Ingredients

Canned tomatoes
For crushed tomatoes to use in sauces, I like Trader Joe’s Organic Fire Roasted Crushed Tomatoes or Muir Glen Organic Crushed Tomatoes with Basil for a chunkier sauce and Hunt's Crushed Tomatoes for a smoother sauce. I also usually use Muir Glen or Hunt's for diced and whole tomatoes. Muir Glen Organic Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes are great in Rice, Beans, Tofu, and Greens and other dishes.

Chocolate

Chocolate for baking is simple, if you have a Trader Joe's nearby. A 500-gram Pound Plus bar of Belgian chocolate sells for $4.99 there. It's good and cheap. I use both the 72% Cacao Dark Chocolate bar and the Dark Chocolate bar, which is 54% cocoa solids. The Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunks are 58.9% cacao and perfect for making Katherine Redford's Chocolate Chip Cookies. The White Chocolate Baking Chips are good, too, and made with real cocoa butter, which is not usually the case, but they're only sold seasonally so stock up when you see them. For regular chocolate chips in a store other than Trader Joe's, Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate chips are excellent. Katherine Redford's Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe also calls for milk chocolate chunks, which I've never seen in a store so you can either cut your own out of a bar of milk chocolate or go with Hershey's Milk Chocolate Chips.

 

Cocoa Powder

Cook's Illustrated prefers Dutch-processed cocoa powder to natural because it gives baked goods deeper, darker color and richer chocolate flavor. I like Trader Joe's Unsweetened Cocoa Powder, which doesn't specify whether its Dutch-processed. If Trader Joe's isn't an option, Cook's Illustrated and Alice Medrich both say that you can spot the good stuff by looking for a cocoa powder with at least 1 gram of fat per 5-gram serving, because more fat means more flavor. Trader Joe's passes that test:

Flour 

If you make a lot of bread and want to use just one all-purpose flour, go with King Arthur because of the high protein content. If you want a truly "all-purpose" flour, then your best bet is probably Gold Medal, which has a lower protein content than King Arthur and should yield more tender biscuits, cakes, and cookies. I also use King Arthur white whole wheat flour in some recipes for taste and health, but you can swap in all-purpose flour if you want. If you do buy whole wheat flour, it will last a lot longer if you keep it in the freezer.

Nuts
Trader Joe's has pretty much all the nuts you should ever need, including: Raw Almonds for snacking or, better yet, making Brined and Roasted Almonds for snacking; Fancy Raw Mixed Nuts for the The Union Square Cafe's Bar Nuts; Dry Roasted & Unsalted Oregon Hazelnuts for making Hazelnut Cocoa Spread; Pignoli for making pesto; and Raw Pecan Pieces and Raw California Walnut Baking Pieces for making granola and other baking.

Olive oil
There are many people who hold strong opinions about olive oil. At least two experts recommend Trader Joe's 100% Greek Kalamata Extra Virgin Olive Oil, which is one I like and use. It's a very good deal for the price ($8.99 a liter). In fact, it's cheap enough that there's no reason not to cook with it, too (just don't use a whole liter of it to fry something).

Pasta
Episode 11 is all about pasta, but the summary is De Cecco cavatappi for Uncle Clint's Mac and Cheese and Montebello for pretty much everything else. Buy them both at Whole Food's for $2.99 a pound (or less on sale, which they often are). If you have to buy gluten free, Wegmans Organic Gluten Free Brown Rice Pasta is actually pretty good.

Salt
There are many different kinds of salt, but all you really need is fine sea salt and kosher salt, for both of which I use Diamond Crystal. But it is nice to have a good finishing salt with a flaky texture, such as Maldon.

Tamari
Tamari is a gluten-free soy sauce made from all soybeans (regular soy sauce is about half wheat, half soybeans). We use San-J Organic Tamari Reduced Sodium, which is made in Henrico. It's cheaper if you buy the big 20-ounce bottles at Whole Foods.

Vegetable base/bouillon/broth
I covered vegetable broth options in episode 36 and again in episode 281. The most convenient options are low-sodium bouillon cubes, especially Edward & Sons Low Sodium Not-Chick'n Bouillon Cubes, and Better Than Bouillon Seasoned Vegetable Base. The latter is higher in sodium, so you'll have to adjust the salt in your recipe accordingly; you can also dilute the Seasoned Vegetable Base more by using 1 teaspoon (6 grams) per 1½ cups (355 grams) of water instead of 1 teaspoon per 1 cup of water like the jar directs. If you have some time on your hands for a D.I.Y. project, the best option may be to make your own Vegetable Broth Base.

Vinegar
If you want something cheap but good for making a standard vinaigrette, Pompeian Gourmet Red Wine Vinegar is available in lots of grocery stores and has done well in many taste tests. If you want to take your favorite vinaigrette up a notch, try using sherry vinegar. You can get Capirete 20 Reserva Sherry Vinegar at Foods of All Nations or Napa Valley Naturals Reserve Sherry Vinegar at Whole Foods and other supermarkets. And balsamic vinegar is also nice to have around for various things, including a good potato pasta that you all like. You can drop some serious cash on a high-end balsamic vinegar, but Trader Joe's comes through again among commercial balsamic vinegars with its Gold Balsamic Vinegar of Modena.