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

to pack or not to pack?

That is the question parents are asking all over the place tonight...Will it be a snow day tomorrow...In some places (Foxboro, Mass), they have already called it for tomorrow!  Around here, it is falling fast and furious, but...the big question on Vancouver Island always is...how long till it turns to rain?  How long will it last?  And , personally, I am packing lunches for tomorrow because I am very hopeful that tomorrow will not be a snow day!  (I do not relish the idea of a house full of children home from school, wishing it would stop raining so they can go out and play in the snow before it all melts!)...I love snow days, don't get me wrong.  But I mean real snow days, when we have 14 inches of beautiful snowman building snow and some bright sunshine and the kids can go out and build snowmen and forts and have snowball fights, and then head down to the school yard and slide and slide and slide, until their legs are burning from climbing back up the hill so many times, and their hats and mitts are soaked through.  Then they come home and eat all the cookies in the house and drink mugs full of hot chocolate with marshmallows and leave chocolate rings on all the tables and the empty cookie packages on the counter.  And then, because they are still starving, they eat the lunch that was packed the night before (for school!), on the floor in front of the television like they are having a picnic.
So now, what do I pack?  Well, if it is a school day, but they get to go out and play, it will be good to have something hot in their thermoses...so, some chicken gnocchi soup (new recipe from Eating Well magazine: chicken breast cut up, onions, carrots, celery, all cooked till soft, add 4 cups chicken broth and heat medium high till boiling, add the gnocchi and cook for another 10 minutes) to use up some of that Gnocchi that was in the pasta basket I won in the school raffle at Christmas.  And we have some pita bread, so that and some cheese cut up and carrot sticks...There is a loaf of banana bread in the freezer that will be ready to cut up in the morning, and then of course, two mandarins for Kate, and applesauce, an apple, a pear and a mandarin for Duncan.

I hope if you get a snow day, that you get a chance to play too!