Let us start down our road to a healthy life style. I have good news! We do not need to diet. We just make wise food choices and cooking methods so that we have healthy bodies without the stress of “going on a diet.”

Today we are not going to start in the kitchen but in the pantry. Walk into the pantry, get two large cardboard boxes and set them aside. One box will be for food to keep and one box is for food we are going to donate. Make yourself a great cup of tea, take a deep breath and let us go.

Start by reading the ingredient list on every box. Anything with ingredients that you cannot pronounce should be tossed into the donate box. Any item with high sugar, corn syrup, artificial flavors, artificial colors should be tossed into donate box. Any item with high salt should be tossed into the donate box. Any hydrogenated fat should definitely go.

Keep the boxes of pasta like spaghetti, penne, lasagna sheets, and others. Keep any simple grains like bulgur, rice, brown rice, quinoa, farro and others. Keep your variety of beans like garbanzo beans, red kidney beans, black beans and others. Keep your canned beans, as they do come in handy! Keep your good virgin olive oil and small containers of whole, not ground, spices. Keep the flour, sugar and other baking ingredients. If you do not have any of these items, get them!

You are going to need a good sharp knife, a good chopping board – I am biased to plastic because you can wash and sterilize unlike the wooden one – a couple of good heavy cooking pots and a coffee grinder or mortar and pestle (for the spices).

Now, organize the dry beans and canned beans in one shelf, grains on one shelf, baking ingredient on other and so on. And that should it for today, well done. Next time we will go grocery shopping. See you soon!

About the Author

Sanaa Abourezk is a Gourmet Chef, Restauranteur, Author, Nutritionist, and Blogger. She’s passionate about the art of cooking and enjoys sharing delicious recipes.

Sanaa owns and operates a popular Middle Eastern Restaurant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Agricultural Engineering and a Masters degree in Nutrition.

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