I check out the ads for the different grocery stores to see what's on sale, make a rough menu for the week then go grocery shopping...sounds good right?
First, I shop at one of the big Asian markets that has great prices on produce and sometimes meat. I tend to buy the majority of my produce here. It has a great variety of veggies and fruits for a wonderful price.
Then I hit the traditional grocery stores and find that one will have a sale on something 'this store only' that wasn't listed in the ad... and that throws my tentative menus out the window.
So I get home after my great adventure shopping-stuff everything into the fridge, quuickly closing the door before anything falls out and rest for awhile.
When it's time to cook, I pull some things out look at them or catch the falling produce get a cutting board and knife out and listen to what the food is telling me it wants to be. Sometimes it want's to be steamed in one of those microwaving cooking bags, sometimes it wants to be sauted with some other veggies.
Hmmm...what' the main dish? Well, I bought some chicken breasts, pork chops and ground turkey...what's it going to be? As I wait patiently at the fridge door for one of them to jump out into my arms to be cooked...when that doesn't happen I grap which ever one is on top or which ever has been in the fridge longer and go from there..of course check the use by date just in case something was allowed to age gracefully in my fridge....
DH gets so annoyed because I never follow recipes and can seldom repeat what I've made a second time because it depends on what I had on hand that meal.
Once a month or so, I go to a great local, family-owned butcher shop for my meat. They have all kinds of stuff, frozen in marinades or plain, homemade sausages, extra lean ground beef, etc...and it is all usually less expensive than what I pay in the grocery store for non-marinated, lesser-quality meats. So I start there by stocking up my freezer. I'd go more often, but they're about an hour and a half away, so it is a once-a-month excursion.
Then, weekly, I consider the meat I have left in my stocks and make a menu plan for the week, Sunday - Friday. I pick and choose menus based on what sounds good and the meats we have available, as well as what produce is in season and likely to be less expensive, and try to balance out menus I know are a bit higher calorie with those that are on the lower side. Once I have my menus for the week, I prepare my grocery lists...produce and dried grains/beans/etc. on one list, standard grocery items on another.
I have a local produce stand where I buy almost all of my produce. Their prices are incredibly low for what you get, and they have all kinds of vegetables all year round, as well as seasonal fruits. If you buy in season, you can get tons of produce cheap there. They also have house-dried beans, rice, grains, lentils, etc, so I'll pick up those there if I need them. I only buy the veggies I need for the meals that week, and enough fruit for snacks.
I then go to a standard grocery store to pick up all the non-produce, non-meat grocery items I need (usually, this is mostly eggs, yogurt, milk, and low-cal ice cream treats, as well as whole grain pastas and canned goods). If we use a lot of something, I'll pick it up at Costco instead once a month (we do this with popcorn, chicken broth, and coffee).
It seems like a lot of stops, but really, most weeks we only have to go two places (the grocery store and the produce stand), and we save a ton of money by doing so. The food also seems to be higher quality, and we support local businesses and agriculture.
Every day, I cook 4 portions of whatever meal is on the meal plan. Two of those portions are packed up and put in the fridge, and used for lunch the next day. The other two we eat immediately for dinner. Doing my meals this way ensures that I always have a plan for lunch if I had dinner at home the night before.
I usually shop every 2 days. I look for recipes then buy exactly what I need to cook those recipes. It can get very expensive and lots of stuff goes to waste... I'm definately not the most ecomical chef out there and with the rising prices on everything, I need to get better at that!
I am definitely not a planner when it comes to shopping and cooking. There are some staples that I just get everytime I go shopping which I keep track of mentally, but otherwise I sort of buy what I feel like trying, quickly coming up with something I can realistically make using the new product.
I shop at a few different stores -- fruit stores, healthfood stores, big supermarkets, etc. whatever I can get to, but there are some staples I have to get at the heathfood store bc they don't sell them anywhere else (like organic butter/milk/eggs/cheese).
For cooking, my typical thing is to start off sauteeing an onion, and then throw in other veggies, and then some tofu, and then I decide how I want to eat it -- over whole grain noodles, over the Kashi 7-grain pilaf, over nothing, with yogurt, etc. and then I decide which of my staple sides I will have with it. Most nights, I can't fathom cooking anything more complicated than that and it's pretty healthy so I stick with that formula.
I buy most of our veggies at the farmer's market. I buy whatever looks good and is a good price. I love finding ones that I've never eaten before! I'm also looking into a CSA since they seem to save money on local produce and it's year round and organic.
I look at the ads (and Sunday coupons) to see if there are deals on any of the things we buy. This week I got 14oz cans of salmon for $1.49 at Walgreens of all places.
I'll go to various grocery stores to get deals, and to stock up on staples and other things that we can't get at the farmer's market (tofu, grains, etc.) If I find a deal on something we use a lot (like flour or brown rice) I buy lots and losts.
As far as menu planning, I don't do it before I shop. The way I shop wouldn't work if I went to the store/market with 7 recipes in mind. Sometimes I'll have a new recipe in mind, but not usually. I have a large amount of recipes that I have most things on hand for. Plus, I subscribe to the Tightwad Gazette idea of saving on groceries (the pantry principle.) If you plan your meals in advance you can't always take advantage of the best deals. This is what works for me, I'm sure many people do best with planning things out.
I also make the trek to Trader Joe's and Costco about once a month for the things that are cheap there (like my frozen blueberries and the cat's tuna.)
As far as cooking, I usually decide the night before what I'll be making for dinner. Sometimes I ask Dh if he has a preference. I try to be flexible and I make sure I use up everything that's fresh before I go shopping the next week. Sometimes that means a huge veggie stirfry (yum.) Other weeks it means I have to make due with half a head of cabbage for the nights veggie (this is all I have in the fridge right now. Lol.)
I rarely cook. We eat a lot of piece-meal type meals. I will make a big pot of pasta, and we will use it in salads, or as a meal on it's on with marinara. We eat a lot of sandwiches -- grilled cheese, turkey, garden burgers. We don't have a microwave; I know, strange, but we moved into a new house and never got around to it, and then we realized we just didn't need one -- now it's sort of a badge of honor.
A lot of the diety foods like Kashi products, we just throw in a toaster oven or it's cereal. I used to do a lot of chicken, but I just got so sick of it. Sounds boring, but I used to love to cook and look where what I was making got me.
Our "farmers market" is so hit and miss as to what you'll find that I rarely make the effort to go. It's actually part of the weekly street fair at the local college and the big draw is all the other booths rather than the fruit & veggie stands. Due to the usual large crowds, I don't go there often.
If I drove a little farther, I could go to some of the farmer's stands in Coachella, but with gas prices the way they are, and my lack of time most weekends, I don't do this often either. Once my in-laws come back in October, my MIL will be out that way often and I can have her stop by for me.
As it is, I generally plan a menu on Saturday morning, hit Trader Joe's that same day for whatever I can get there (as it sometimes varies) and go to the regular grocery store either later that day or Sunday. Costco trips also add to the grocery shopping--I get my tomatoes there as well as a few other things.
I often make extra for dinner (but not always) and if there are leftovers we have them either for lunch the next day or for dinner later the same week.
Currently I have 3 leftovers in my fridge--Italian Sausage soup which made a ton, Tortilla soup (had it for dinner with enough left for another dinner), and homemade manicotti (leftovers tonight!). Leftovers rock since there is so little work involved to get dinner on the table!
I am definitely not a planner when it comes to shopping and cooking. There are some staples that I just get everytime I go shopping which I keep track of mentally, but otherwise I sort of buy what I feel like trying, quickly coming up with something I can realistically make using the new product. .....
For cooking, my typical thing is to start off sauteeing an onion, and then throw in other veggies, and then some tofu, and then I decide how I want to eat it --
That's so me. Occassionally I try the menu idea but I just don't plan well. It works better for me to buy all my groceries and then decide what I'm going to eat. I don't even do regular recipes real well...I do the saute an onion and garlic and maybe some ginger and through what ever I feel like cutting up into also.
I found that if I didn't plan, I had a LOT of food waste. I have almost none now, which makes me feel better and saves money. I was HORRIBLE at figuring out what in my fridge was about to go bad and making something up out of it, so the stuff would just sit.
Now I know what I'm making before I buy, so even if a meal gets cancelled (last minute dinner out, for example), I can just move that meal into the plan for the next week and still nothing goes to waste.
That makes a lot of sense. I know a lot of my food gets pushed to the back and I pull out a bag and think-hmmm when did I buy this is <yuck> what was it?
Or I wind up having to cook it because it's about to go bad. Then somtimes it sits in the fridge after it's cooked and I throw it out anyway because I have so much cooked.
I know I should plan better, it would probably save money in the long run.
Sarah
We don't have a microwave; I know, strange, but we moved into a new house and never got around to it, and then we realized we just didn't need one -- now it's sort of a badge of honor.
We don't have one either. I was amazed at how little time a microwave really saves you. We haven't had one for so long (never got a new one after the old one broke a few years ago) that I wonder if I could even operate one. Plus they take up my precious counter space.
what's your food shopping and cooking style?
