Store cupboard help & defrosting meat help

[Blamenargles]

I'm trying to get a bit of a store cupboard started, I only have a few basic herbs at the moment, what do I need?

Also what is the best and safest way to defrost meat I hate being wasteful so I freeze meat then never get it out.
Do I get it out the night before and defrost in the fridge or in the morning on the side for tea that night?

Your store-cupboard just needs to contain the type of dry, canned and other long-life ingredients & condiments that you'd normally use. The 'test' is that, if you got snowed in for a few days, you could cobble together several reasonable meals from the contents. My cupboards always have things like canned tuna, dry pasta, boxes of passata, flour, lots of pulses and a huge range of herbs and spices. But that's the kind of thing we eat. Build yours around the kinds of things you eat rather than buying things for the sake of it.

You can defrost meat either quickly at room temperature or slowly overnight in the fridge. Makes no real difference to the safety as long as you prepare and cook it as soon as it's been defrosted either way.