My boyfriend who is now a Personal Trainer - was a chef for 10 years SO as much as I hate to admit it - I rely on him to do most of the cooking! Okay... stoves scare the crap out of me! I said it!!! But he is a phenomenal cook and I appreciate him making sure we stay on track with our meals while I would take that time after working my full-time job to work on my coaching business!
BUT ... I decided it's time to put my big girl pants on and become MORE independent! SO - I went grocery shopping for one of the first times on my own! Although I didn't pick up everything that we normally do - I wanted to share the essentials that I did pick up because these are typical items that we always have in our fridge or in our home!
OF COURSE .... BANANAS! There is NO question about that! I love eating bananas - I love putting them into my Chocolate Shakeology fresh AND frozen and they can be used to make at home icecream/frozen yogurt! When we don't have them ... I feel a bit lost! <3 Nanas - you complete me!
I LOVE me some carrots!! They are BY FAR my favourite veggie - always have been!! I have to say - the BEST way they are cooked is on the BBQ with fresh dill and potatoes! BUT - I will eat them ANY WAY! Make sure when you buy them - they look like THESE! Stay far away from the little ones that are all the same shape and size (the perfect snacking carrots we usually ate as kids or now give to kids) because those are processed through a factory and coated in chemicals! BARF!! If you can get to a farmers market - support local AND get your hands on the yummiest and best carrots - DO IT!
Almonds are a GREAT snack but I picked these up because I made Almond Crusted Chicken, which was VERY simple, all you need is about 1 cup of toasted almonds (put them in the oven for about 10 minutes), 1 clove of garlic and a few tbps of olive oil! Throw all that into a food processor and then you have a gluten free and delicious crust to put onto your chicken! :) I love baking with almonds as well - you really can't go wrong having these on hand!
That brings me to Chicken - OF COURSE! There is SO much you can do with chicken so it is a staple in our house! We also love to buy lean ground turkey (Costco always has it in bulk for the best price) - those 2 proteins we can do almost anything with from stir fry's to lettuce wraps, salads, you name it! Derek LOVES seafood but I'm not a fan - it really freaks me out SO for now, we don't keep that in the house but perhaps one day I'll be daring and give it more of a try!
Garlic adds so much flavour - AND I needed it for my chicken and Zucchini recipes but we love to have garlic in the house! Never know when you may need it! :)
DANG! My picture is sideways BUT this is what we always get for cheese! We LOVE cheese and it's pretty difficult to find a healthy cheese hahaha but we just make sure to portion it out according to the 21 Day Fix meal plan and we are good to go! :)
I am not the HUGEST fan of Greek Yogurt but I do use it as a substitute for Sour Cream AND I know Derek loves it especially with some trail mix as a snack SO we always have this on hand! This is our preferred brand as well!
Speaking of said Trail Mix - this is what he gets! You can purchase this from Superstore in the bulk section BUT I know you can also get this at Costco! It has all the good stuff in here - not that unhealthy trail mix in the chip aisle ;)
We love pasta!! YELLOWS (you 21 day fixers will feel me ;) ) I prefer brown rice pasta over regular and whole wheat pasta! This one is Organic but we love the texture and the way it cooks compared to other bands! We switch it up between different pastas BUT we always keep them in the house!
Pineapple - well, for me, I'm the girl that prefers it on a ham and pineapple pizza rather than fresh as a fruit BUT Derek (are you catching on that he's the one that eats EVERYTHING and I'm miss. picky?! HAHA) loves it on it's own! It's also great to throw into a stir fry or on a pita pizza! :)
Gots to have us some Spinach! This is the brand we have been buying lately! This is great as a side - make it into a salad or throw it into a wrap so we keep this in the fridge because you never know when you may need some!
Okay - Strawberries are UP there on my FAVE fruit next to bananas! They remind me of summer and are just so dang tasty! They can be put into salads, Shakeology, as a snack on its own - the opportunities are ENDLESS!
OKAY SO .... This is the first time I've actually tried Zucchini and I was pleasantly surprised!! I made the baked parmesan, oregano, thyme, lemon peel, sea salt, pepper and garlic baked Zucchini from the FIXATE cookbook and it was delicious! I didn't expect it to be so juicy and yummy!! We will most likely be making this a staple to keep in the house at all times now as well!
We usually opt for multi-grain or whole wheat pitas BUT we decided to try these guys out for a change so this is the only one I got to show you at the moment BUT even when you do go looking for multi-grain or whole wheat wraps, make sure to check the ingredients and nutritional facts and compare the two! You want lower calories - lower sugars - lower sodium and fats FOR SURE! I love these for pizzas, they can be made into taco shells, tortilla chips for nachos or hummus or for lunch with chicken, turkey or your protein of choice! I just love them - so much variety!
Celery! Keep that plate full of green!! We usually use it in stir fry's, home made soups, in turkey wrap mixtures, or they're even great on their own as a snack!
Cottage cheese is Derek's thing FOR SURE! It's a great source of protein so he adds it to quinoa, eats it as a snack or as a side dish with a meal - add in some pepper, spices and even some green onion!
I used to only eat lean ground beef and I thought ground turkey was just the strangest thing! NOW it is probably my favourite meat source next to chicken! It's way less greasy, it tastes amazing and it works on all the same dishes! We use it for wraps, in quinoa, for tacos, on pizzas, you name it - it can be in it! LOVE!
Peppers!!! I won't lie - I won't eat these on their own! I've tried to love them so many times, and I just don't love the texture and it took me until this year to eat them without picking them out of foods! I love them in so many different dishes now!
Okay! This is the first time we've bought these, so, I don't have a review on them YET! We would get the regular ramen noodles for stir fry's but I'd much rather use rice noodles and are MUCH better for you! We got them at Costco! If you have had them - comment below and share your reviews and recipes you enjoy them with!
Romaine lettuce is something we usually always have in our fridge! Salads, sandwiches and lettuce wraps oh my! These make the perfect wrap for lettuce wraps - a much healthier way to enjoy a wrap and it's seriously so delicious! I used to see these and think it was the strangest thing and once I tried them - I was OBSESSED! If you're a newbie to the lettuce wrap world - hop on this train!
Turkey Bacon is ESSENTIAL for Sunday morning Breaky!!! Again, I thought this was the weirdest thing! I think I was against anything that wasn't chicken haha! Don't get me wrong, I still like me a couple strips of bacon on special occassions but this is a much more guilt-free way of enjoying bacon and it tastes SO good!!! We always keep this stuff around for sure!
This is what our load at Costco usually looks like! There are a few other snacks in there as well! :) We always have Almond Milk on hand for our Shakeology. We tried out the BOOM Chicka POP Puffs - so far SO good! ;) I love cantaloupe so we made sure not to forget it!
We definitely eat MORE than what is posted here and I will continue to update this list but I wanted to share this to help anyone out who is struggling in the grocery store or to help those who are just starting on their lifestyle change and have no clue where to start! These are the items (shopping on my own) that I knew to get SO I know we always have them on hand!
I hope this helped and keep checking back because it WILL grow!!
XO
Can look at my blog to see nutritional facts of food at grocery stores.
ReplyDelete