Grocery shop prep for a New Year

Every week we go through the same routine, there is nothing to eat!  What do we want to eat?  What do we buy?  How come no one ate any of that?  And where did all the (insert this week's yummiest item) go?  And we start again...
When I sit down to make a grocery list, as I may have said before...I try to start at home..
Step #1:What is in the freezer?  What is in the cupboard?  What is in the fridge? (that maybe shouldn't be anymore....)
~For example, there is a big chicken in the freezer, some pork chops and potatoes, carrots and onions in the bins, and lots of frozen veggies.  Dried pasta, and brown rice.  Oh and leftover chili in the freezer (from New year's eve).  If it weren't for the missing cheese, yogurt and bananas, I could likely forgo a trip to the grocery store until at least Wednesday evening. 
Step #2: What is in the flyer?
~I tend to go back and forth between two grocery stores.  Quality Foods is nice and close to home, a small store that isn't too busy...But the big draw for me is that it is right beside the skating rink (a place I go to once in awhile!)...so there tends to be the place where I go if we have run out of something that cannot wait.  Thrifty Foods used to be my favourite grocery store...Beautiful produce, great fish counter, they usually have the harder to find items and great sales (which make up for the slightly higher prices)...However, the great sales are not so great anymore and the slightly higher prices have gotten a lot higher in recent months.  Take hot chocolate for example: I don't buy a number of the ready made ones (one, I have a problem with some of their business practices and some of the others use cellulose in their hot chocolate, not so keen on the kids having wood pulp with their breakfast in the morning), but I like to have some instant stuff on hand for when I am not making my own, so I buy Murchie's Hot chocolate as it has only what I would be putting in my own.  Thrifty foods price: 9.99...Regular price at Quality foods, 8.99, on sale for $7.49.  Still expensive, but at least I am not paying for half a container of wood pulp.  Cereal is another area where the prices are quite a bit higher than other places...So, for Cereal, if Costco doesn't have it, we don't eat it. 
The one area where Quality foods doesn't hold up to Thrifty's is in their bulk section.  I can get organic dried beans if I want, or regular dried beans, and they are all from the US or Canada.  I can also get bulk Quinoa, and Quinoa flakes (which are great for cookies!)...
So what I do, is I shop the flyers...and compare.  This week's winner?  Thrifty Foods, with $1.00/lb for Gala apples and 7.99 for a 5 lb bag of California clementines (Q.foods has them too, 2.99 for a 2 lb bag, so same price), and $2.00 a box for Nature Valley Granola bars (we go through the roasted almond ones and the Oats-n-honey ones like crazy...oh and the Chocolate ones.  In their bakery section, Thrify's has a 900g (2 lb) loaf of whole wheat-low sodium sandwich bread for $3.69.  And when you go through bread like we do in our house, that is a great price. 
Over at The Poorganic Life she has a great list of tips to getting the processed stuff out of your grocery order and staying on budget.  Here is the link for this week's flyer over at
Thrifty foods
Quality foods
And some great templates for getting started on a New Year's grocery list.
Grocery list template from Not QuiteSuzie Homemaker
Grocery list from Your Printable Daily Planner

Happy Packing!

Kim

grains...Fads are funny.

The new Costco magazine came in the mail today...There is an article in it about Healthy new foods to find at Costco...Quinoa, Acai Berries...and among others, Spelt...Been using Spelt flour and the grains in our house for about 8 years now...And what is funny is that article makes me want to run out to Costco and see for myself...Not because we need any (Goodness knows we sure don't, there are three big bags of spelt flour in the freezer downstairs!), just because I am curious to see what "Mainstream" Spelt looks like. Mine is in a plain brown paper bag, labelled : Whole Grain Spelt Flour, 10kg.
For anyone who has never tried Spelt flour, may I recommend using it in your muffin recipe first?  I use a basic muffin recipe from the Joy of Cooking (the one that uses sour cream, or buttermilk, or, in our house, plain yogurt), and I sub it in straight on (cup for cup).  It makes amazing blueberry muffins.  Albeit, they don't keep as well as the ones made with regular all purpose flour, but was anybody really making them to "keep"?  Around here, they are usually gone in a day.  From there, you can use it in cookies easily...I have used it in banana bread and in regular bread.  The grains are an excellent addition to almost any soup recipe or stew, and they make a good salad grain too.  I once had a delicious Spelt Brownie at a bakery on Salt Spring Island...Got home and tried to replicate the recipe...Well, apparently, Salt Spring Island is a bit like Vegas, what happens on Salt Spring, stays on Salt Spring (and for those of you reading this who know anything about Salt Spring Island, you are nodding your head, I am sure, for this applies to much more than just brownies)....All the chocolate in Nanaimo couldn't help me make those brownies.
So for the third day in a row, my son would like a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch...Tonight, I hosted a "make-your-own-lunch" workshop at the Island in our kitchen (not really much like Salt Spring)...We came away with "bits and pieces" for Kate (a little bit of this and a little bit of that: a few veggies, some stoned wheat thin crackers, a chicken tender and some yogurt dip), Duncan got his Ham and Cheese, and we made Daddy a ham sandwich with some leftover lentil soup (love, Kate)...And everyone thinks that I should have made chocolate chip cookies, but I am going to bed instead!
Happy Packing!