by Coach Debbie

I’m pretty curious what’s in your pantry right now. Is it filled with mostly junk, mostly healthy, or a mix of the two? I’ll be honest. If you came over, I’d let you in my pantry because it’s imperfect. There are Doritos that my kids take in the Friday lunch boxes. You’d see sugar-filled hot cocoa packs and a bag of marshmallows. I have 8 boxes of cereals for the kids to eat on Fridays (they’re gluten-free so that’s something). There’s a bottle of Goldschlager (a throwback to my days at Appalachian State). Even though there’s some junk in there, I think it’s about 85% nutritious, so let’s focus in on some of my healthy staples.

These are my some of my baking favorites that I mostly bought on Amazon Prime:

• coconut cooking spray
• Swerve sweeteners
• Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free almond meal
• Viva Labs organic gluten-free coconut flour
• Nature’s Way organic extra virgin coconut oil

I’m nuts about nuts, obviously. We like to grab a handful to get full fast with some tasty fat. Almonds, cashews, and walnuts are at the top of my list. Ideally you should get unsalted but life is short and my husband wants added flavor. They’re great for snacks, salads, oatmeal, baking, and smoothies. I bought all of these in a grocery store.

Here are some more seeds (I like variety), as well as some favorite oils (in addition to coconut) and some vinegars I like. I don’t typically do bottled salad dressings but instead do oil and vinegar plus lemon juice and lime juice.

Here are some of my protein smoothie ingredients.  I try to keep them clumped together for an easy grab setup.  You can buy some items in grocery stores and others online.

• Mom Fuel Protein Powder (online)
• Innate Response Renewal Greens (Amazon)
• Just Great Stuff powdered organic chocolate peanut butter (Amazon)
• Cacao nibs
• Trader Joes gluten-free oats
• Unsweetened coconut flakes
• Bob’s Red Mill unsweetened shredded coconut
• Seeds (flax/chia/hemp combo)

My spice rack obviously has no beauty to it but it’s brimming with great ways to flavor foods without the salt and yuck that typically come in sauces.  I love Mrs Dash sodium-free spices.  I also have cinnamon, cumin, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, oregano, pumpkin pie spice, cloves, powdered ginger, minced onion, thyme, parsley, chili powder, garlic powder, vanilla extract, and sugary sprinkles to top my smoothies.