[Healthy Eating] Shopping Right!

Eating healthy during the week all starts with the trip to the grocery store! You have to know what to buy and what to skip all while learning to control yourself in the store. It's cliche, but it's true.. NEVER shop hungry! I hate grocery shopping myself... I'm easily tempted and skipping that chip isle is not an easy task because I love salty and crunchy!

1. Plan ahead! Learn to buy proper staples and write down some items for any new recipes you want to give a go that week.

Here is what our grocery shopping looks like:

A. Fresh Fruit and Produce:

1. Apples
2. Oranges
3. Bananas
4. Any fruit on sale (Buy one get one Strawberries, Melon, Cherrys.. whatever is in season and on sale!)
5. Green and/or Red Peppers
6. Onions
7. Brussel Sprouts
8. Spinach leaves or other green lettuce mixes for salads, but NOT ICEBERG, it has no nutritional value!
9. Cucumbers
10. Green beans
11. Pees
12. Tomatoes
13. Summer Squash and Zucchini
14. Garlic (great for you and great for seasoning!)
15. Avocado (it's good fat eaten in moderation, great one night in a salad or on a chicken sandwich)

If it's green and you like it, go for it! You don't need to like everything on here.. maybe it's just ok.. not all food has to be as good as bacon. Think of it as fuel for your body and eat it anyway. You might find you love things you never knew if you give them a try.

You'll have to learn how much you'll get through in a week, or two, depending on how often you shop. Buy just the right amount to avoid waste. Learn to eat what you have, and don't order out when you have a stock pile of good healthy food sitting at home.

B. Dairy

1. Fat Free Milk
2. Fat Free Half and Half
3. Cheese (We get some cheddar for lunches/diners and sometimes feta and blue cheese for salads)
4. I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray

C. Proteins

1. Boneless and Skinless chicken breast. This is our main protein and eat it almost every night.. so I'm always looking for ways to spicy this up in a healthy way. I use a lot of different spice rubs on my chicken, grill it up and serve with just a little bbq sauce.
2. Any fish you like
3. Maybe some red meat for one night of the week to mix it up
4. Lunch meats (turkey, chicken)
5. Natural Peanut Butter (for PB&J lunches)

D. Carbs

1. Deli-Flats 90-100 calorie flat buns. These are great for PB&J, sandwiches, burgers, grilled chicken!
2. Low calorie healthy cereal. Look for cereal that's around 100-120 calories a serving (3/4 cup). I like many of the Kashi cereals.
3. Rice or couscous (we like the Near East boxes for their simplicity during the week)

Don't even think about going into the Frozen food section! Don't go in the chip isle! No candy! Be smart about the bread isle! Most things in those isles you don't need. No sugar soda! Learn to eat the kind of ingredients listed above and you'll find yourself feeling super!

A typical day for me looks like this:

Breakfast:

1. Coffee w/ Fat Free Half and Half and Splenda
2. A Banana or a Balance Bar (or 1 serving of cereal and 1 serving of milk)

Lunch:

1. 1 Deli-Flat sandwich with a serving of Peanut Butter and a serving of Preserves
2. An Orange (or some other fruit that was in season and on sale)
3. An Apple (or some other fruit that was in season and on sale)

Dinner:

1. Chicken Breast grilled with some spices on it (like Weber Griller Kickin' Chicken rub)
2. Salad with cucumbers, peppers, onions, dried cranberries and blue cheese w/ 1 tbs of dressing
3. 1 serving of rice (or I'll have a deli flat and make the chicken a sandwich instead of rice

 or

1. Chicken tacos
2. Fat Free sour cream
3. A little cheese
4. 2 tortillas
5. tomatoes
6. spinach leaves
7. red onion
8. salsa

or

1. Chicken Breast
2. 1 steamed or grilled vegetable (fill up on this!)
3. 1 serving of a starch/carb

Dessert:

1. Air-popped popcorn w/ some I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray and a little salt. Popcorn is a great crunchy, salty, low cal treat if it's air popped and you don't use a lot of butter on it. The fake butter spray is not calorie free, but it's lower in cal and makes it easy to spray on the popcorn... taste pretty darn good too!

      2. or if you must have something sweet, have a little bit of Dark Chocolate. The darker the better! Milk chocolate has more sugar and calories, so the higher the cocoa content, the healthier the treat! A little dark is actually good for you, but you have to learn to control yourself. Moderation!



One of our favorite vegetables is Brussel Sprouts! Try them like this and you'll love them too.

    Rinse them, cut off the hard ends, then chop into quarters. Toss with a little Extra Virgin Olive Oil and add them to a preheated pan over medium heat. Cover them, and stir them every couple minutes for about 10 minutes. They should seer a little and also steam. Pull them out and sprinkle with some Penzy's Brady Street cheese sprinkle, or another spice mixture you like. They are delicious!


If you need a snack, learn to reach for some fruit before anything else. If you don't buy bad food, you won't have it in your house to snack on!

Enjoy!