29 January 2009
Grocery shopping the Nutritionista way
Rule number one: GO IN WITH A PLAN!
I’m responsible for creating the grocery lists in my house. My roommate and I share food and take turns shopping, but I always pick out the meals (he doesn’t care what we eat as long as it’s food and there’s lots of it). If you go to the store with meals in mind, you’ll never have that “what the hell am I going to eat tonight?” feeling. Breakfast and lunch are usually no-brainers for me. I pick 2-3 options for myself for each of those meals that are very easy to prepare (English muffins, cereal, eggs, Amy’s entrees for lunches) because I just can’t think about cooking anything elaborate at 7am.
Here’s this week’s list with explanation. I always break down my lists by section of the grocery store for convenience when shopping. ALWAYS start on the periphery of the store (where most of the fresh food is kept) and try to buy most of your items from there.
I chose 3-4 meals before shopping to buy ingredients for. I find that having the time to cook any more than 3-4 meals a week is hard, so for the other 3-4 days, we eat leftovers (and I usually don’t eat at home every day of the week for various reasons). If you can cook more often, buy ingredients for more recipes. I wouldn’t buy ingredients for more than 5 meals at a time unless they are non-perishable or can be frozen, since you want to make stuff when it’s fresh. I also usually have ingredients on hand to make at least one “throwaway” meal. It’s usually non-perishable and easy, like whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce, spinach, and ground turkey.
I almost always find inspiration in Real Simple’s “5 Easy Dinners” feature. Sometimes, I’ll even print out the recipes I like and hang them on the fridge, so whoever’s cooking can reference them easily.
Some tips when looking for recipes:
- Try to eat fish once a week or so (but not much more than that).
- Look for recipes that share ingredients to make it easier when shopping.
- If you’re not a huge fan of cooking, look for recipes with fewer ingredients. Real Simple’s 5 Easy Dinners almost always contain minimal ingredients and are just plain… simple. And yet, SO GOOD.
My recipes for the week:
Spiced Chicken with Sauteed Collards and Peppers
Sausage Sliders with Spinach and Peppers (I’ll use chicken sausage instead of pork)
Garlicky Broiled Salmon and Tomatoes (I’ll probably cook some cous cous with it)
Produce
bananas - for snacking/protein shakes
apples - snacking
oranges/clementines - snacking
4 tomatoes - recipe
baby carrots - snacking
1 bunch collard greens - recipe
2 red peppers - recipe
1 bunch spinach - recipe
1 red onion - recipe
Dairy
soy milk (I like vanilla Silk) - protein shakes
yogurt (YoBaby or Greek yogurt for me, Yoplait for him) - snacking
eggs - breakfast… one of the most perfect breakfast foods ever. Combine with vegetables and a little cheese in whatever form you prefer and you’re good to go.
Meat
4 chicken breasts
1 lb. chicken sausage
4 6-oz. skinless salmon fillets
Spices
cumin - because we’re running low. I assume you have the other spices called for in the above recipes, as well as garlic, salt, and pepper.
fresh thyme - we usually don’t have fresh spices around unless a specific recipe calls for them, but if you do, great!
Grains
whole wheat rolls (I wouldn’t get a dozen just because we couldn’t eat them faster than they get stale)
whole wheat English muffin - breakfast… Choose a topping like peanut butter (watch the recalls!) or whipped cream cheese (better than regular).
Frozen
Amy’s entrees - I eat these for lunch at work. I let my roommate eat the leftovers from dinner if he wants. Amy’s are not cheap, but they’re cheaper than going out for lunch and probably on par with buying all the ingredients to make a sandwich, etc. that I’d be at all excited about.
I know the total for this grocery bill would be less than $100. I usually spend about $200/month on groceries. That might sound like a lot to some of you, or too little to others. I don’t mind spending a greater portion of my income on food in order to get the better stuff (see this for more info). I also don’t eat out more than 3-4 times a month. That helps keep my food costs low.
Notice there’s hardly any food on my list from the middle aisles (e.g., all the canned and boxed stuff). That’s where your grocery shopping can go awry. Buying some processed food is inevitable for most people, unless you have a LOTof time on your hands, but if you stick to the rule of generally eating from the periphery of the grocery store, you’ll eat more healthily.
