The $20/$20 Challenge: Heather’s Must See College Dorm Indian Food Lover’s Dream Pantry

I can’t even begin to tell you how much I love this week’s submission to the $20/$20 Challenge. Not only will Heather’s use of the limited storage space in a college dorm impress you, but the amazing foods and unique-to-me spices will blow you away.  I mean, I can’t stop looking at her pretty pantry shelves! Here’s her story:

Hi Mavis!

I’m excited to participate in your $20/$20 Challenge!  What a great idea and of course I love reading your blog!

My name is Heather and we moved to Texas about one-and-a-half years ago… from Washington State. So here’s our story:

I am originally from Texas/Oklahoma and my husband is originally from India.  We moved to Texas to get closer to family, and my husband took a job at a Bible College, where he works as an Old Testament professor and as a director of a residence hall.  One requirement of his job as the director of the residence hall is that we LIVE in the dorm – yes you heard that right, we live in a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom apartment IN a dorm of over 200 college students with our 5 year old daughter and 20 month old son!  Needless to say we never run short of babysitters 😉  Though we DO run short of storage space!  A perk of his job is that we can eat in the campus cafeteria as much as we want…while that comes in handy if I’m too busy or too tired to cook, we don’t take advantage of that quite as much as you might expect.  My husband says that during our 8 year stint in the Pacific Northwest I became a bit “crunchy” and I really like to prepare most of our food from scratch – plus they don’t serve a whole lot of Indian food at the “caf!”  So the idea of eating all the processed food that they serve in the cafeteria isn’t as appealing as it once would have been – especially when I imagine feeding my growing children that food {and our son is allergic to eggs – which is a whole other complication!}.

So, since we are tight on space, I have been creative with our food storage as you can see…

I LOVE my OXO containers for all my bulk foods and I keep the extras up at the top in the bins and refill as needed. You will notice lots of Indian ingredients spread throughout my kitchen too. Indian “comfort food” is Dal – or “lentil soup” served over rice. Above you can see lots of different varieties of lentils and dried beans, nuts, some whole wheat pastas and brown rice pastas. We don’t do much cereal, but on occasion the kids like puffed brown rice, 100% shredded wheat, or homemade granola. Most days they like oatmeal for breakfast – so we buy that in bulk and I keep a small container here to have it handy!

An Indian kitchen wouldn’t be complete without a huge bag of rice (or two!). We keep white Basmati and Brown Basmati on hand. I buy the 20 pound bag of white rice at Costco and the brown rice I order through Azure Standard – a food co-op which has good prices on organic bulk foods and delivers to our city once a month.
This cabinet houses my Indian spices and baking supplies. I also grind my own wheat {bought from Azure Standard} and I keep that flour in the freezer. We make homemade roti (whole wheat tortillas) a couple of times per week – most Indian families in India make them fresh each day!

The stainless steel containers are called “Spice Dabbas” and that is something you will find in most Indian houses… it is a great way to keep your most used spices right at hand. Since Indian cooking calls for MANY spices, I keep the extras up at the top and pull those down as needed.

Starting at the top right and going clockwise – Sambar Masala, Garam Masala, Red {cayenne} Chili Powder, Black Mustard Seeds, Turmeric, Ground Coriander, and Cumin Seeds in the middle. I use most of these spices to make our basic Dal Recipe {except the Garam Masala}. When I make Indian food the students can usually smell it from the lobby – so I try to make extras, because invariably we will have some unexpected company hoping for leftovers! 🙂 Plus our son LOVES Indian food – he does not like bland food at all – the boy can down spicy dal & rice like a grown man!

The smaller spice dabba has some of my whole spices which I grind fresh as needed {in an old coffee grinder!}. I also use these spices to make homemade Masala Chai {Indian spiced milk tea}. Top right, going clockwise – Cinnamon Sticks, Green Cardamom Pods, Star Anise, Coriander Seeds, Dried Curry Leaves, Black Cardamom Pods, and in the center, Cloves.

Here are some of the {many} bulk spices found at the top of my cabinet – some of these spices came directly from India – we were there for 2 months this past summer – and some came from the Indian Grocery stores you can find here in the US.

This cabinet holds “regular” spices at the bottom, the small amount of canned food we keep on hand {mostly diced tomatoes and beans}. On the middle left shelf I have my cooking oils… I picked up the stainless steel containers in India this last trip. One holds coconut oil {from Costco} and the other holds homemade ghee {clarified butter – that I make in my slow cooker from Costco butter} Both coconut oil and ghee are traditional Indian cooking oils and are extremely healthy. I also use olive oil on occasion – especially for homemade salad dressings. The top left is our collection of Indian pickles… NOT dill pickles – Indian pickle {also known as chutney or achaar} a very spicy condiment – is an acquired taste and a little goes a long way! Our favorite is Pickled Mango and we also have Lime Pickle and Mixed Vegetable Pickle – the ones in the glass jars came from India and the one in the yellow and red bottle was purchased at a local Indian store. The top right shelf has a few favorite condiments from Trader Joes – we no longer live as close to one as did in Washington, so when I am nearby I stock up on organic ketchup, mayonnaise and hot sauce {my husband loves that stuff!}. I keep the Organic Red Pepper Soup {from Costco} on hand to make my favorite Indian Butter Chicken Masala Recipe.

So since our house has no true pantry and very little closet space – I keep our bulk foods from Azure standard under the sink in the kid’s bathroom! Left to right, Hard White {that I grind in my Blendtec Grain Mill}, Organic Rolled Oats, and Soft White Wheat.

We mostly keep the basics in our fridge… lots of fruit and some fresh veggies. Grass fed ground beef from Aldi to hold us over until our yearly beef purchase is ready. The kids love Kerrygold Cheese & Butter from Costco. Fresh ginger on the top shelf, along with homemade rotis (tortillas), leftover Indian food, and our farm fresh “raw” milk that we order each week through a local farm co-op. My husband grew up in India and his “job” as a child was to watch the milk man {who actually brought the COW door to door and milked him right there} to make sure he didn’t cheat them and add water to the milk. Fast forward to when my husband first came to North America, he couldn’t understand why people would pay full price for “watery” skim milk, nor could he understand why there are a bazillion types of milk available in a typical grocery store! Once we started getting fresh milk there was no going back. In Washington we could buy it in the stores, here we have to get it straight from the farm.

Condiments, homemade jams, my husband’s favorite varieties of hot sauce, and eggs out of the way at the bottom – since our son is allergic I have to be really careful to keep eggs separate from everything else. These eggs are store bought but when we see my parents we are able to get farm fresh eggs from a family friend, so we usually stock up – the rest of us LOVE eggs!

Our upright freezer is kept in a storage closet, since there was no place for it in our apartment. I have to walk through the dorm to get to it, but I am thankful they were able to accommodate it for us {I am also glad that it came with a lock on the door with a key which I never used or needed until now!}. I keep our large organic packages of vegetables and fruit from Costco here, along with any freezer meals I’ve made {top shelf}. I also buy sprouted wheat bread from Costco and keep extra in the freezer to pull out as needed. There is some Ezekiel English Muffins and Pitas from a local health food store. I like to keep whole chickens on hand as well {also from Costco}. We usually split a side of beef with family or friends each year, so the lower shelf holds what is left from last year’s purchase… still waiting on this year’s cow! {In case you are wondering most Indians do not eat beef – however my husband’s family does since they are Christians and not Hindus. In India, Muslims and Christians eat beef, while non-vegetarian Hindus and Christians eat pork}. There is some frozen berries at the bottom which we bought this summer locally – we miss our Washington Blueberries! The door of the freezer has more Costco Chicken, Corn, homemade freezer jam and homemade rendered lard {from our pig purchase last year!}. I don’t fry food at home too often, but if I do, I use the lard instead of refined cooking oil.

It wouldn’t be an Indian kitchen without a tea stash! Indians love their Chai {chai MEANS tea, so saying “chai tea” is somewhat redundant!}. In India we are served chai first thing in the morning and also again at “tea time.” I am totally hooked. I make homemade chai daily! Most of this tea came from India – my mother-in-law keeps us stocked up whenever she makes her yearly visits.

In India stainless steel is everywhere – and I go a little crazy in the “steel shops” when we go to India. I brought back this water filter this year – my husband was not too happy to have to pack it in our suitcases, but it makes a huge difference in the taste of our water!

A few extra “bonus” photos from our recent trip to India. The Steel shop that I can’t get enough of – it is so inexpensive there! Our kids eat off of small steel divided plates every day and drink out of the cute steel tumblers too. I forgot to mention how essential a good pressure cooker is for Indian cooking – I also brought a new stainless steel pressure cooker home this trip – it makes “dal” {lentil soup} ready in a jiffy! Did I mention how much my husband grumbled when we had to pack our suitcases to return home? He said that I brought a whole steel shop home with me 🙂

This is the sweet shop and also where we buy our Indian Pickles from – they make them fresh daily. If you tell them you are taking it with you back to America, they will vacuum seal it 2-3 times to ensure it doesn’t leak out into your suitcase, believe me, you DO NOT want that to happen! Talk about an oily, pungent MESS!

This is the corner store in India, near my mother-in-law’s house, where we buy rice, lentils and other staples! Maybe you could call this her “Costco?” Although they will actually deliver her telephoned order straight to her door…now that’s what I call service!

I hope you’ve enjoyed our story & photos! I do have a blog: Indianties.com. I will get around to updating it soon with more stories and photos from our trip, hopefully 🙂

Thank you for your time & consideration & for donating to the charity on our behalf!

Have a great day,

Heather

Are you getting your pantries camera ready? You can participate in the $20/$20 Challenge by simply sending in pictures of your pantry. Find out more about the $20/$20 Challenge: Show Your Pantry – Fill a Pantry!