After reading my post about healthy grocery shopping on a budget, Brian pointed out the fact that I did not include a sample list. Honestly, it didn’t dawn on me that people would want it because to me, the fun is making the list. Coming from Brian’s perspective, someone who doesn’t cook regularly, he said that he wouldn’t even know what to put on the list and where to get the items. So here is a little more insight.
Categories
My mom made herself a little worksheet that has each section of the grocery store in the order that she goes to it. This is great if you are always going to the same store and the aisles and food placement aren’t changing.
I wonder why I like lists and organizing so much??
Her categories are
- HBA (Health and Beauty)
- Meat
- Dairy
- Fruit/Veggies
- Drinks
- Bread
- Misc
- Paper/Cleaning
- Frozen
- Pantry
She then has a little Monday-Sunday calendar at the top right corner where she writes her meal ideas.
Sample List
This week due to time I did all of my shopping in one place. Each list is going to be different depending on the menu, here is a sample list with the prices that I paid next to the item.
- salted peanuts–$3 (could have purchased at Good Earth Natural Foods for 1.95/lb)
- chocolate chips x2–4
- avocados–4
- margarine–1
- almond milk–3
- peanut butter–3
- whole wheat elbow macaroni–1
- reduced fat cheddar cheese x2–8
- dry mustard–2
- broccoli–2
- cauliflower–3
- whole wheat tortillas–4
- organic spinach–4
- laughing cow light swiss cheese–4
- reduced fat cream cheese–2
- brown rice–1
- tofu block–2
- cucumber–1
- tomatoes–1
- onion–1
- apples–2
- zucchini–2
- tomato puree–1
- rice cakes–4
- turkey lunch meat–3
- oats–2
- sugar–2
- bananas–2
- crystal light energy–4
- gum–2
- diet coke–8
- salted cashews–5
- ground lean turkey–4
- carrots–2
- greek yogurt–3
- jalapenos–2
- baggies–5
- granola bars–2
Now, after all of that grocery talk let’s move on to dinner!
Dinner
Mom put this meal in her crock pot and let it cook all day long. It was so delicious, nutritious, and would be great in colder fall weather….it was still great tonight though too!
She put green beans, potatoes, carrots, onion, peas, coconut milk, and shrimp into a crock pot marinated with curry. It was just great!Movie Date Night
After dinner, it was time to head out to our movie date. We had to run some errands at the mall that ended up not taking as long as we had originally planned. Because we had some extra time, we stopped into Le Gourmet Chef...probably my favorite store in our mall. Of course we had to sample a few of the sauces. The dirty martini sauce and the raspberry chipotle sauce both stuck out in my mind.
After some samples, we went to the theater to see the movie The Help. This movie was simply amazing! We laughed, we cried, I felt anger and happiness….and now I know that I HAVE to read the book because there just has to be more detail that I was missing…even though the movie was nearly 3 hours. It was a perfect way to end the night.Off to bed so I can wake up bright and early tomorrow!
I'm Tara, a 24-year-old fitness and food lover living in Indianapolis, IN. 
[...] Sample Shopping List I then prepped my dinner since I go into work at 2pm and don’t get home until 10pm. For lunch, I kind of nibbled a little bit as I was cooking up dinner, but then I made myself a little plate: Special K Multigrain crackers some topped with Naturally More peanut butter, some topped with homemade white chocolate peanut butter, and some plain along with red pepper, carrots, celery, cauliflower dipped in salsa. No Excuses I found an article referenced on Courtney’s blog Sweet Tooth Sweet Life about 8 unhealthy attitudes to totally get out of your mind set, and I absolutely loved it! There are so many reasons and excuses for not eating right, not exercising, or not being happy with your body and this article really puts things into perspective. I highly recommend everyone check it out Sorry for the short post, but it’s off to work for me! Have a great afternoon. Share this:EmailDiggStumbleUponTwitterFacebookPrintLike this:LikeBe the first to like this post. [...]