I love grocery shopping! I know, I know…you think I’m a total walnut. Well, that may be but I think everyone else is crazy for not loving it.
Lets proclaim the month of May “Learn to love grocery shopping” month. Every Wednesday of May we will talk about different topics pertaining to loving that food run trip. In fact lets go ahead and start today!
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Make Your List and Check It Twice!
Or even three times! The list is the most important part of any smooth grocery shopping trip. Without it you forget things, it just adds stress.
Make a menu
The first step I persionally begin the list making process with is making a dinner menu.
- Figure out how many dinners you will need for the week ahead while keeping in mind any nights that you may have plans to eat else where or left overs.
- I like to try a new recipe or two a week, maybe even more…it keeps things fresh for the family and fun in the kitchen.
- Have a least one or two impossibly fast options for busy nights such as grilled cheese and tomato soup, turkey sandwiches with sweet potato’s, or salad.
- Actually consider your week! I have people tell me all the time that they make a menu and still end up running by Chick-fil-a for dinner and throwing away tons of food that went bad at the end of the week because they had no time to cook their planned meals!
•Talk over dinner on a night that everyone’s home about the week ahead. Figure out who will need to cook what night, who will be eating at home, how much time you will have in the kitchen, etc… plan meals accordingly..
•While you are at it go ahead and make sure their is nothing non dinner related you may need to make special. It’s better to know now that your daughter has to bring cupcakes to school on Wednesday or that your husbands job is having a pot luck lunch on Friday.
- Look at the ingredients, if you know you will have leftover carrots form that stew you may want to find something else to have those carrots with that week so you don’t waist and throw away perfectly good carrots.
Check your kitchen and house for basics
Grab your list after adding the ingredients you need for your dinners and make sure you have your basics. I know I can’t go a week with Cocoa, flour, sugar, eggs, milk, toilet paper, and baking powder! I always make it a point to see how my stock on my kitchen and home baking essentials are stocked. Even better keep a list on your fridge to write it down as you need it. The last thing you want to do is take the fun out of grocery shopping by having to go back for missed items after work when all you want to do is go home.
Don’t forget about lunch, snacks, and breakfast
My weakpoint is forgetting stuff for lunch, breakfast, and snacks. These are the last things I add to that list. Dosen’t need to be anything fancy, but make sure you have a few things while once again considering your week for these meals. If you forget stuff for these times you will be running to Krispy creme for breakfast, McDonalds for luch, and the corner store if you want a snack…none of that is healthy or even that much easyer then grabbing these items at the grocery tore and having them at home. So put them on the list!
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Next Wednesday: Part Two: Grocery Shopping and how to love it!
We actually are going to go to the grocery shop finally!
