U R What U Eat

Grocery shopping. I’ve become obsessed with grocery shopping. Not just with the actual purchasing of food – but with list making and meal planning. I have long considered trying to put together a spread sheet of most oft purchased items so that I could use the computer to generate my grocery lists – listing items in the order in which they appear in the aisles. I know – CRAZY. And the weird thing is that I am not a natural list maker. Once upon a time I went to the store and shopped willy nilly. And then Mark and I moved in together and every time I said “We have to go grocery shopping” he would respond “Do you have a list?” And that is how he turned me into a planning, list-making maniac. I also think a lot about how other people grocery shop. How often do they go? What do they buy? How do they shop? What do they eat every day? So – it is because of my odd obsession with not only the very personal details of others grocery purchasing habits, but also interest in what people eat that has me proposing the following. If you are reading this and have a blog, I want to see your grocery list. I want to know when you go shopping, where you go shopping and how you go shopping. Just the food stuffs are important. So Patrice, Jen, Theresa, Missuz J, Katy, Amanda, Mary, Kellie – if you would humor me by blogging your inner most grocery and meal planning secrets I would ever be indebted to you. Consider it a meme.

And here is my part:
I shop every other week at Super Fresh. It isn’t the closest store to me, but I find the produce and meat there to be more fresh (hence the name) there than at other local stores. We RARELY ever eat out anymore so what I buy at the store is for the most part what we eat for two weeks. I try to keep a running list of necessary occasional purchases on the wipe board in the kitchen. When I make my list I look at both old grocery lists and old register tapes to put together a list of the things I ALWAYS buy – and then add the things on the wipe board. I use coupons – but I try to only clip coupons for things I already purchase. I don’t look at my list while shopping, not until the end when I just run through it to make sure I have everything. I don’t do as much menu planning and recipe using as I think I should. I have in the past done more – but since Noah was born I’ve made boring meals of meat, starch and veggie – with the occasional pasta night.

So here is a combination of this weeks grocery list as well as a few things I added because I normally buy them but we still had them this week:

Produce
Limes
Bananas
Fresh Green beans
Cucumbers
Garlic
Grapes
Romaine Hearts
Baby Carrots
Onion
Potatoes

Meat
Salmon Fillets
Boneless Pork Chops
Frozen Hamburgers
Chicken Breasts
Dietz & Watson Black Peppered Turkey Lunchmeat

Condiments
Bleu Cheese Dressing
Vinegarette Dressing
Dijon Mustard
Jif Reduced Fat Peanut Butter
Lawrys Marinade
Newmans Marinara

Snacks
Chips Ahoy 100 Calorie Pack
Whole Almonds
Nature Valley Granola Bars – Salty/Sweet Peanut
Wheat Thins
Nutrigrain Breakfast Bars – Apple
Snyders Pretzels
Fig Newtons
Peanut Butter Cracker Lunch Packs

Side Dishes
Yellow Saffron Rice Mix
Couscous
Zatarains Rice Mix
Wheat Pasta
Egg Noodles

Canned
Green Beans
White Shoepeg Corn
Chick Peas
Progresso Soup

Frozen
Bacardi Mixers Margarita Mix
Morning Star Parmasean Ranch Chix Patties
Skinny Cow Ice Cream Sandwiches
Frozen Personal Pizzas
Edys Whole Fruit Popsicles

Drinks
Tropicana OJ with Calcium, No Pulp
Gallon 2% Milk
Tonic Water
Bottled Water
Whole Bean Coffee
Cranberry Ginger Ale

Breads
Arnold Health Nut Bread
Arnold Multigrain Kaiser Rolls
English Muffins

Dairy
String Cheese
American Cheese sliced
Eggs
Yogurt

Now see if you can make your list just as thrilling.