20 Foods to Keep in Your Kitchen in the Fall

The fall breezes are a blowin’ in the Windy City and we all know it’s about that time of year again, Chicago fall AKA winter anywhere else. You sit on your couch, listening to the howling wind, looking outside at the people dressed in oversized scarves & big coats, and North Ave beach seems like a distant memory.

We all know how hard the falls and winters are in Chicago. They are really cold and really gloomy. But somehow, as Chicagoans, we tough it out and get through it together. We have movie nights with girlfriends or date nights with bae. We take dance classes, cooking lessons, we go to movie nights, we host dinners. We get through it.

Being from New York, everyone is always so curious how the winters fare to Manhattan. Though they are pretty comparable, I feel as if it is a little more difficult to justify going outside in Chicago. This is primarily due to the wind, and the fact that everything is pretty spaced out. It is much harder for me to go outside of my cozy Old Town walk up to walk to the El, to take the freezing (above ground El), to get off at Chicago to walk a half of a mile to get soup than it was for me to walk out of my New York apartment and within five minutes either be at the subway or find the perfect soup to bring right home.

Don’t get me wrong, I totally keep myself busy during the winter. We’ll get into that. But when it is fall, the chilly months are just getting started, you are still motivated to cook and get into that fall spirit (can you say PSL?!).

So, chilly weather + comfy apartment + fall jibbers = cooking equation! That’s right, these fall months are the most perfect months to really get into your cooking groove. It’s so easy to want to cook, it’s just a matter of finding a recipe, putting the time aside, and, oh yeah, actually getting the ingredients. NOOOOO, don’t make me go outside!

That alone would be grounds to give up on cooking. Except I have happily put together a list of 20 ingredients you could pick up once or twice throughout the fall months on standard grocery trips to keep on hand. They are pretty basic ingredients or add-ins, but they are great shelf stuffers you may not have thought of on your standard grocery trip. They are things you may wish you had, or things you only think to cook with if you already have them in your kitchen.

This is simply a grocery list that will help you get through the fall months with some flavor. I will, however, give you a few ideas based on the ingredients below. Take a read through, use creativity, Pinterest, etc. to think of some ideas. Oh, and check mine out, I've linked a few of the recipe ideas on here to get you started. If there is an idea you love that I have posted about but there is no recipe link, let me know and I’d be happy to get that up on the blog ASAP.

The 20 Foods to Keep in Your Kitchen This Fall

1. Broth

2. Honey

3. Sweet Potatoes

4. Beans

5. Quinoa

6. Cashew milk

7. Cacao powder

8. Ginger root

9. Onion

10. Carrot sticks

11. Eggs

12. Kale

13. Pancakes

14. Mozzarella cheese

15. Cinnamon

16. Apples

17. Wine

18. Chicken

19. Canned pumpkin

20. Pizza dough

A Few Ingredient Recos

Recipe Idea Starters

• Stir fry quinoa

• Kale salad with egg whites

• Hot cinnamon apples with pancakes

• Cacao milk (hot chocolate)

• Honey glazed ginger carrots

• Quinoa kale white bean soup

• Pumpkin spice pizza

• Teriyaki ginger chicken

• Pumpkin spice kale soup