Since I’m on Day 2 of the Whole30 program, I decided to take a more critical look at my pantry to make sure I had the right tools to be compliant for the rest of the month.
One big Paleo faileo is my fish sauce.
I really like fish sauce ‘cause it adds a unique salty umami flavor to whatever I cook. When I closely inspected the label this evening, I noticed two ingredients that weren’t Paleo: fructose and hydrolyzed wheat protein. Damn it! I gotta start looking for a brand that’s just anchovies and salt. I wonder if it’s even possible.
Here are some other substitutions I’ve made in my pantry:
Since I’m out of lard, I’m using coconut oil and macadamia nut oil as my go-to high heat cooking fats.
Macadamia nut oil is nice and buttery and has a smoke point of around 400 F. Yes, it’s expensive (~$1/ounce) but it’s a small investment I’m willing to make.
I’ve gotten rid of my pastas but I miss noodles. I bought some kelp noodles from Whole Foods (in the fridge by the soy products) and they’re pretty tasty. 
Not like wheat noodles, but more like springy bean thread noodles when cooked. Don’t eat them raw. They’re squeaky and crunchy – not how I like my noodles.
Instead of tamari and soy sauce, I’m gonna use coconut aminos. 
This was a hard item to find. I finally located it in the Asian section at Whole Foods. Surprisingly, it does taste remarkably like soy sauce.
I’ve also been using coconut vinegar (along with my other vinegars) and it’s pretty tasty.
It’s been heralded as a more nutritious apple cider vinegar but I like it because I like all things coconut.
