Redoing My Spices

Today is an exciting day! Hands down, my favorite ingredients in my kitchen are my spices. Whether I am mixing them together in a spice rub for fish tacos or frying them in some ghee for an Indian curry, I love cooking with spices.
Spices are used all around the world to add flavor and aroma to our favorite dishes.  Up until now, at my house, we had a big collection of spices, but to be honest it was kind of a mess.  It was always hard to find the spice we needed and very often we ended up with doubles of things, not realizing we own that spice already.  That ends Today! 

Today I am thrilled to be partnering with SpicesForLess.com to redo my spice cabinet! SpicesForLess.com is my new favorite site to buy spices online.  One of the things that are great about SpicesForLess is their huge selection of spices and various salts for purchase.  If it exists, then they sell it.! They even have things that I bet you didn’t even know existed, like ground lemongrass. Who knew that was a thing? Another thing that is great is you can buy them in so many different quantities, as small as 2 ounces or even as large as 50 pounds! Plus since it as online you have the convenience of it being shipped straight to your home rather than schlepping to the store. 
Now let’s talk about why you should redo your spices. First off, spices don’t have a forever shelf-life and after a while go bad. It is recommended to replace whole spices every 4 years, ground spices every 2-3 years, and leafy herbs every 1-3 years. If you look through your spice cabinet, chances are there are some that are way past expired. Additionally, when you redo all of your spices and put them in the same type of container, as opposed to all different sized ones that they typically come in when you buy them at the supermarket, it keeps them more organized. When they are more organized you can find them easier and then ultimately you can cook even faster! 

Once you have ordered all your spices from SpicesForLess.com, its time to find containers to put them in. What I used were a bunch of 16 oz mason jars. I went with mason jars because I really like the artisan look that they have. The spices can also be stored in the original bags or any other storage containers you would l like.
Aside from just the artisan look what is great about mason jars is that the spices inside are totally visible so you can easily identify them. Additionally, the jars come in all different sizes which is perfect because you can buy whichever size makes sense for the amount of each spice you order. If you don’t typically cook with lots of spices you can get a smaller quantity of each of the spices and hence smaller mason jars. However, if you are like me and use your spices on a daily basis, I would suggest going with the 16-ounce size. 

If you want to redo your spice cabinet or even just to buy a few new ones, then head over to SpicesForLess.com! 

Below is a complete list of the spices I got from Spices for Less. I look forward to ordering more and growing my collection with their help!
Allspice, Whole
Anise Seeds, Whole
Anise, Star
Bay Leaves, Whole
Caraway Seeds, Whole
Cardamom, Whole Green Pods
Chinese Five Spice
Cinnamon Sticks, 3″
Cinnamon, Ground
Cloves, Whole
Coriander Seeds, Ground
Cumin Seeds, Ground
Cumin Seeds, Whole
Curry Powder, Hot
Fennel Seeds, Whole
Fenugreek Seeds, Whole
Garlic Powder
Juniper Berries
Mustard Seeds, Whole Brown
Mustard Seeds, Whole Yellow
Nutmeg, Whole
Onion, Powder
Oregano, Greek
Paprika, Hungarian
Poppy Seeds, Black
Saffron, Premium Grade Spanish
Sesame Seeds, Black
Sesame Seeds, White
Turmeric, Ground
Vanilla Beans
Zaatar
Red Pepper, Crushed
Sumac Powder
Cardamom Seeds
Black Pepper, Whole
Cardamom, Whole Black Pods
Cayenne Pepper
Chipotle Pepper
Hibiscus Flower
Jerk Seasoning, Jamaican