Stock Up On These Top 10 Foods Now!

Learn about the Top 10 Foods to Stock Up on Now for your Prepper Pantry before prices go up or these foods go out of stock!

And be sure to download my free Top 10 Foods to Stock Up on Now printable file that accompanies my video. This file contains a four-week shopping checklist to help you plan your food purchases so you can stock your Prepper Pantry with these essential foods and stay within your grocery budget.

Rising Prices and Out-of-Stock Foods

During my recent grocery store visits, I was shocked by the price increases and how many foods were out of stock. This led me to think about which non-perishable foods are the most important to stock up on right now for my Prepper Pantry while these foods are still affordable and available.

So after unpacking from my last grocery trip, I sat down with pen and paper and made a list. And I’m sharing this list with you in an easy download or printable (no email required) that you can take to the grocery store on your next shopping trip.

What are these top 10 foods? Well, if you have been with me for a while, you know that I often focus on categories of foods, more so than specific individual foods. So that is what I have done in my comprehensive video and free download.

This approach gives you the flexibility to find foods within a category, even if some of the foods are out of stock.

What Are the Top 10 Foods to Stock Now?

In my comprehensive video, I answer questions about stocking these top 10 food categories:

• Which beans are best to stock: dried or canned?
• What specific canned goods should we be buying right now?
• What are the best shelf-stable fats to stock up on?
• When it comes to stocking powdered milk, should I get non-fat or whole milk powder?
• What are the best nut butters to stock for the long term?
• Are all pastas the same? Or are some better than others to stock up on?
• When it comes to rice, should we stock white rice, brown rice, or both?
• Do we really need to stock iodized salt, or will sea salt do?
• Is it smart to stock up on white sugar for emergencies, or should we go with alternatives?
• When it comes to wheat, should we stock flour, whole grain, or both?

Why Are These Top 10 Foods Important to Stock Now?

During these uncertain times, we can hardly predict what might come our way. I don’t think anyone ever expected that our lives would change so dramatically in 2020. And then in 2021, those of us in central Texas never dreamed that we would have sub-zero temperatures and endless days of ice and snow storms!

But what so many of us have learned is that there is no point in wasting any time when it comes to creating and stocking an Extended Pantry or what we all nickname the Prepper Pantry.

The Prepper Pantry is the area of our homes where we stock our extra supplies that allow us to “go shopping” when we need to restock our everyday Working Pantry. So as long as we stock the right foods in our Prepper Pantry, we won’t need to run to the grocery store whenever our Working Pantry supplies run low.

By planning our purchases, we’ll be selective to get real foods within our budget. And with a well-stocked Prepper Pantry, we’ll give ourselves a bit of protection against rising prices or certain foods simply being unavailable. We’ll be prepared for whatever might come our way.

Download Your Free Top 10 Foods to Stock Up on Now Checklist

Here is a free printable PDF checklist of the top 10 foods you should buy from your grocery store. Plan your purchases over the next 4 weeks by writing in what you want to buy. As your budget allows, add 2 or more of these foods to your cart each week until you have stocked the supply you need.

You can download this Top 10 Foods to Stock Up on Now handout to your mobile phone, so it’s handy the next time you go to the grocery store. Alternatively, you can print out this handout to fill out the chart for the different weeks and bring it with you when you go shopping.

• Note: To be informed of new free printables when I publish them, be sure to subscribe to my free Mary’s Nest newsletter.

Afterward, you can add the printed copy to your kitchen journal, so it’ll always be handy in case you want to refer back to it to see what you bought. You can even add prices to track whether certain foods are increasing or decreasing in price. This will help you better structure your grocery budget.

The Best Salts, Sugars, and Whole Grains

Three categories of my top 10 foods focus on salts, sugars, and whole grains. You can get more in-depth information about these categories in the following videos. For example, do you know what the best salts are with the least amount of microplastics? And if you are storing whole grains in your Prepper Pantry, do you know how to make flour from them?

When we think of sugar for the traditional foods kitchen, we don’t limit ourselves to white sugar. In fact, we prefer whole alternatives, such as molasses and Sucanat, which stands for Sugar Cane Natural.

Molasses is packed with nutrients, and if you’ve never made anything with this sweetener before, give molasses cookies a try. They’re healthy and delicious!

When Stocking These Top 10 Foods, Be Open to Trying New Recipes

When it comes to stocking these top 10 foods, I can already hear some folks saying they don’t like this or that or have issues with certain foods.

If there are certain foods you don’t like or think they disagree with you, I encourage you to learn how to properly prepare foods like our ancestors did. They often had very limited foods and had to make do with what they had. Even so, traditional cultures all over the world learned how to prepare their foods to increase digestion and the absorbability of nutrients.

So be open to trying new foods that can be easily stored in your Prepper Pantry without the need for refrigeration so that you always know you have nutritious food on hand. I’ll show you how to properly prepare dried beans, canned fish, and whole grains in the following videos.

How to Properly Prepare Dried Beans

You might be surprised how you might discover that you can digest beans once they have been properly prepared. Better yet, you might find that you really like them! Check out the following videos to learn how to soak and sprout beans and the best way to cook dried beans for maximum nutrition.

How to Properly Prepare Canned Fish

If you think you don’t like sardines, I implore you to buy one package and give my sardines recipe a try. I have had so many folks come back to me and say they now love sardines!

Also, cooked canned tuna is easier to digest, especially with these recipes. You may recall Tuna Boat Surprise as a school lunch favorite, and Tuna Pie is an incredibly delicious and affordable Depression Era recipe that tastes a lot like chicken pot pie.

How to Properly Prepare Whole Grains

You’re not limited to grinding Whole Grains to make flour. Instead, you can cook whole grains for your main meal or a side dish. I show you three ways to properly prepare whole grains by cooking them the right way.

Create a Prepper Pantry

We’ve been talking a lot about stocking up on these top 10 foods for your Prepper Pantry, but what if you don’t have an Extended or Prepper Pantry? That’s no problem because I’m here to show you how you can quickly get started and on a budget.

In case you need to accelerate stocking your Prepper Pantry, I show you how in the following video. And be sure to download my free printable inventory list that accompanies the video too.

How to Store Food in Your Prepper Pantry

Watch the following videos to learn about the best food storage supplies, the difference between oxygen absorbers and silica gel packs, and how to seal mylar bags in seconds.

Extend Your Meals with Some of These Top 10 Foods

Once you stock non-perishable food like canned tomatoes, beans, rice, and grains, there is so much you can do with them to extend your meals. In essence, you can stretch your meals to make more expensive foods, like animal proteins, go further and feed more people.

In the following budget recipe video below, I share my top 7 favorite meal extenders and how to use them. I even make a meal using some of them and show you how to feed a crowd for about $5 total!

Grind Your Own Flour with the Mockmill

If you store whole grains in your Prepper Pantry, you’ll need a manual or electric grain mill to turn the whole grains into flour.

When it comes to electric grain mills, after I did A LOT of research, I decided to buy a Mockmill. And am I so happy I did! The Mockmill is a very affordable but beautifully crafted German-made mill that stone grinds grain with settings ranging from 1 to 10—fine to coarse ground grain.

• Learn about Mockmill Stone Grain Mills

You can see me unbox and try out the Mockmill 100 Grain mill in the following video.

Download Your Free 36-Page Pantry List

For an extensive list of the traditional foods you can make and purchase to stock your pantry, be sure to download my free 36-page Traditional Foods Pantry List. This comprehensive eBook is full of links to recipe videos, helpful articles, and more!

Join the Traditional Foods Kitchen Academy

Are you looking for more traditional foods videos? If so, I invite you to join the Traditional Foods Kitchen Academy. Members of this optional paid YouTube community get access to exclusive videos and other members-only perks. Plus, your YouTube comments include a special members-only badge.

In the following members-only video series, I talk about Cooking with Traditional Fats, including butter, ghee, animal fats, and oils, such as olive oil.

Stay in Touch with Mary’s Nest

1. Subscribe to My YouTube Channel for Traditional Foods Videos (Free) - When you subscribe, be sure to click on the notification bell that will let you know each time I upload a new video.
2. Subscribe to Mary’s Traditional Foods Newsletter (Free) - Get a free 36-page eBook for signing up: How to Stock Your Essential Traditional Foods Four-Corners Pantry.
3. Join the Traditional Foods Kitchen Academy - For more detailed videos and exclusive members-only perks, join my YouTube membership community.
4. Order The Modern Pioneer Cookbook - Get a hardcover book of Mary's nourishing recipes from a Traditional Foods Kitchen. This bestselling cookbook is published by Penguin Random House with their DK imprint.
5. Order The Modern Pioneer Pantry - Get Mary's latest hardcover cookbook about preserving food and making delicious meals from your Four Corners Pantry. Mary's second cookbook is also published by Penguin Random House.

I look forward to having you join me in my Texas Hill Country Kitchen!

Shop for items used in this blog post or video

Favorite Prepper Pantry Supplies

• Wireless Fridge and Freezer Exterior Thermometer
• Life Straw
• Water Disinfection Tablets
• Water BOB Tub Liner
• Cast Iron Trivet
• Tea Lights
• Glass Kettle
• Manual Can Opener
• Battery Powered Can Opener
• 5 Gallon Buckets with Lids
• Gamma Lids – White
• 1 Gallon Mylar Bags
• 500CC Oxygen Absorbers
• 10g Silica Gel Packs
• All American Pressure Canner
• Stovetop Water Bath Canner
• Long Lasting Ice Packs
• Igloo Cooler
• YETI Cooler
• Electric Cooler
• Jackery Solar Power Station
• Jackery Portable Solar Panels
• 10 Gauge Power Cord
• Kill A Watt EZ
• Hand Crank Flashlight
• High Powered Flashlight
• Hand Crank Emergency Radio

Amazon Shop and Shopping Guide

• Visit Mary’s Nest Amazon Shop
• Get a 30-day Audible trial with a free audiobook
• Visit my Shopping Guide page
  Get up to 15% off for stocking your Traditional Foods Pantry and equipping your Modern Pioneer Kitchen, including discounts from US Wellness Meats, Farmhouse Teas, Backwoods Home, Masontops, Cultures for Health, Survival Garden Seeds, Redmond Real Salt, and More!

Recommended Reading

• The Modern Pioneer Cookbook
• The Modern Pioneer Pantry
• Nourishing Traditions
• Prepper’s Pantry: Build a Nutritious Stockpile to Survive Blizzards, Blackouts, Hurricanes, Pandemics, Economic Collapse, or Any Other Disasters
• Essential Pantry Cookbook
• Food Storage 101 Where do I begin? (Cookin’ With Home Storage)