Hey guys! I've been wanting to do a post about what my typical grocery haul looks like, but I am the worst at remembering to take photos of food. Guess what? It finally happened this week!
I often make the mistake of going to the grocery store hungry, so I come home and immediately go to town on my snacks. Whoops. Some of the foods in the following photos may or may not have already been opened before they made it into a photo.
I get almost all of my meat from my monthly Butcher Box shipment that now comes to our hotel out here in Denver (they ship all over the US for free!):
I get the custom mix box, so each month I get a variety of beef, chicken, and pork. That means I buy very little meat from the grocery store unless I'm grabbing fresh seafood, turkey bacon, or lunch meat. That being said, here's what this week's Kroger/King Soopers shopping trip looked like:
I eat either whole eggs or egg whites with Applegate Naturals turkey bacon every morning, so this is something that I have to buy every week at the grocery store. Vital Farms pasture-raised eggs are my absolute FAVORITE. They really are the best eggs, and if you haven't tried them, you really should.
Some of you may have read my earlier post on my big ass lunch salads, so y'all know that my typical lunch is a salad filled with tons of veggies. I buy organic greens and salad mix-ins like onions, carrots, goat cheese, beets, etc. If I see any of these items on sale at Kroger, I snatch those up real quick! If not, I wait and grab them from Sprouts. I also love Zing protein bars, rice cakes, organic dark chocolate bars, and fresh fruit for snacks throughout the week.
Lately, I have been keeping my dinners super simple, since I'm not working with a ton of kitchen space or tools at the moment. I'll buy premixed salads (my fave is Taylor Farms kale salad with poppyseed dressing), frozen veggies, and pre-spiraled veggies, in order to cut back on my prep time and necessary kitchen equipment. One of my go-to dinners lately is spaghetti over butternut squash or zucchini noodles.
These items are also weekly staples (aside from the stevia drops which last FOREVER). My morning coffee routine is a cup of Starbucks iced coffee (any cold brew/iced coffee works, and again-so easy and convenient), about 3-4 tablespoons of hazelnut flavored Nut Pods creamer, and a dropper full of the vanilla stevia drops. It is so delicious. Coming from a previous Coffee-Mate lover, this mixture doesn't give me any stomach issues, and I feel so much better using these no-bullshit ingredients.
Whatever I don't find at Kroger, I buy at Sprouts. Plus, I love to pick up healthy snacks options here as well. Some highlights here include:
~Primal Kitchens dressings. They have a HUGE selection of these, and they often run sales on them.
~Produce: Sprouts has tons of weekly sales on seasonal produce. Blueberries have been on sale for weeks now, and they are so cheap here!
~Rotisserie chicken: I love their herb seasoned rotisserie chicken. I remove the skin, shred it up, and add it to my salads for additional protein. Sometimes I grab these for a quick and easy dinner option as well.
~Perfect bars: They have a huge selection of flavors at Sprouts, and you can usually find them on sale for 2 for $5.
~ Birchbenders Paleo Pancakes: Love these for a morning breakfast treat every now and then.
~Pickles and carrots: I buy these for guilt-free snacking when I probably shouldn't be snacking...
~ Plantain chips from the bulk section: The freaking BEST snack. I love Sprout's bulk section so much and could easily be trapped by the chocolate covered almonds and the yogurt covered pretzels, but I try to stay away from the candy aisle, and grab the plantain chips instead. This is my favorite salty snack on earth. Sprouts' bulk section also has all the different hard-to-find baking ingredients you could ever need as well.
That wraps up my typical grocery haul! This is basically the standard trip each week for me, unless I need specific dinner ingredients, or decide to change up my fruits and veggies. Since I'm not able to create a ton of recipes in my limited kitchen set-up, we do a lot of simple meals throughout the week. We grill most of our meat and steam or sauté our veggies. I will get a post out next week detailing a week's worth of hotel dinners for you guys to give you a glimpse of how easy it can be to continue to eat healthy even when you're traveling!
Let me know if you have any questions about shopping for the week, meal planning, or anything else nutrition related! I'm always down to talk about food...
I'll be back in action tomorrow with some Friday Faves! Talk to y'all soon, and happy Friday Eve!