As I prepared my meal plan this week, I thought about how many places I buy my food. There is the local grocery store (which also does our home deliveries), Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Costco and the farmer’s market in our town opens up June 2nd. I got into this new habit of shopping after I became a stay-at-home-mom and wanted to get the best food at the best price. I don’t hit every store every week, but at least two a week. We spend a lot of our monthly budget on food, even with me traveling to all these different stores. As I think about life with three little ones four and under, I think I’ll have to make some adjustments.
I wonder what other moms are prioritizing when it comes to shopping locations. Is it price? Is it selection? Is it how fast you can get there and get home? Meal planning has helped me stay on top of what is actually in our freezer/refrigerator to decrease the amount of food wasted. Now I’m going to make sure my meal planning allows me to visit one big store each week, plus one local stop for additional produce for the weekend. When we started making smoothies our produce stash started diminishing awfully quick! If you have suggestions of how to streamline the grocery store process, I would love to read them in the comment section.
On the menu this week…
Sunday~ Homemade Waldorf Chicken Salad for Daddy, Hot Dogs for the Kids. Mom’s off duty and heading to Rice Barn for a spicy dinner and a meet-up with local bloggers for some pre-summer catch-up.
Monday~ Burgers, Sweet Potato Fries
Tuesday~ Date night after the Magic Beans Drool Baby Expo in Boston
Wednesday~ Homemade Chicken Nuggets, steamed green beans and a side of pasta
Thursday~ Pasta Fagioli (meatless meal) and a side salad
Friday~ Mixing it up with Pulled Pork Cemita, Veggie Rice and Guacamole
Saturday~ Pizza night is bumped to Saturday in case we get together with friends and need to make a bigger dinner. Did you catch my recipe post last week for our homemade pizza dough? I tried it with some whole wheat bread flour, but wouldn’t do it again. A little whole wheat is fine but it’s much better with mostly white bread flour.
Homemade Waldorf Chicken Salad for Sunday night
What’s on your menu this week? Any great grocery shopping tips to share?
For more inspiration, see my past menus here, or the Pinterest board here, or OrgJunkie for a link-up of meal plans.
I hear you with the multiple grocery stores in one week! To help with smoothie produce, we use frozen organic fruit. Also use frozen fruit for our homemade popsicles.