Grocery Shopping the Grown-Up Way
I don’t grocery shop with a list of recipes. I don’t think I know how to shop like that. My wife shops like that, and I do not understand how or why. I shop with a system. I know what ingredients we frequently use in the kitchen, and when I shop, I make sure the storehouse is filled with those items.
My go-to stores are WinCo, Aldi, and a variety of Latino, Asian, Middle Eastern, and African stores. The first two are for the majority of my kitchen staples. The other stores offer whole-food options I can’t get elsewhere.
Years ago, I used to walk into the store and wander. I’d buy too much, forget half of what I needed, and end up wasting food. These days, I move differently. As I stated earlier, I don’t shop with a list in hand. I know what I want to stock my kitchen with and make a note of those things before I go shopping. Purchases tend to be more focused and more frequent because I am looking to keep the storehouse stocked rather than buying the latest fad food item.
Most weeks, I buy the same core foods: eggs, greens, onions, beans, rice, potatoes, fruit, and whatever protein looks good and affordable. Some trips have me spending more on produce than on other items. That short list covers more meals than people think. The downside of shopping like this is being on the clock to use up what is purchased before it goes bad. The upside it brings ingredients to the forefront of thought surrounding kitchen activity.
With that in mind, a normal trip to the store has me spending most of my time around the perimeter, but I don’t treat the middle aisles like no-fly zones. That’s where dry beans, grains, cooking and dressing oils, and spices live, as well as different vinegars on what has now been dubbed the vinegar bar. Those are staples in my kitchen.
I’m not chasing new ingredients. I’m maintaining a base. Shopping this way makes cooking easier because I’m not starting from zero every night. I already have what I need to build something simple. In the future, I will post receipts to show what a typical trip to the store looks like.
The goal isn’t creativity. The goal is consistency. What does a trip to the store look like for you? If you could change anything based off what you just read what would that be?
