The Best 7 Bulk Food Items
Today we are going to check out my top 7 picks for bulk food items that should be in every kitchen. Things such as rice, oats, and flour are easy to store and always a good idea to keep on hand for any occasion. If you are like me, sometimes you get the urge to bake on a whim and because I keep these bulk foods stocked in my house, I can whip up some brownies without having to run to the grocery store.
Whether you are a family of two, ten or anywhere in between, these 7 food items belong in your kitchen…in bulk. You might be asking why you should keep anything in bulk. Here are a few reasons to consider:
- Buying bulk saves money – as food prices continue to rise, I am always looking for ways to save money
- Preparedness – stocking your pantry with food that will last you longer than a few days is a good way to provide for your family during unexpected events in life
- Less trips to the grocery store
I will share where I buy these bulk food items and how I store them at the end of this post. For now, let’s check out the 7 items! Here is my list:
1. Flour
There might be some controversy over this one but let’s get into it a little bit. The best way to store flour for any length of time is to store the wheat berry before it is ground into flour. However, if you are like me and you do not have a wheat mill, just buy the flour. It will be ok. Keeping flour on hand provide you with the main ingredient for all your baked goods, breads, and a thickening agent. There are 3 types of flour I always have on hand. I keep red wheat, white wheat, and spelt flour stocked in my bulk food bins.
2. Oats
Oats are such a versatile grain. You can make breakfast, snacks, and desserts. There are many different types of oats such as rolled oats, steel cut oats, quick oats, and whole oats. You know your family best so the type of oats your family uses might be different than what I use. I would recommend stocking up on the oats your family eats the most! Keeping a bulk supply of oats provides you with what you need as a base for granola, breakfast dishes, desserts and a substitute flour when blended up. We love to keep a big batch of granola in our house!
3. Rice
A good stock of rice is definitely a staple in the bulk food category. Rice is such a good filler, its affordable, and everyone likes it! Keeping a good stock of rice is really helpful on those days where we need to cook up a quick dinner. A pot of rice with black beans, canned tuna, shredded chicken (click here to go to my FAVORITE chicken and rice recipe!), or even just some sautéed veggies and hamburger meat is easy to whip up.
4. Beans
We really like sausage beans and rice around here. Beans are a great bulk food item to keep on hand because they are easy to store and have a long lasting shelf life. Additionally, there is such a variety of beans you can choose to store. I have a stock of red beans, garbanzo beans, navy beans..the list goes on and on. Beans really are such a diverse food and allow you to make many different dishes with them. You could make chili, hummus, refried beans, or even a meatless dinner if you are trying to save some money. Pick out 2 or 3 types of beans that you know you would eat and stock up!
5. Sugar
I went back and forth on if this should be titled “sugar” or “sweetener” because there are so many different types of sugar to sweeten things. Our favorite bulk supply of sugar is HONEY! We get honey by the gallon from a local beekeeper. Bulk sugar might seem like a silly food item to keep a lot of but sugar is one of the items that becomes a lot more affordable when you buy it in bigger quantities. We like honey, maple syrup, and panela around here and all of those sugars are much more affordable the bigger of a container you buy!
- honey – buy local for the health benefits!
- maple syrup
- panela
- maple sugar
6. Oil
Most recipes have some form of oil or nonstick substance in the recipe list. Keeping a good stock of oil will help you stay prepared to cook for any occasion. Everything from sweet to savory uses oil of some type. We like to keep a good stock of lard in the freezer and we buy olive oil in bulk. Much like the sugar, buying oil in bulk tends to be more cost effective. We recently had our power go out for a few days and because I had a good stock of oil, I was able to cook on a burner outside in a cast iron skillet!
- lard/tallow – buy local if you can!
- olive oil
- coconut oil
7. Dried Fruit
The last item on the list is more of a food that is kept for preparedness purposes but that doesn’t stop us from snacking on it! Our favorite dried fruit is bananas but I also like to keep raisins on hand as well. When I am buying dried fruit, I typically just look for what is on sale. Any dried fruit tastes good in granola and you can throw dried fruit on some oatmeal, have it as a snack or throw it in a cookie. Dried fruit has a long shelf life and adds to diversity to the food storage area. A lot of the easy items to store in bulk are grains so adding some fruit diversifies the options!
FAQ
What do you store your bulk food items in?
There are a few different ways to store bulk food depending on how you are going to use the items. I’ll give you the details of how I do it. In my house I keep the majority of my bulk food items in food grade 5 gallon buckets (something like this!) and I put those bins in a storage area. I replenish my pantry with the food in the 5 gallon buckets as needed. I keep my pantry stocked using large glass jars and plastic storage containers (like these right here). The size of the storage containers you use will depend on how much you want to have on hand. Be sure to keep your food in a dry area so it doesn’t get moisture in the bins and go rancid.
How much should you buy at a time?
My rule of thumb is to keep enough food on hand that we could survive for around a month without having to go to the grocery store. Now, this would most likely mean that we would end up eating oatmeal and beans and rice everyday but the goal is to just have some kind of food.
So the amount needed for that would depend on the size of your family. There are some foods I buy more of than others because we go through them faster.
The important thing is that you decide what your goal is with buying bulk food. If you are just trying to save money, get as much as you can afford! In contrast, if you are trying to use the bulk food as a prepper you might have to do some math and figure out how much you need for an extended period of time.
My last piece of advice on this topic is to be sure you will eat whatever you buy. If your family hates coconuts, don’t buy the coconut chips! Stock up on bulk food items that your family will actually eat.
Where is the best place to buy bulk food items?
My favorite places to buy bulk food are Azure Standard, Amazon, and Essential Organics. I acutally wrote an entire blog post answering this very quesiton. Click here to check it out!
Let me know in the comments below what your favorite bulk food is!
