So you know where I get my raw milk, cheese, most of my grass-fed beef and chicken and woodland pork, but my pantry items…well, that’s a different story!  My answer is, all over the place.  I have a routine, most Thursdays when I go to pick up my Family Farmer delivery, I also go to Whole Foods and Trader Joes.

I love to get my 365 mustard there, made with apple cider vinegar and all ingredients that I can pronounce!  Some other staples I like to get at Whole Foods are the glass jars of crushed tomatoes, organic tomato paste and pizza sauce because we try to stay away from canned products.  My BBQ sauce that I use for BBQ’d chicken wings and legs is Organic Ville BBQ sauce because it is Gluten-Free andalso made with all ingredients I can pronounce!  The other staple I like to get at Whole Foods and Trader Joes is nuts.  We eat alot of almonds and walnuts.  The 365 nuts are very simple…the nut, oil and sea salt, I picked up almonds one time at another grocery store and couldn’t believe they had MSG in them!  Well, they disguised it by using the “big name”…

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a flavor enhancer commonly added to Chinese food, canned vegetables, soups and processed meats. Although the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has classified MSG as a food ingredient that’s “generally recognized as safe,” the use of MSG remains controversial. For this reason, when MSG is added to food, the FDA requires that it be listed on the label.

MSG has been used as a food additive for decades. Over the years, the FDA has received many anecdotal reports of adverse reactions to foods containing MSG. These reactions — known as MSG symptom complex — include:

• Headache
• Flushing
• Sweating
• Facial pressure or tightness
• Numbness, tingling or burning in the face, neck and other areas
• Rapid, fluttering heartbeats (heart palpitations)
• Chest pain
• Nausea
• Weakness  (taken from the Mayo clinic website)

Take a look at that list and think about what you are eating…

So that is a start of my pantry list…to be continued!