Grocery Shopping How To With a Budget and Meal Ideas!

Now that Hudson is an eating machine I've had to master our grocery budget around his munchies! I feel like I've perfected what we get each week while also working in new things to try! So here it is, our grocery list and a few tips to keep your shopping fresh, organic and within your budget.

Let's start with where I shop! Costco, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's are the three stores I shop at for all our grocery goodies. Costco is for items like eggs, almond milk, protein bars, berries, avocados, avocado oil and a few snack items! Whole Foods has so many amazing options for dairy free and gluten free alternatives and TONS of different brands of kombucha to try, plus they just have a lot of great products you can't find anywhere else! Trader Joe's is for all the goods...for real.

Every week I stock up on TONS of fresh produce. That is what our house is mostly stocked with. It keeps our meals fresh, healthy and delicious. I shop all organic which surprisingly most items are not much more expensive than non organic if you really pay attention. I know it adds up, however, for my I believe it is worth the extra dollar for health benefits!

Produce: Strawberries, Blackberries, Pomegranates, bananas, pears, oranges or grapefruits, apples, spinach, arugula, cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, butternut squash, red peppers, avocados, cucumber, mushrooms, carrots, sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts, beets, sugar snap peas and onions.

We eat fruits ALL day long, for breakfast (it helps regulate your blood sugar for the day) and for snacks anytime.

I LOVE to roast all of those veggies for dinners and then have left overs for lunch to make quinoa bowls! Yum! I roast at 400 degrees for 25-35 minutes with some avocado oil, salt and pepper!

We do not eat much meat in our home, maybe once or twice a week and thats enough for me. I do however stock up on other proteins that are awesome and delicious!

Proteins: Organic Free Range chicken breasts, Organic 100% grass fed beef, apple chicken sausages(no nitrates or nitrites added and organic), salmon (always wild caught and NEVER farm raised, do the research on this and it will scare you) black beans, white beans, kidney beans, garbanzo beans, hummus, peanut butter, almond butter, pistachios, cashews, pecans, Hilary's brand bean and veggie burgers, organic free range eggs and sometimes bacon because...bacon...(no nitrates or nitrites added is a must)

I try to keep us as gluten free as possible and have found some yummy ways to get our grains in without it in our diet! However we still definitely it some items with gluten in them.

Grains: Quinoa ( I always get a bag of red and one of white), quinoa pasta, lentil pasta, black bean pasta, brown rice, Ezekiel bread and wraps and Kodiak Cakes pancake mix

We are a mostly non-dairy home which has actually been a lot easier than I imagined and I have been able to find some really great alternatives!

Dairy: Kitehill brand almond milk cream cheese and soft cheeses, Kitehill almond milk yogurt, Califia farms almond milk and coconut milk.

Miscellaneous items: Sweet potato crackers, Jillz brand gluten free crackers, granola bars, perfect bar protein bars, kombucha, Quin brand kale popcorn, coconut aminos(a replacement for soy sauce if you stay away from soy), avocado oil(this oil over ALL oils! I love it) eating evolved chocolate bars, purely Elisabeth granola, tahini, dried mangoes, dried blueberries, dried bananas, dried pineapple, frozen berries and whatever other snacks we might want or need during the week!

Now, what can I make with all of these items? I'll give you a few examples!

Roasted veggies with chicken, beef or sausage
Salmon sushi bowls
Quinoa bowls with whatever left over proteins and veggies. Make an easy dressing with lemon and tahini!
Asian veggie bowls- Rice or Quinoa with red pepper, onion, zucchini and mushrooms sautéed in coconut aminos, avocado oil and garlic
beef and broccoli with rice
Greek wraps - Sautéed zucchini, red pepper, onion in spices and oil add to a wrap that is spread with hummus, top it with some lemon and arugula
Butternut squash Mac n Cheese
Sweet potato veggie chilli

AND SO MUCH MORE!!

Now for the budget... Our budget each week is $100-$130. I am ALWAYS within that budget and still shop mostly fresh and all organic products! Isn't that awesome!? By not shopping a lot of packaged foods all of that extra money goes into buying more fresh foods and organic! And yes...this is what Hudson eats also and he LOVES it! I'm obviously not buying ALL of these items every week because some last longer than others which is a bonus too!

A few tips to making foods last and throwing away less..

freeze produce that will go bad so you can use it in your smoothies! I freeze bananas and avocados weekly for smoothies and then any berries that we don't eat before they start going bad..which is rare...but happens!
Make big batches of meals and make leftovers or new creations the next day for lunch! I always make a lot of quinoa or rice and veggies and meat so I can make use of it the next day too. Left overs doesn't have to mean the SAME EXACT meal over and over. You can totally make it into something different and delicious!

So this is how we shop and how we eat each week! You can too!

A little idea I have been thinking of doing because I have SO much interest in our daily meals is to start making weekly meal plans that you can purchase! If you would be interested let me know in a comment or send me an email!

xo

Love,Lo