Adventures in Grocery Shopping

We go to 3 different grocery stores every Sunday. There’s no such thing as a one-stop grocery run when you’re trying to stick to a Paleo diet. Trader Joes has the unique one off items at a great price, Whole Foods Market carries grass-fed meat and hard to find organics, and then there’s Hen House for all of those ‘regular’ items. I should also mention our weekly delivery of organic fruits and vegetables from a company here in the Midwest called Door to Door Organics. Every Saturday I plan the weekly menu and create the shopping list. Then Sunday morning, when possible, we get up early and go to all 3 stops before the stores get busy. It’s a commitment, and sometimes I’d rather get beaten with a stick then plan out the menu, but we always get it done. Our grocery list for this week went like this:

HH = Hen House, TJ = Trader Joes, WF= Whole Foods Market
2 lbs ground pork -HH
4 chicken breasts – TJ
8oz crab – TJ
Eggs – HH
1lb of beef for beef w/broccoli -WF

Celery – TJ
Frozen peas – HH
Lemon – TJ
Broccoli – HH
Green onion – HH
Bananas – TJ
Spring mix – TJ
Red & yellow peppers – HH
Spaghetti squash – TJ

Goat cheese – TJ
Coconut milk – WF

1 can pumpkin – HH
Marinara – TJ
Coconut aminos – WF
Chicken stock 3 quarts – TJ
Dill weed – TJ
Almond flour – TJ
Raw honey -TJ
Dates – TJ
Pecans -TJ
Macadamia nuts -TJ
Dried cherries – TJ
Coconut oil – WF

Here’s a picture of the fruits of our labor:

Lately we’ve been toying with the idea of ordering all of our meat products from U.S. Wellness Meats as well as all of our coconut products from Tropical Traditions. This should eliminate the weekly trip to Whole Foods, which should cut about 20 minutes off the 1.5 hours we normally spend gathering our stock pile.  Alright, enough about groceries and onto dinner!

We’ve recently received our copy of ‘The Food Lovers Make it Paleo’ by Bill Staley and Hayley Mason. I’ve been anxiously awaiting it’s arrival and was very excited to see we received it 4 days earlier than I thought. They have a great blog that’s been a source of some of our more successful dinners. Tonight we tried their recipe for chicken soup and it was delicious, plus, it made enough for 3 days of lunches. I highly recommend picking up a copy of their book which you can learn more about by visiting their blog here.