Your kitchen pantry doesn’t have to look like that of a gourmet restaurant in order to be a successful home chef. Many recipes require that you buy specialty items you may never use again to complete a dish. Others require items that are more common, but those are the very items we tend to run out of the fastest.

The top three items that come to mind are oil, milk and eggs. Chances are most recipes will involve at least one in this trio of important ingredients. Have no fear; there are some simple subs you can keep on hand that any gourmet chef would approve of.

Out of Incredible Eggs?

My most-used egg sub is milled (ground) flax seed. It happens to be two of my favorite things – cheap and easy. It’s truly cheap at under $3 per box. It’s also easy to store; I keep mine in a plastic bag in the door of my freezer. Flax seed (and flax seed oil) is a healthy food being high in omega-3s, the good fats.

Perfect as a sub in baking, simply add 1 tablespoon of ground flax seed plus 3 tablespoons of water for each egg called for in the recipe. Click to visit this external linkVegan Food provides a batch recipe of 1 cup whole flax seeds plus 4 cups of water. This egg sub recipe can last up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator.

Click to visit this external linkPioneer Thinking expands the egg substitute ideas with the following: 2 tbsp corn starch, 2 tbsp arrowroot flour, 2 tbsp potato starch, 1 heaping tbsp soy powder + 2 tbsp water, 1 tbsp soy milk powder + 1 tbsp cornstarch + 2 tbsp water, or 1 banana.

There are “official” egg sub products available. A popular product is Egg Beaters. This may not be the best choice for those trying to avoid eggs altogether (it contains real eggs, Click to visit this external linksee details), it makes for a great keep-on-hand emergency item. A carton of Egg Beaters can easily be kept frozen until it’s needed.

Another commercial product is Click to visit this external linkEner-G Egg Replacer. One box is equal to 100 eggs and comes at a savings of about 50% off the cost of real eggs.

Click to visit this external linkAbout.com has even more egg substitute ideas including tofu, applesauce, vinegar and even soda! There is also a list of egg-free recipes available.