A new broom sweeps clean …

or … time to “spring clean” your pantry/cupboards and throw away all the store cupboard items that are well past their “best before” dates – if you think you've nothing lurking in there you've a shock coming!

The reason I'm suggesting this radical move is quite simply store cupboard stash has a limited life. Herbs and spices for example lose their umph – you'll be surprised what you find.

What we're aiming for is to clear the decks so that you can re-stock your pantry with a list of staples you'll use on a regular basis and some not so frequently. This will be a personal list for you but I'll give you some ideas from my own. You'll see that by creating your stash that the boring day to day cooking becomes so much easier when you know you've already got the basics.

My pantry has the usual suspects, orzo and penne pasta - stock cubes and pots, I really rate the stock pots and the range now is great. Rapeseed and vegetable oil - the best for general use and a light olive oil apart from extra virgin for dressings. A decent quality balsamic vinegar is a must for me, as good a quality as you can afford. My pantry extravagance is Panko breadcrumbs.

You can create the same pantry principle for your freezer and, to a lesser degree, your fridge. In my freezer I generally have an “emergency” bag of cauliflower cheese and I always have petit pois. In my fridge is a block of parmesan – not the ready grated variety – I'm not being a snob here, the blocks have a long life as does cheddar cheese of your choice. I'm not really sure why but cheese is the ultimate emergency staple I suppose because it's so versatile be it in a sauce or in a toasted sandwich in mashed potatoes with sautéed onions, blah blah.

A stock of microwave boxes and foil containers with lids in various (small to medium) sizes – both ideal for freezing individual meals – if you are using your oven for “sides” like baked potatoes, then your defrosted home made ready meals that you're going to create - in a foil tray - go straight into the oven. If you're going to freeze liquids, i.e. stock, soups etc., you can get resealable pour & store bags especially for this purpose – a really good product, very strong and inexpensive – check out your cheap high street shops.

This list will grow with the passage of time!