider vinegar, likewise homemade from our own apples, lentils, garlic and plenty of different spices.

Definitely cheese( variety) chocolate (85%) and champagne. Then it’s bits and bobs for DH