I hope you have enjoyed organizing and transforming your pantry with me. In this final post of the Nutritionista's guide to building a natural foods pantry series I will focus on some shopping tips.

Top 5 Pantry-Stocking Shopping Tips:

1. Go natural – buy organic products, in their most natural state, whenever possible. Hint - this means a lot of what you buy should be quite perishable (think fruits and veggies) and not even stored in the pantry.

2. Compare and contrast – like items at the market and choose the most pure and least processed variations.

3. On a budget – save money by shopping around town for the best deals and by stocking up when things are on sale or in season. (you may need to let go of the thought of getting it all done in one day for this to really work for you).

4. What a trip – go to the store with a list and stay as close to it as possible, don’t go when you are hungry and likely to get side-tracked by temptations and try to plan trips for less crowded and thus less stressful times of the week.

5. Snack attack – don’t forget that the munchies can be the most dangerous in between mealtimes, set yourself up for snacking success by purchasing varying guilt-free pantry staples you can munch on including dried fruits, nuts, seeds, nut-butters, and wholesome bars.

Most importantly of all, don’t forget pantry items are complimentary to diet primarily filled with fresh fruits, vegetables, lean protein, and other perishable items kept in the refrigerator – the true stars of fresh and healthy home cooking!

I hope you have enjoyed this series and I look forward to hearing about your pantry transformations!

Julia xo