My Weekly Food Shopping: The Staples, and How I Create My List
I am lucky enough to be able to food shopping every Thursday morning. And, if we can help it, we try to only go on Thursday mornings, so that means trying to get everything we need for the week in that trip. Admittedly, sometimes I forget things, or we run out of cookies and have to make a quick stop back, but we’ll avoid that if possible!
Here’s what happens on a weekly basis to allow for that:
Throughout the week:
*Tell Alexa to add things to the shopping list as they run out! So literally as we use the last of something that we always try to keep around, we make sure we get more. This includes things like peanut butter, coffee creamer, items we add to yogurts, etc.
I keep my shopping list on the Alexa app so it’s easy enough to just verbally collect items we need on there and make sure we don’t forget to buy them. You could absolutely do this with pen and paper, I just likely have chicken hands when I realize things are missing so it’s easier for me this way!
Here’s what on the list so far this week:
Wednesday night:
*Plan dinners for the upcoming week. I write this plan in my notes app on my phone. It doesn’t have to be fancy! I typically try to pick things that’ll last two nights. For example, if I’m making a chicken pot pie tomorrow night that’ll be dinner for two nights. Even if it’s not a thing like chicken pot pie, I cook double portions so I don’t have to cook every night and it’s more of a reheat. If you don’t mind eating the same things two days in a row, I highly recommend this strategy! Even if you don’t eat the full meal for two days, but maybe cook something like extra rice that can be used in the next day’s meal.
*Now that we have a baby who eats food, I also make sure that she can eat all of the planned dinners too. If not, I’ll make a list of foods to get her for her meals.
*Sometimes when I’m planning dinners, things I want come to mind quickly. Sometimes I scroll my @nutritionforlifeproject Instagram account for recipe ideas. Sometimes I ask the rest of the family for input. We also have a working Google Doc titled “Meal List” that has common dinners listed on it; this helps to jog thinking and remind me of foods we haven’t had in a while.
*The reason I “only” plan dinners is that our breakfasts, lunches, and snacks are pretty consistent each day/week, or are leftovers. So, dinner is really the only thing that varies. I’m lucky that my taste buds don’t mind eating the same thing for breakfast and lunch every day!
Thursday morning:
*Go food shopping! We typically go to Market Basket… I’m pretty sure that’s only a North East thing, and I’m sorry about that because prices are the best around and quality is pretty good!
So, what are the things that I buy each week / always aim to have on hand? Here goes:
For our daily breakfast:
Bacon
Eggs
Egg Whites
Heavy Cream/Zero Sugar Creamer
Coffee beans
Dave’s Killer Bread
Butter
Vitamins
Lemons / Limes and pink Himalayan salt (for my Morning Margaritas!)
For Baby’s Breakfast:
Blueberries
Raspberries
Eggs + Red Bell Peppers
Overnight Oats ingredients
For lunchtime Yogurt :
0% Fage Greek Yogurt (5% for Beatrix)
Jelly/jam
Granola
Chia seeds
Hemp hearts
Ground Flax Seeds
Shredded Coconut (these and the 5 preceding items get sprinkled on the yogurt for extra deliciousness, some healthy fats, fiber, and extra proteins)
Various fruits (usually grapes, pineapples, berries, bananas, etc)
For lunchtime Protein:
Precooked chicken that just needs to be heated (like this or this)
Deli Turkey (nitrate/nitrite free)
American/Provolone Cheese
Cans of tuna
Ritz crackers (Yes, I’m an adult and still love tuna on crackers!)
Fat free mayo
For Snacks:
Ascent Protein + Creatine
Fruits (apples, berries, bananas, etc)
Dried mango
Oatmeal + Peanut Butter
Snap Pea Crisps
For evening snacks:
Sometimes Oreos/Cookies
Sometimes ice cream
Sometimes popcorn
Fruits
Fat Free Whipped Cream
(There is pretty much always a nighttime snack, and it’s typically one, or more than one, of these items)
Note: I do not eat all of these foods every day, but cycle through them for meals on a weekly basis.
In sharing this, I am merely trying to give an example of what food shopping looks like for me, and that finding some staples that you enjoy and want to have on hand can cut down your food shopping time/effort/time spent thinking about it! To this point, just because this is what some of my foods look like doesn’t necessarily mean these foods are automatically right for you or anyone else. One person’s food plan may not apply to you and your goals, just like certain workouts are different for each person, etc. However, I do aim to eat mostly whole, real foods, so there certainly are some healthy options here that you’re more than welcome to add to your shopping list!
What are some of the staples on your food shopping lists? Comment below!
As always, thank you for reading,
Xoxo,
Sara
PS—Some of the links above are affiliate links.
One thing I learned early was the importance of meal planning especially with a young busy family. It was important to me to have healthy meals and snacks available even if I was transporting them to the next activity. Eating in the car was common. It was also helpful in keeping the grocery bill sustainable.