Basic Food Staples

There are a few things that almost all of my recipes use which you should just keep on hand.  I don't include these on the weekly shopping lists and just assume that you will have them.

1.  Frozen onion mix seasoning blend.  This is one of the things we get at Wal-mart.  It is $2.50 and you can't even buy onions and sweet peppers to chop up for that cheap plus it is a huge time saver.  You can also buy the blend in "fajita style" which has larger pieces. 

2.  Frozen bags of veggies.  We get them at Sam's or Wal-mart.  I keep squash, peas, corn, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, okra and broccoli on hand.  Our freezer is a perpetual Jenga disaster.    
 

3.  Chicken bouillon stock.  You can use bouillon cubes but it is much easier to get a jar of powdered chicken stock instead.  If you look in the Hispanic section you can find larger containers that are cheaper than the ones you see in the regular spice section.  A jar of this probably lasts six months and I use it almost every day.