First Grocery Shopping Trip

A happy Sunday evening to all of you! Now that the weekend is coming to a close and I'm still in the process of digesting all of the foods I made it a point to eat before the experiment started, I thought I'd give you an update including the results of my first grocery store visit in preparation for the weeks (and months) ahead.

I had planned on making a shopping list based around a few recipes that I was going to try this week so that I would avoid just buying a bunch of random things without any idea of what I'd do with them. This did not happen, and I walked into the produce section at Kroger with what I'm sure was a fairly lost, vacant facial expression. Now, most of my grocery cart is typically filled with items from the produce department, but they're usually selected with the idea of preparing them to eat WITH something else, not to be consumed on their own. Fortunately, there were a TON of awesome looking, fresh items that were on sale this week, some of them as low as $0.79-0.99 per pound like eggplant, zucchini, anjou pears, and braeburn apples to name a few. After the couple of coupons I had (don't worry, I'm not one of THOSE people...yet), the total came to $86.31, which I was very happy with. I'm planning on going shopping roughly every week to week and a half just to keep things fresh.

All in all, I walked out with:
Almonds, almond milk, apples, avocados, bananas, bell peppers, blackberries, blueberry pomegranate juice, broccoli, carrots, celery, eggplant, flax seeds, grapes, jalapenos, kiwis, mushrooms, orange juice, pistachios, red onions, scallions, spinach, strawberries, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and zucchini.

...I think that's all of it. Or better yet, here's what it all looked like when I brought it home!

You know you're jealous of my awesome retro green kitchen floor.

Also, after my Saturday afternoon lunch with my friend Sarah yesterday, I picked up an item at Earth Fare in Johnson City that I kept finding in nearly every paleo recipe: coconut oil.

Only about $5.00 with my Earth Fare Tomato Bank points!

I was a bit concerned by the saturated fat content of coconut oil, but like so many ingredients, when used in moderation, coconut oil and the compounds found in it (like lauric acid) can be part of a healthy diet...not to mention it provides a HUGE flavor boost to the foods that are cooked in it. I've been told that once I've tried sweet potatoes cooked in coconut oil, I'll never go back to eating them any other way. I suppose we shall see!

I'm still trying to think of some good ways to use the ingredients that I purchased, but I know for a fact I'll be using some of the fruits to make some smoothies for breakfast. I'll also be making some guacamole with the avocado and some baba ganoush with the eggplant. Not only do those taste great on their own, but they're great vehicles to use for dipping some of my other veggies in. I think one of the things I'm most excited about is putting my creativity to use in finding some new, innovative ways to use these ingredients to A.) satisfy my hunger B.) make sure I'm getting all my nutrients, and C.) not get bored with what I'm eating.

Tomorrow's the big day when things get started. I'm excited to get things underway! I'll make sure to post the "recipes" for the items I make this week. I say "recipes" because I don't actually work off of specific recipes, but I'll do my best to write things down as I prepare them so hopefully you and I can recreate them again in the future.

Hope you all have a great week!

Jon