Healthy Eats: My Grocery Haul Must Haves

Welcome to Healthy Eats! This series will show you the recipes that I love. This says a lot considering that I don’t like a lot of food. If you have a recipe you want me to try send it my way. I’m always looking for new meals to try.

This isn’t a recipe share post, but those will be returning in the next Healthy Eats post, but it is still an important topic regarding meals. Today I’m sharing my typical grocery haul. Grocery shopping used to look a lot different before I started my weight loss journey. I kind of just wandered around the store and put whatever looks good in the basket. I thought whatever had the word protein, low-fat or low-sugar was good for me. As I’ve gained more knowledge I know now that it’s not always the case.

In the past few years, I have started creating a list of staples that I always grab while I’m at the store.  I’m sharing them with you today, along with some tips for creating your grocery lists each week.

My typical grocery haul

• Almond milk: I go through this regularly, especially when I was making smoothies. Some meals I use it for are overnight oats and occasionally cereal when I have it.
• Eggs/Egg Whites: On weeks where I make breakfast bowls I use almost all these two up.
• Spinach: I also buy spinach frequently for breakfast bowls, but I also use it for salads and sandwiches.
• Lettuce: Basically the same as above, except for the breakfast.
• Lemons: For lemon water in the mornings
• Sweet Potatoes: These are a new staple in my grocery hauls. I use it when I make roasted chicken and veggies and for sweet potato fries
• Chicken: If I didn’t go through the week without at least one chicken recipe it would be shocking.
• Turkey sausage: These work well in lunch/dinner bowls as well as on it’s own paired with sweet potato fries or cauliflower tots.
• Cauliflower rice: This is a must in a grocery haul because I use it for so many things. Check out this post for recipe ideas.
• Sliced ham and turkey: I use this for sandwiches or wraps.
• Bananas: This is the only fruit I can eat regularly without it being blended in a smoothie. I like to use it to make healthy pancakes and muffins for breakfast.
• Whole Wheat bread and wraps: I know bread isn’t the best thing but at least I make sure to get 100% whole wheat every time
• Natural Peanut Butter: This was the first item that I really started looking at labels. When getting peanut butter you want to make sure there aren’t many ingredients in it. The less you have on the ingredient list the better.
• Almond Flour: This is another essential in my grocery haul. I use this mainly when I’m making muffins or protein bites.
• Chia seeds: These little things go great with smoothies or overnight oats
• Honey: I always make sure I get the raw organic honey.
• Protein bars: I haven’t bought a lot of protein bars recently but when I do it’s either Pure Protein or Atkins bars. Link to sites
• Dark chocolate chips: This is another item that needs careful attention when choosing which one to get. The higher the percentage of cacao the better. I get the Simple Truth organic 72% cacao dark chocolate morsels.

Creating the grocery haul list

These are the main items I include in a grocery haul. I may not get every one of these every time, it all depends on what I need. How do you determine what to include in your grocery haul? I’m glad you asked. Here are two ways you can create your list before going shopping and buying everything you don’t need and forgetting everything you do need.

1. Put all the common items on a list and stick it on your refrigerator. Do this at the beginning of each week and throughout the week as you run out of certain items mark it on your list so it’s easier to determine what you need when it’s time to make your list.
2. After creating your meal plan go meal by meal figuring out what is needed to make each one. After you have written them all, go through your kitchen and mark off the items you already have.

Let’s chat: How do you create your grocery haul list and what do you include on it? Let me know in the comments below or connect with me on Instagram.