Today I went grocery shopping and I thought, hey, maybe people would like to see what I buy at the store. You know, because I have an inflated sense of self-worth. It was a fairly typical shopping trip for me, so I thought it might give you an idea of how/where I shop and what we eat around here on a day to day basis. It’s the day to day of a new eating plan that can really get to you, so I also have plans to do posts on what kind of things are in my pantry and maybe even a whole days worth of what my family ate. Today I went to Costco (where I buy the bulk of my groceries–get it? BULK) and Earth Fare, which is not necessarily my favorite store, but it is right next to Costco, which gives it convenience points.
This first picture is of my shopping cart at Costco. This is pretty representative of what I buy there. Lots of produce, and each time I try to get some form of meat/poultry. Today I got organic boneless/skinless chicken breast and canned wild salmon. This canned salmon is great to keep on hand for those nights when you haven’t thawed anything out for dinner and your ungrateful children still feel like they are entitled to a hot, healthy meal, and you’ve already given them scrambled eggs for the last 3 meals. Not that I would know anything about that. I also buy organic boneless/skinless chicken thighs and frozen wild salmon and shrimp there. I admit, I do buy their flank steaks as well, even though I know they’re not grass-fed.
Other than produce and meat, I got a new waffle iron and organic coconut oil at Costco. I highly recommend a Costco membership to anyone! I am continually impressed with the variety of items they offer. Other things that I usually buy at Costco include almond butter, honey, pure maple syrup (which we don’t use anymore, but still), almonds, walnuts, pecans, Larabars, beef jerky, organic frozen green beans, organic frozen cherries, and massive bags of Dunkin Donuts coffee. I will get off my Costco soapbox now, but if you’re on the fence about a membership, I’m obviously saying you should go for it.
When I went next door to Earth Fare, I forgot to take a picture of my cart. Never fear though, I came home and displayed my groceries all orderly-like on the dining room table for your viewing pleasure.
This first shot is the produce. I buy produce more than most other things. My kids eat fruit like crazy.
I would say this is pretty indicative of a weekly haul of produce for me. Considering I have carrots, onions, and cucumbers in the fridge already and frozen veggies in the freezer. Obviously the oranges will last us much longer than a week. So what you’re seeing here is: organic spinach, organic apples, honeydew, cantaloupe, avocados, butternut squash, bell peppers, bananas, strawberries, blackberries, and oranges.
I can’t afford to buy all organic produce–I wish I could. Apples are one thing that I always get organic, no exceptions. I wanted to get organic strawberries today because I know they are high on the Dirty Dozen list, but alas, there were none to be found at Earth Fare. My goal is to grow some bell peppers this year because we eat so many of them around here, and they are also high on the Dirty Dozen list.
This next shot is everything else I bought today:
First off, organic WHOLE milk,which I will be using to make yogurt. Although we rarely do any dairy other than certain cheeses and homemade yogurt (the yogurt thing will be covered in another post), we never do lowfat or skim dairy products–read more about that reasoning here. I also picked up organic raw pumpkin seeds, the organic chicken, organic coconut oil, wild canned salmon, 2 canisters of organic raisins and a package of bowls (for a school assignment), unsweetened almond milk, some hippy-dippy TUMS replacements (still trying to help Mario’s tummy troubles), and wine.
One thing that struck me as I was unloading my groceries is now that we’ve changed our diet, about 95% of everything I buy at the store has only one ingredient. That’s pretty awesome when you think about it. No need to question what you’re eating when you shop like that. The almond milk pictured above definitely doesn’t fit into that category. I buy the almond milk for use when I make grain-free waffle or pancake batter. I used to make my own almond milk–and it was good! But sometimes you just have to draw a line, and for me, I figured we use it so infrequently, I’m not gonna stress about it.
When I came home from the store, I had a yummy lunch of this grain-free sourdough bread that I pan toasted in ghee. I covered it with all-natural peanut butter and sprinkled it with sea salt. Added a sliced orange and some berries and it was delish.
I’m planning to post my first recipe tomorrow, which is kind of a huge deal for me. Can I tell you a secret?
I’m nervous!
I’m also thinking of other things to post about in the future. One friend suggested that I do a tutorial on making your own crackers, which I can definitely do. What else would you like to hear about? And remember, if you don’t make any suggestions, I’m going to make you look in my grocery cart again soon.
My Delicious Life 