Shopping might be the world’s favourite pastime, but grocery shopping is a chore that most of us don’t look forward to.
But your weekly trip to the food store will be less of a task and more rewarding when you make it an important part of cooking and eating healthier foods.
Three Steps to Better Shopping
- Plan Your Meals– If you visit the grocery store once a week, starting planning your meals a week in advance. Look at your recipes and think about healthy snacks before starting to compile a detailed list of what you’ll need.If it’s a tough to do a whole week’s meal planning, break it into more manageable chunks, like planning only your dinners, or only for three or four days and plan a mid-week trip to top up. As you get better at it, you can make the trip even easier by dividing your list according to supermarket aisle and/or grocery type, like produce, meat and dairy.
- Make Sure Your Pantry has Everything You Need– Before you finish your list, check your cupboards or pantry. As you start to memorize recipes, or customize them to your tastes, it’s not always easy to remember all the ingredients you’ll need for a every dish.Also, the more cooking you do on your own, the sooner you’ll run short of some of the basics, like condiments and oils. A well-stocked pantry will help you avoid the disappointment of not having all the ingredients you need for a certain recipe – and avoid the unexpected trip to the grocery store to get them.
- Get More Herbs & Spices– One of the biggest complaints when people start cooking and eating healthier food is that it tastes bland. That’s because there is less fat, salt and sugar in it.Herbs and spices offer some very tasty options for getting more flavour into your dishes without adding extra calories.
One of the tricks to cooking and shopping for your own food is making sure you maintain a balanced diet by getting your calories in the right proportions from the main food groups. Consulting with your local nutritional specialist, who can review your meals and food preparation, will make sure you get all the nutrients you need to maintain your energy and health.