Do you enjoy grocery shopping? I do. But that’s probably because my method is a little unusual. Instead of shopping every few days or once a week, my daughter and I do a major grocery haul together once a month. We both prefer to buy organic as much as possible which is pretty difficult to do in our small town. So once a month we go to Norman or Oklahoma City and stock up for the month.
Yesterday was our day. Last week we took a look at our schedules and the weather and decided Thursday would be a good day. And it really was. It was sunny and in the low 60s which is pretty much perfect considering it’s November. We decided to go to Oklahoma City this time so we could get turkeys at Whole Foods. We were almost to Norman when I realized that wasn’t the route I had intended to take. We were just chattering away and habit took over since we go to Norman more often than OKC. Oh, well. It doesn’t make much difference timewise as long as the traffic isn’t bad.
The first order of business on these trips is always lunch. This time we decided that burgers sounded good so we stopped at Tucker’s Onion Burgers. We love this place. The burgers are topped with very thinly sliced grilled onions pressed into the beef and served on the BEST locally made buns.
We had been discussing buying new planners for 2016. Lisa had already decided which one she wanted and had put it on her Christmas list. I hadn’t even started looking yet so we decided to stop at Michael’s first before starting the grocery shopping and see if they had the one she wanted so I could see it. I just want to say right now that it’s a good thing we don’t have a Michael’s in our town. We wandered up and down all the aisles doing our best to resist buying ALL THE THINGS! I did buy some Christmas balls for our library because I found some in the colors I’ve been wanting to use in there and they were half price. All their baskets were half price, too, and I had been wanting one for our library to put my notebooks and binders in. I found one which was just what I was looking for.
Finally, we found the planners. They had the exact one Lisa had decided on so I bought her an early Christmas present. We had 50% off coupons for one item. At the time, I didn’t realize the ornaments I was buying were on sale so Lisa bought her own planner with her coupon and I bought my ornaments with mine, with the intention that I would then give her cash for her planner. Turns out my ornaments were already on sale so I didn’t use my coupon. We went out to the car and looked through her planner. That’s when I decided that I should just go ahead and get one for myself now. So now we both have cool planners and they were only about $13 each since we got them half off. I’ll do a post about these planners later, along with pictures and a link in case you are interested in buying one yourself.
So, now that we were well on our way to becoming totally organized, we started our grocery shopping. We went to Sprouts, Natural Grocers and Whole Foods. You can see what I bought in the photo at the top of this post. Here are the details:
November Grocery Haul:
Sprouts
- Pineapple
- baby spinach
- green bell peppers
- mixed salad greens
- russet potatoes
- baking soda
- BBQ potato chips
- corn starch
- green chiles
- lemon curd
- salsa con queso
- mini marshmallows
- evaporated milk
- sweet and condensed milk
- 2 boxes cereal
- 2 refried beans
- hot chocolate mix
- 4 yogurts
- 2 cream cheese
- frozen corn with herbs and tomatoes
- frozen french fries
Natural Grocers
- 5 packages Applegate Farms sausage (different varieties, on sale)
- 3 packages frozen cherries
- frozen raspberries
- pint of caramel ice cream
- 3 packages cranberries
- European cultured butter
- mint chocolate coconut milk (Chris loves this stuff!)
- 2 packages corn tortillas
- celery
- dark chocolate covered pretzels
- lavender essential oil hand sanitizer (tis the season…)
- sweet potatoes
- travel size Tom’s toothpaste (hard to find this in travel size)
- maraschino cherries
- essential oil spray for dogs and their bedding
- pasta sauce
- Earl Grey tea
- cookies (a favorite European cookie topped with dark chocolate)
- breath mints
- white bean tortilla chips
Whole Foods
- panko bread crumbs
- poppyseed dressing
- 2 boxes of tea
- tortilla chips
- brown sugar
- powdered sugar
- organic turkey
- sliced roast beef
- bacon
- cranberry cheese
- mini croissants
- 2 baguettes
- green beans
- apples
- grapes
- crispy fried onions
- dark chocolate “m&ms”
Along with my Azure Standard co-op order which I picked up Wednesday, I am pretty well-stocked up and ready for the holidays. I pick up a few things now and then at a local grocery store, Aldi’s or Braum’s. But it’s nice to know I’ve got all the basics covered. It’s also fun to spend the day with my lovely daughter.
What is your shopping routine? Do you shop weekly, bi-weekly or just whenever you need to? If I lived in a big city I wouldn’t do a monthly grocery haul but this works for us in our circumstances.
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Well you know about my shopping ha! I do find it really nice to be so well stocked, especially in the winter!
When the first winter storm arrives and everyone rushes to Walmart we will *try* not to be smug. Right?
It’s getting harder and harder for me to do “big” shopping or any major grocery hauls. So, I’ve started making list of meals, especially now that winter is setting in, that can be made and frozen in portions small enough for a couple of dinners and maybe a lunch. This time, I did a list of 10-12 meals, and did the basics at Crest, a locky owned OKC grocery store. I bought several packages of ground beef, 6 chicken Breast that I asked the butcher to cut each chicken breast half, into halves that provided a breast the same size, just thinner. Sausage, both sweet, hot and smoked. I also bought a couple of ham slices (center cut) and a package of ham hocks containing 4 individual hocks for seasoning beans and peas. I also picked up 2 lbs of peppered bacon, it’s their store brand slab bacon, sliced in the old fashioned way, between thick and thin sliced. I have a whole chuck roast, cut into 2 smaller roast leftover from my last shopping trip. I stocked up on chickens and beef stock, flour, sugar snd kosher salt, condiments like wostechire sauce, chow chow, and another batch of Roma tomatoes, on sale for 48 cents lb. I halve them, roast them facing up, sprinkled with salt, pepper and a tiny bit of sugar, at 225 for 3 or so hours, or until they are Carmelized, but still slightly moist. After letting them cool for 15 minutes or so, flip them over and the skin plucks right off. They are good for any number of things, including BLTs, in soups, stews, etc. I also buy several large cans of San Marzano whole tomatoes. I make a bit pot of Marinara sauce that becomes meat sauce, sauce with sausage, sauce for chicken parm, etc. along with chicken and dumplings, beef green chile stew, red beans and rice, jambalaya, and a few others, that is more than enough to see me through until well into Jam. I buy dog and cat food and coffee, as well as assorted other things like laundry and toilet paper either through Amazon or Sam’s, when I make my monthly trip for meds. Milk, bread and fresh produce come from Braums. Omelettes with leftovers are always a quick supper on nights I can only manage 10 minute prep. Or there is something always in the freezer!! This is how, after 6 years, I’m finally learning to cook the food I love, but packaged for one!!
Wow, all of this sounds amazing! I, too, buy certain staples from Amazon. I buy coffee from Community Coffee. Just received an order this week, in fact. If you’d ever like to write a guest post for me about cooking for one that would be terrific.
Sorry for the typos, this was written at 5:00 am, at a time I was very uncomfortable!!
I hope you are feeling better now.
Sounds like a great grocery haul!
We have some stores only a block or two from us, but we still do a big shop for the non-perishable items, and the things that go in the freezer, every month or so. Then we buy the perishable items as and when we need them from up the road.
As it happens, we just stocked up on all the non-perishable and frozen items, filling our cupboards and freezer, so other than things like bread, milk, cheese, fruit, and vegetables, we’re not going to be needing anything this side of the new year.
Isn’t it a good feeling to be well-stocked?
Even though I live 45 miles NW of Chicago and am in a little town, we still have a wonderful variety of stores all within 20 minutes of here: Trader Joes, Fresh Thyme, Caputos, Marianos, Meijer, Aldi. The closest Whole Foods is 25 minutes away and I never go there because of the other stores – and they’re much cheaper! I run to a grocery store 2-3x/week. Seems we’re always running out of fresh produce (we eat a lot of this) and almond milk; plus sometimes I’m not the best meal planner and need some last-minute ingredients.
I’d give anything for a Trader Joe’s nearby!
Which planner did you get? You’ve made me very curious!
We both bought the Happy Planner. But shhh…I still plan to do a post about it.