Grocery Shopping 101 - For Jonathan

When Bryant was in grad school and we were living on my meager income we budgeted $50/week for food, so our current budget of $100/week for the two of us seems a bit excessive, but Jonathan is convinced that this is actually not that much money. When you take into consideration how well we eat, how much we eat, and the fact that all of our products are organic or local, the amount we spend on food doesn't seem too excessive. I was worrying one day about this amount and Bryant said that he would rather spend more money for good food then less money for sub par food. Jonathan asked that I post how I shop and menu plan, so I've decided to give you a copy of what I purchase, how much I spend, and what I make for 2 weeks. If there are any recipes that you want please let me know.

There are several factors to keep in consideration that differentiate my food planning from the norm:
- we only eat meat 3 to 5 times a month
- I make everything from scratch, including bread
- our menus are based around what produce is in season, and what other products are on sale
- Bryant almost always takes his lunch to work instead of buying lunch, and our lunches are also almost always leftovers from dinner (we love leftovers, almost everything tastes better the second day)
- we eat a lot of random grains, and buy them in the bulk section

I've done our shopping by planning out a weeks worth of meals, but find that by Wednesday I no longer want to eat what I've planned. As I've become a more creative and confident cook I've been able to be less rigid in my grocery shopping. Now I basically start in the produce section and stock up on what's in season (which is also usually what is on sale), head over to the bulk grains to replenish what I've used the previous week, pick up cheese, milk, and eggs, and any other remaining items I think I'll use to make meals based on the produce I've decided to purchase. I haven't had to buy meat because I have chicken that I roasted and shredded in my freezer, as well as halibut and salmon that our good friend caught in Alaska last summer.

These are the staple items I consider necessary to be able to cook good meals:
Good extra virgin olive oil
Good Balsamic vinegar (for all you SLC dwellers, go to Caputo's and buy the Balsamic Modena, it is cheap and amazing)
Butter
Milk
Eggs
Cheese - both goat and cow's milk
Flour - all-purpose, whole wheat, whole wheat pastry, and 00 (for pasta)
Polenta
Cornmeal
Quinoa
Barley
Oats - rolled and steel-cut
Couscous
Sugar - white and brown
Honey
Pure Maple Syrup (I use Coombs Family Farms Organic Grade B maple syrup and buy it in bulk on amazon.com)
Almond Butter
Jam
Spices (too many to list)
Pure vanilla extract
Yeast
Baking Powder
Baking Soda
Kosher salt
Black pepper
Fresh garlic
Fresh onions
Black beans
Chicken Stock
Good canned tomatoes
Canned artichoke hearts

There you have it, my idea of pantry staples. I also grow my own basil, mint, rosemary, parsley, lavender, and arugula in our window boxes. More often then not I spend more than $100 the first week and then compensate during the second week. It depends on what I need to buy, like if I am out of olive oil or am stocking up on cheese. Here is week 1 - receipt and menus. I am not going to type out organic or local next to every product, because they all fall into one of those categories.

Honey (24 oz) $4.25
Thai Kitchen Light Coconut Milk (2 cans) $3.98
Creamy Almond Butter $6.79
Whole San Marzano Tomatoes $2.99
Ballard ID Jersey Gem (cheese) $7.36
Ballard ID White Cheddar $5.39
Ballard ID Feta $3.77
Montchevre (goat cheese) $6.98
Milk (1 gallon) $5.99
Wallaby Vanilla Yogurt $3.29
Aldens Blackberry Ice Cream $4.95
Aldens Vanilla Ice Cream $4.95
Duck Eggs (1 dozen) $4.99
Red onion (1) $0.19
Yellow onion (1) $0.33
Red leaf lettuce (1 bunch) $1.99
Fennel (1 bulb) $1.29
Leeks (2) $3.32
Artichokes (2) $3.38
Baby Artichokes (.98 lbs) $3.08
Garnet yam (1) $1.39
Bananas (1.85 lbs) $1.83
Lemon (1) $0.63
Strawberries (1 pint) $3.99
Raisin (.52 lbs) $2.89
Pinenuts (.12 lbs) $2.82
Raw macadamia nuts (.15 lbs) $2.47
Walnuts (.26 lbs) $2.68
Yeast $1.24
Red Hot Blues (chips) $3.39
Lemon Pepper $2.13
00 Flour $4.44
Total spent: $109.87 (including a rough tax estimate)
*this means I only have $90.13 for the next weeks groceries

I didn't have any idea when I went shopping what I wanted to make except for some homemade Popsicles I'd been wanting to try, hence the coconut milk purchase. I also had some leftover white chocolate chips from several months ago, which is why I bought the macadamia nuts. Bryant requested chips, yogurt, and cheese. Here's what we ate:

Breakfasts:
Steel-cut oats with brown sugar and cinnamon
White Chocolate Macadamia pancakes with caramelized banana maple syrup
Eggs & Challah toast
Pumpkin chocolate pancakes

Dinners (leftovers for lunch):
Challah French Toast
Roasted zucchini stuffed with chicken, spinach, garlic, onion, and goat cheese
Pizza with pesto, chicken, artichokes, and goat cheese
Calzones with spinach, onion, garlic, tomato, and goat cheese
Black bean nachos
Honey-Balsamic glazed salmon with roasted yam and grilled artichoke
Risotto with baby artichokes and leeks

Desserts:
Fresh strawberries
Ice Cream
Homemade Popsicles with coconut milk, banana, strawberries, and agave

During this week I used up some leftover spinach (fresh and frozen), cucumber, salsa, sour cream, the white chocolate chips, some unsweetened chocolate, canned pumpkin, frozen chicken, and salmon. From my pantry came the remaining ingredients that aren't on my shopping list. We were invited over to dinner once and had the same people over to our home for dinner another night and I wanted to make a dessert using the remaining can of coconut milk, so I used some of our 'fun money' budget and bought frozen strawberries, whipping cream, and lady fingers. (Yes, I am a very meticulous about our budget.) This week I made Challah for the first time and it was a huge success, our new favorite bread because it makes the best toast and french toast. So that's week one. I'm heading to the farmer's market in an hour or so to get our produce for this week. We are making a birthday cake for a friend on Saturday which will have to be taken into consideration, but we are also going to a picnic for Bryant's work on Saturday and having dinner at our friends' birthday party that evening, so it will all even out. I still have fennel, cheese, some eggs, and milk as well as a lot of ice cream left over from this past week. We also have pumpkin chocolate pancakes and calzones in the freezer to be used. I hope this is what you want Jonathan. Stay tuned for week two.