9 Healthy Grocery Staples Always in my Cart

Today I want to talk about my grocery essentials.  I'm not a nutritionist, foodie, or expert cook, but I do consider myself a (mostly) healthy eater on a budget so I thought I'd share what's in my cart or in my pantry week after week.  These are foods that are constants in my diet and having them on hand means I always have something healthy to reach for when time is tight or when I'm stressed (helloooooo Holidays!).  (I'm not an expert so please use your judgment when selecting foods that are best for you.)


1.  FRUIT

Always in my cart:  Apples and bananas.  Just like the children's song (I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas; I like to ate, ate ate apples and bananas..).  I guess there's a reason they are a staple.  I've eaten an apple nearly every day of my life for lunch since I was in high school and I don't intend to stop anytime soon!  I don't get sick very often so perhaps there is also something to the adage about keeping the doctor away.  I'm not a huge fan of eating bananas straight up, but they are always in my smoothies, hence I need a constant supply.  Also who can forget the wonder that is the 2 Ingredient Pancake?!  I also tend to buy whatever fruit is on sale or in season - this is obviously a lot more fun in the summer.  In addition, I always have some frozen fruit on hand for use in my smoothies as well.


2.  GREENS/VEGGIES

Always in my cart:  Spinach and baby carrots.  I start off most of my evening meals/dinners with a big salad, hence the spinach.  I also add spinach to my smoothies.  I snack on baby carrots any ol time so they're always in my fridge.  Then, I pick up any other veggies I'm craving at the moment.  I really like to snack on mushrooms (weird I know!) so I buy them a lot.  I try to buy seasonably here as well, which makes the winters a bit rougher.


3.  PLANT BASED MILK ALTERNATIVE

Always in my cart:  Almond milk.  I've been lactose intolerant since the age of 11 or 12 so I have not drunk cow's milk in about 20 years.  I used to drink soy milk but started to become worried about the effect that would ultimately have on my fertility/cancer risks so I've switched to almond milk.  I also like coconut milk in my smoothies.  I always buy the unsweetened versions.  (No reason to add sugar to milk.)  I've heard cashew milk just recently came on the market, which I'd like to try, but I have yet to see that in any of my grocery stores. 


4.  NUTS

Always in my cart:  Raw almonds.  I also pick up any other kind of nut I'm fancying that week.  This week it was pistachios and those coconut almonds which are insanely good.  I am often out of my house by 7am and don't return until after 8pm some nights so I need lots of snacks with me for the day.  I pretty much eat a handful of almonds every evening in my car on my way to the gym after work.  They're the perfect snack.


5.  BARS

Always in my cart:  Raw Revolution bars.  Like I mentioned above, I'm out of my house for long hours during the day and need snacks to keep me going.  I love snack bars because they are quick and easy and usually are a good source of protein, vitamins and minerals.  These can sometimes be hard to come by for me because I need bars that are vegan and/or dairy free.  For the past year, I've been obsessed with Raw Revolution bars but I also enjoy others from:  Luna, Kind, Odwalla, Clif, etc.  Anything dairy free and relatively low in sugar are fair game.


6.  HUMMUS

Always in my cart:  Athenos hummus.  Other brands I like include Sabra and Wegmans store brand, but Athenos is hands down my favorite.  Hummus is a great, filling, protein-packed food to have on hand.  I snack on hummus most often with those baby carrots up there but you can really dip anything in hummus (Ok, maybe not anything!).  I don't often have a loaf of bread on hand (don't really eat it) but sometimes I have pita or flatbread which both taste lovely in here. 


7.  OATS

Always in my cart:  Old fashioned oats.  If I have nothing else around for breakfast, this is a quick go-to.  No, I'm not a fancy blogger and have never tried 'overnight oats'!  I just boil water and pour it on these oats with either a little brown sugar or honey and some fruit.  DONE!  Oats are known to reduce cholesterol, they've got good fiber content and they keep you full.  They're also super cheap when you buy a big tub like this!


8.  PLANT BASED PROTEIN POWDER

Always in my cart:  PlantFusion.  I know people have mixed feelings on using protein powders but I am not shy about admitting I like them.  I don't have a protein shake every day but I find them good for recovery after a workout or run, or as a quick, easy snack.  I obviously stick to plant-based powders (as opposed to those made from whey) and Plant Fusion has been my favorite for years.  I also like Vega but it's a bit more expensive.  And I just bought a few samples of Shakeology's vegan formula so I'll have a review on those once I try them.  I most often just use a Blender Bottle and mix my Plant Fusion powder with unsweetened almond milk.  Sometimes I'll add it to green smoothies as well.


9.  TEA

Always in my cart:  Decaffeinated black tea.  I drink hot tea almost daily when the weather is cold.  My basic cup is any brand of decaf black tea + honey but I also enjoy sampling seasonal and herbal blends.  Tea is great way to up your fluid intake during the day and add antioxidants to your diet.  It's also just comforting :)


This is my basic go-to list.  It's certainly not fancy or trendy and doesn't contain a lot of expensive items.  This is obviously not representative of everything I eat in a day or a week and there are many things I've left off, but the foods I've mentioned are things that I always buy and always have on hand.  In addition, I usually always purchase some kind of lean meat (turkey or beef) or seafood (usually frozen - salmon, shrimp, mussels, crab) which is the base of my evening meal.  I usually always have eggs and peanut butter on hand as well.  I do not purchase many packaged snack foods like chips, cookies, crackers, etc because I don't really eat those things.  I do eat treats and they are usually some type of candy, or dark chocolate, or frozen vegan 'ice cream'. 

One more note:  I usually do not buy organic, simply due to price!  It's not really in my budget, although I do worry about what all of the chemicals are doing to my body.  I think once I have kids, my stance might change and I will probably shell out the extra money to feed them organic.  I also try to buy non-GMO when possible, but some of these items are probably, definitely the result of genetic modification, which also scares the bejesus out of me.


I wasn't compensated for mentioning any of the brands in this post.  These are all just my personal faves!


I'd love to know what's in your grocery cart every week.  Please share!

Current Thoughts

Happy happy Monday to you all!  Hope your weekends were all just peachy and splendid.  I have a lot of random thoughts bouncing around this little head of mine, so you will be getting them all right now, in no particular order.  Enjoy!

• What on God's green earth is a "booty like a Cadillac"??  Do I want one of these?  Do I have one?  I ponder this every single time this song comes on the radio, which is like 50x a day

• Taylor Swift's new album drops today and the CD player in my car has been broken for months.  OH THE HUMANITY!  How am I going to live?  TSwift is just my favorite ever, and each time she's released a new album it has played on repeat in my car for weeks.  I suppose I could download it on iTunes like the rest of the modern world but my car doesn't have an adapter so I would just have to turn the volume waaaaaaaaaay up on my iPhone while it sits in my passenger seat.  So bootleg!

• This weekend I stopped in to see Sarah at Charm City Run!  I had a gift certificate that was about to expire and baby needed a new pair of shoes.  So, I did something kinda crazy.  I ordered moon shoes (aka Hokas).  I can't wait to get them!  (However, I'm mildly worried no one will want to be seen with me/run with me in these things.)  I already run in max cushioned standard running shoes (Nike Vomeros) but these take cushioning to a whole new level.  They felt amazing and bouncy on my test run, and surprisingly were extremely light - lighter than my Nikes.  Amazing.  Once I get them and run in them more, I'll give you guys more feedback.

Source/REI

 

• I got all kinds of great things in the mail this weekend.  My mom surprised me and sent me a Graze snack box! The woman is constantly worried I'm not eating enough.  Her famous first and last words each time I see her "EAT SOMETHING!"  Is this an Italian thing or does everyone's mother do this?!  I haven't tried the snacks yet, but when I do I'll let you know what I think.  They are all GMO free, trans fat free and don't use high fructose corn syrup or artificial ingredients.  Sounds legit.

• And I received a recent Amazon order containing my very favorite protein powder in all the land as well as my current favorite vegan bars.  Just goodness to eat for weeks here.

• I just realized that October is nearly over and I haven't had a SINGLE piece of candy corn to date! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!  I have no idea how this happened.  Candy corn comes but once a year and my window of opportunity is slowly closing.  I think the problem here is that October just went WAY too fast.  This situation calls for emergency action.  What if all of the stores are already sold out?!

• Every time I go to the library, I pick up this book and then put it down because I know the nightmares it reveals, and I know once I read it I'll try to go full vegan again.  I was thiiiiiis close to checking it out at the library yesterday and once again chickened out.

• There are very few, if any, advantages to cold weather, but I was just recently reminded of one this week.  LESS FREQUENT LEG SHAVING!  Hip hip hooray

• Annnnnnnnnd, it's going to be 75 degrees in Baltimore tomorrow.  I plan to don my swimsuit for my evening run.

That's all folks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Have a great day :)


Tell me something random!

Ever run in Hokas?!  Would you?

What's the last piece of great mail you received?

Friday Faves - FOOD Edition!

It's been awhile since I've done a Friday Favorites post and since I'm in recovery/eating mode this week I thought I'd post about some great food items I'm enjoying lately.  Let's dig in (I hope you're not hungry!)...


1.  For breakfast, I discovered this incredible Nature's Path Coconut Chia Granola cereal.  In one of my previous Friday Faves posts, I revealed how much I love coconut flavored anything.  This is still the case.  I happened upon this new cereal by chance, while strolling down the 'natural foods' section of my grocery store.  I like that it's organic, non-GMO and vegan.  It also contains very little sugar (only 9g per serving) and 45% of your RDV of Omega-3's.  But despite how healthy it is, it is SO good.  There are huge chunks of dried coconut in it.  Mmmm. 

 

 

 

2.  Snack time!  I came across these Raw Revolution bars a few weeks ago while stocking up on my Kind Bars.  These are also vegan, organic and non-GMO.  In addition, they contain 7g of protein and are also pretty low in sugar.  The Spirulina Dream flavor does taste a little 'green' from the spirulina algae but I like the taste.  And the Chocolate Coconut Bliss is a definite win.  I always keep bars like this in my purse for snacking on the go and I'm so glad I have a few new options now. 

 

 

 

 

3.  Juice!  This one is not a new discovery, but it's been awhile since I've purchased it.  I discovered Sambazon Acai Juice a few years ago at Whole Foods.  When I worked downtown I would often walk to Whole Foods to pick up a salad and some of this yummy juice for lunch.  It's a bit pricey which is why I haven't purchased any lately, but my local grocery store had a sale on the large bottles this week so I splurged.  I've tried other brands of Acai juice but Sambazon original is still my favorite.  Do you drink Acai?  It's a touted superfood, but I just really love the flavor of Acai.  I even found an Acai sorbet at Wegmans this past summer.  I'll write that one up on a Friday Faves soon!

 

 

 

4.  Dinner time!  I don't think I've really mentioned in past posts how much I love seafood.  And I think I even left out that one of my favorite foods is crab.  I could eat snow crab legs for days, and in fact I did, when I was in Myrtle Beach last month.  However, this particular snippet is devoted to Mussels!  When I was in Belgium a few years ago, I sampled a very traditional Belgian dish called Moules-frites, which means 'mussels & fries'.  I'd had mussels before that trip, but only as part of Italian pasta dishes.  Well, after eating moules-frites, I unleashed a new found appreciation for savoring mussels all by themselves.

So, a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon these vacuum packed frozen mussels at my local grocery store and I have been eating them nonstop.  There are a couple things I love about them.  First, the bag contains just mussels, no sauce, no butter - so it fits with my non-dairy lifestyle.  Secondly, you can actually steam them in the bag, in the microwave!  For someone whose domestic skills are seriously lacking, this is heaven.  This bag says it contains 3 servings but that's hogwash.  For dinner, I steam and eat the entire bag myself.  Each serving contains 33% of your daily iron requirement, so I'm getting 99% of my iron in one meal!  Plus, there are 18g of protein in each serving, which means that's 54g all for me.  Watch out for my new Popeye muscles.

 

 

 

5.  Treat time!  Since Halloween is upon us, I thought I'd throw some candy in here.  Candy is still 'food' right?!  I know I've mentioned a few times one of the foods I really miss from my childhood when I could eat dairy was Snickers bars!  Seems trivial I know, but oh how I loved them. Anyway, a few years ago, I discovered that these Goldberg's Peanut Chews were VEGAN!  Who knew?  And they taste somewhat similar to Snickers.  These are made with dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate, and instead of caramel as the filler, they contain molasses.  So they're not exactly the same, but they are really good!  I wouldn't consider these healthy, although nuts and dark chocolate are supposed to be good for you right?! 

 

 

 

 

6.  Another dessert!  I had to throw this one in there.  One of my favorite places to eat when I make trips back home to Bethlehem is Vegan Treats.  It is an amazing vegan bakery with it's storefront in Bethlehem, but it also has a large catering business and supplies baked goods to restaurants up and down the East Coast from NYC to DC.  Well, this weekend after the RWHalf, I stopped in to treat myself to some tasty vegan soft serve and I was rewarded with one of the most sublime, heavenly, tastiest things I think I've ever eaten in my life - Cheesecake flavored vegan ice cream.  I actually have no recollection of what cheesecake even tastes like anymore, and I'm not even sure I liked it as a child, but I could probably eat this ice cream every day for the rest of my life and never get sick of it.  I wish I could describe the flavor accurately to you dairy-eaters.  It wasn't overly sweet, but it just tasted rich and kind of buttery?  I don't even know what butter tastes like but that's how I would describe it.  I can only hope the next time I go back home they are serving up this flavor because I will surely walk out of there with at least a cone in each hand! Hahaha.  If you are ever in the area, I would urge you to check out this bakery.  According to their reviews on Yelp, people travel for hours sometimes just to stop in!

 









Well now that both you and I are sufficiently starving, I'll wrap it up.  I hope you also had a week filled with wonderful tasty treats!



Your turn!

What foods are you loving lately?

Any favorite Halloween treats?


**Disclaimer:  I was not compensated or provided products for this post.  These are simply foods I purchase on my own, eat and enjoy!