Grocery shopping is one of my very favorite things to do. I have no idea why. In fact, when I was a little girl, I absolutely HATED going to the local Food Lion with my mom. Maybe it was because we were always in there for > 1 hour, or maybe it’s because Food Dawg (local slang) is not the mecca of beautiful produce and specialty food items. It’s not half as exciting as Earth Fare or Trader Joe’s or maybe I’m just a food snob nerd.
Grocery shopping for the upcoming week usually takes place on Saturday or Sunday. But because I had worked a couple of extra hours this past week and was working from home on Friday, I used my “lunch break” to engage in some serious food buying.
First up was Earth Fare. It’s a little pricey but has things that are kind of difficult to find at your conventional grocery store chain. I mean, where else can you find a 25 lb. of carrots?
And I’m not posing to show you my engagement ring here, I wanted you to see the size of this bag compared to my hand. Crazy, right?
My second and last stop was Trader Joe’s where I often buy organic fruit and vegetables (unless I found them for a good price at Earth Fare) and other staples of my diet.
Here’s what the contents of all my bags looked like when I spread them out on our dining room table (built for two).
The combined two bills came out to almost exactly $100, give or take a few cents. I don’t usually spend this much on groceries, but a lot of this stuff was either things I really wanted to try, will last for several weeks, were splurges I could have lived with out but I don’t get to go to Earth Fare every week so I felt like splurging a little.
Plus, now that Brad is at home more due to a promotion with his job and some changes to his traveling schedule, I’m really feeding two mouths now.
The right side of the table (left to right, top to bottom)
- Almond milk (Big carton – was on sale and used a coupon)
- 2 bags organic spinach
- Basil
- Avocado
- 2% TJ’s Plain Greek Yogurt
- 2% Chobani Plain Greek Yogurt (on sale)
- Bragg’s Liquid Amino
- Corn (5 ears)
- Parsnips
- Mangoes (unsweetend)
- Banana chips
- Organic ketchup
- Hearts of palm
- Tempeh
The left side of the table:
- Italian salad mix (on sale b/c its expiration was two days later)
- Almond milk (a big carton – it was on sale and also had a coupon at the display)
- Red pepper
- Pickles (under the pepper)
- Watermelon
- Baby spring mix
- Frozen fruit (difficult to see, in a stack – mangoes, strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries)
- 2 Kind bars (I’ve never tried these flavors)
- Laughing cow blue cheese (it’s new!)
- Organic cherry tomatoes
- 70% Dark chocolate bar
- Flax plus waffles (haven’t had frozen waffles in forever!)
- Organic strawberries
- Organic ketchup
- Salmon (in brown paper – totally upped my $$$)
- 4 organic kiwis
- 4 packs of Justin’s nut butters – 2 PB and 2 AB (I always think of Kath using these when I’m traveling; after our less-than-stellar continental breakfast experience, I knew I had to grab some)
- 3 Luna bars (again, flavors I’ve never tried – bars will be the death of me!)
I think I got quite a lot of good quality food for the cost. The salmon was pricey but I usually buy frozen fish from TJ’s so I thought a splurge on fresh fish was in order. Plus, I had a $2 off per pound coupon. Even still, I won’t be buying protein this expensive regularly. I usually don’t buy this many bars, but since I was at Earth Fare, which has way more variety than TJ’s, I just couldn’t help myself.
Even though, this purchase was made four days ago, Brad and I have almost completely gone through these veggies (except he parsnips), plus some that were left over from the week prior. It looks like I’m going to have to up the produce when I go to the store. This actually makes me quite happy that we eat so much produce, that I’m going to have to buy more. I believe that good food is an investment in my health and although obviously everything I eat isn’t the “picture of health” (bars!), this isn’t also what a typical week looks like in most cases.
When I think back to how Brad and I used to eat when we first started dating, it was a bad picture, but it is interesting to think about how far we have come; what we have changed and what has stayed the same. I’ve been very impressed with his willingness to try new things and accept the way I eat. Likewise, I try to indulge him sometimes with his favorite that I don’t consider so health, although probably not often enough, if you ask him.
Do you and your significant other eat similarly or differently? Is it a struggle to find a middle ground or have you found a nice balance that works for both of you?