Smart Shopping: Grocery Time

 Photos via Orangette.

Hey all! As part of the Beyond Childhood series, I'd like to offer a few posts on healthy eating and simplifying your work in the kitchen. First up is a guest post from the lovely blogger Marci Gilbert on how to plan ahead for your grocery shopping to make sure you get the most for your money and your time.


Enjoy! And enjoy the calm, peaceful feeling of having your meals ready to go all week. It will give you more time for your yoga or other projects you have going on.

Photo via Trevor Dye of Yogi Uprising.

Marci is totally right about the awesomeness of cooking on the weekend, and then refrigerating or freezing meals ahead of time. I've been doing this lately and it makes life so much easier! You just come home from work and heat up whatever you're having. Easy peasy!

From Marci:


One of my favorite parts of the week is going to the grocery store on Sundays. I try to get all my shopping done for the week in one day, and here are some tips of how I do it. It does involve planning, but not to the extent that I write down five days of dinner menus.
A little background–I only have to feed two people, and my husband eats lunch out, and some dinners out too. When planning and buying, I pay attention to expiration dates or overbuying so things won’t spoil.


How to get your grocery shopping done in one day for one week:
1. Have an old-fashioned list. I keep a list going all the time in the kitchen. Make sure you add things that you run out of right when you run out of it! Jot down new foods to try from things you read. Then at the grocery, stick to your list. It will keep you from overbuying. However, there are some days when I like to browse the aisles and look for new things to try, or produce that is in season.


2. Think about your week. Do you already have plans to eat out? Are you packing your breakfast every morning or will you have time to eat at home? Same with lunch. For me, I always pack breakfast and a snack, and my lunches are similar within a week. Keeping lunches similar keeps your grocery bill down. Buy a bag of cherries one week and then mixed berries the next. Use pantry items to change it up, like buy turkey, and alternate in tuna or beans for salad protein.


3. Get to know your grocery store. The annoying part of wanting certain brands or fresher produce is going to multiple grocery stores. However, I can be in and out of a grocery quickly because I know where things are and what each store may or may not carry.


4. If you go to multiple grocery stores, go to the one that will be cheaper first. By this I mean that I will look for produce at an everyday type store before Whole Foods because I know it will be cheaper. If the quality is poor at Store #1, I’ll get it at Whole Foods.

 Photo via Orangette.

5. Use Costco! (or any big box store). My weekly trips to the grocery are for what we need for the week. We leave our cleaning supplies, some freezer items, dry snacks, and waters to buy in bulk every 6 weeks or so.


6. Plan to make use of your Sunday afternoon. Every Sunday, I hard-boil 6 eggs–to use for breakfast or chopped into tuna salad or on a salad. Sometimes I bake chicken to have for a few days. Sometimes I bake muffins to freeze for breakfast. And then I make dinner for Sunday night with plans to have leftovers for Monday lunch or Monday night. Or if I make chicken, I will use it in a different way during the week.


7. Planning a basic dinner: It doesn’t always have to be about creating a recipe! You just need things on hand to satisfy the carb-protein-vegetable ratio, in my opinion. For instance, sweet potatoes, vegetables to roast (brussels sprouts, broccoli, squash, zucchini, mixed peppers) can always be paired with canned baked beans, 90-second rice, grilled chicken or your protein of choice for a well-rounded meal. I eat more exciting than that a lot of the time, but sometimes that is good enough.

Photo via Emily at JoJoNoodle. She and Jordan are always making beautiful, simple meals.

8. The freezer is for more than ice cream and ice. Use your freezer to store baked goods, then defrost in the refrigerator overnight for breakfast. You can cook soups ahead and defrost before work for dinner that night, and let meats thaw all day. Planning is the hard part. If you make the decisions ahead of time, all that’s left is to execute when you get home at night.


Welcome to the world of extreme wifey-hood! (Or motherhood, womanhood, manhood, adulthood: however you'd like to apply this great knowledge.) May your week night dinners never be the same!


And a big thanks again to Marci for sharing the post. :) Check out more of her recipes here.


PS Want to check out more in the Beyond Childhood series? Try this post on bellies, or this one on adorable handmade toys. Or read more about why I started the series.