What does your grocery list look like when you’re eating healthy?

I’m on Weight Watchers again, and I’m working on my grocery list.  I was talking to a couple of Facebook friends earlier about the types of healthy foods we try to keep on hand when trying to eat healthy.  I shared a few things that I’ve come up with, but I’d love to hear other people’s suggestions!

Here are some of mine:

I hate to admit it, because I seriously do try to avoid processed foods when I can, but it’s a lot harder when you’re dieting or doing Weight Watchers.  I tend to keep a few Lean Cuisines or Lean Pockets in the freezer for emergencies or when I’m just feeling extremely lazy–they’re easy and don’t have a lot of points.  I also tend to keep a can of milk chocolate Slimfast powder in the cupboard for the same reason.  While I’m doing true confessions, I also use butter sprinkles or butter spray when I’m doing Weight Watchers.  Yes I know it’s like one molecule away from being plastic, but I still do it.  (There, I admitted it.)

Other than those seriously processed things…

I try to buy a lot of produce, then wash and chop it the next day so it’s easy to grab at a moment’s notice.  (Grocery shopping can be exhausting, so I usually never do it right when I get home from the store.)

I buy romaine & other lettuces, spinach, radishes, carrots, sprouts, and any other salad-bar things that would be low or no points.  I also get some slightly higher cal/higher protein items  like sunflower seeds, garbanzo beans, olives,  and 2% cheese–but I try to make sure to weigh those things before putting on my salad because they can rack up points quickly.  I keep all of it–chopped, washed and ready to eat–in small containers in the fridge.  (My own little instant salad bar!) I also keep low cal salad dressing, which I also try to remember to measure when I use it when I’m counting points.  I try to make my own salad dressings because it’s hard to find dressings that don’t have HFCS.  The Annie’s dressings don’t, but I’m just not crazy about bottled dressings to begin with.

I also try to get stuff like zucchini, summer squash, fresh mushrooms, onions, eggplant, red peppers, and other similar veggies that I’ll chop up and saute in a small amount of olive oil while I’m prepping all my produce. (I usually saute them one at a time, then throw it all in together.  I just keep a big container of cooked veggies in the fridge so I can warm some in the microwave to go into my Egg Beaters omlet in the morning with a couple of Tbs. of 2% cheese.  It’s a fast, healthy, and fairly quick breakfast.

The other day, I figured out that I can peel and chop up an apple, throw it together with a little sweetener, pinch of salt, butter spray, cinnamon and nutmeg; and then nuke it until it’s soft.  It’s awesome on a toasted whole grain English Muffin when I’m craving a pastry.

When I buy any bread product, I check the label to make sure there’s no HFCS, then I check to make sure it says “Whole Wheat” or “Whole Grain”.  After that, I check the nutrition label to figure out which one has the most fiber and the fewest calories.  If there’s more than one that fits that criteria, I get the one that feels softer.

In the summer, we love frozen grapes.  I’ll buy a bunch of grapes, wash them really well and cut the stems so that when you grab them you’ll get a proper serving size.  Then I just throw them in the freezer.  They work really well when you want something cold and sweet like a Popsicle.  (They don’t satisfy a chocolate craving though.  I’ve been known to keep the fat free Fudgesicles on hand for that purpose.  Only one point each!)

My doctor suggested another one to me.  He’s completely against all sweeteners.  (He prefers sugar or honey to HFCS, but would prefer we avoid all of them with the history of diabetes in our family.) He suggested that a calorie free, yet refreshing drink is flavored water.  He told me to take a pitcher of water and put in sliced lemons, limes, even cucumber.  Throw it in the fridge overnight, and it makes a really good drink.  I’ve tried cucumber water at a spa, but I keep meaning to do this at home.  I love to put water in the fridge anyway.  It’s handy to have cold water, and I swear it tastes better after the chlorine has had a chance to evaporate away.

We also love to make 5-minute tomato soup.  I’m pretty sure I’ve posted it on here before, but all you do is put a small amount of olive oil in the bottom of a saucepan, warm it a little and then throw in a little fresh garlic.  (Roasted garlic is even better!) Then you let that sizzle for less than a minute before you add a can of crushed tomatoes and a little dried basil.  You let that simmer for about 5 minutes, then either take a stick blender to it, throw it in your regular blender, or leave it slightly chunky.  We love it, and it’s almost point free!

Ok, there are a few of my healthy food tricks.  Now it’s your turn to comment and share some of yours!

Some Thoughts (while I still try to get my other computer up and running)

I recently discovered this site and was completely enthralled.  If I’m not mistaken, it was set up by a couple of friends who practice something called “Urban Homesteading”.  (Which is essentially just trying to be as self-sufficient as one can be without being ridiculous.)  It isn’t a survivalist mentality–they don’t have stores of provisions and guns in their larder.  It’s a very back-to-basics mentality that appeals to my nostalgic side.

Several years ago, we moved into the home that was first my husband’s grandparents, then his parents’ before we moved in.  It was built in the early 1940s, and is completely charming with it’s huge basement, arched doorways, whole-house ventilation fan, cute little porch, etc.   It has been updated over the years–the heat pump/AC unit makes the coal chute obsolete, but I love that it’s still there.

It has actually been updated a little too much if you want the truth.  When my husband’s parents moved in, they replaced a lot of the charming doorknobs, light fixtures, etc. with the finest the 1980s had to offer.  It’s sad, especially when you consider how popular the mid-century style is now.  Little by little, we’ve been replacing the peach and country blue with colors that are a little more tolerable.  We’re still discussing ripping out the carpet and uncovering the pristine oak hardwood floors; but I’m a little afraid because they’re authentic, waxed wood floors so they don’t have the protection of polyurethane.   (I have a dog, two cats, and a little boy to potentially destroy it.)

That whole tangent brings be back to the fact that I’ve always been drawn to the way my grandmother did things, and now that we live in her house–the way my husband’s grandmother did things.   As we go through the house, my husband tells me stories of the amazing gardens his grandmother kept, the fruit she grew and canned, the art she created (that is still hanging on our walls), how she always line dried her laundry, and the amazing food she created–from scratch.  (Ahhh, now we’re getting to familiar topics!)

If you’ve read my blog much at all, you know that I have a distrust for excess chemicals.  I don’t believe in the idea of “better living through modern science”.  I think a lot of the chemicals that are now in our lives came about because manufacturers just wanted to save a buck in manufacturing so they could make more money in the long run, and boy howdy did it work!  I’m firmly convinced that food that is grown from dirt that has been farmed to death is pretty much nutrition free. They use petroleum based fertilizers to force things to grow, then they spray on “nutrients” during the manufacturing process–and the efficacy of those is now being called into question.  I think that chemists are smart people, but I don’t believe that they can fully understand how nutrients work in the body.  They have recognized the very basic elements that we need, but they don’t know how all of those things work together, nor do they understand how they work within each individual’s system.  I’m finally even starting to hear reports that scientists are discovering that taking a vitamin might not be the cure-all that they once thought it was.  Now they’re starting to suggest that you’re better off to eat more healthy foods like produce to get the nutrients you need.

I also think it’s sad that so many people have no earthly clue where their food comes from, nor do they have any idea that not long ago people survived just fine without all the extra chemicals in their food, cleaning products, etc.  I am absolutely amazed at the number of friends I have who can’t make even basic recipes from scratch–or act like it takes an act of God for them to be able to.  Cooking isn’t hard, yet so many people I know are unable to feed themselves without eating out or reheating processed foods.  It makes me sad.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not judging those people.  I know I’m in the minority, and I understand that I’m in a unique situation because I have more time to cook at home.  (And trust me when I say we eat plenty of restaurant and processed foods lately.)  But most people don’t understand that cooking from scratch frequently doesn’t take any longer than making something from a packaged mix, is frequently faster than going out to eat, and is a million times healthier than pretty much any of the chemical laden processed meals that you can reheat.  Especially if you plan ahead a little–which is my downfall.

All that said, I think I might shift the focus of my site just a little bit once I’m back up and running again.  I think I was already heading that way.   Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to get rid of my TV or stop eating fake meat. We all have our things that we like.  I do want to start trying more things like canning my own food, try my hand at making soap; and I recently tried making my own ricotta cheese.  (It was really easy and good.  I’ll post it soon!)

At first I was worried that people would think that I’m becoming very “crunchy granola”.  I’m not trading in my sneakers for some Birkenstocks.  But the more I think about it, the more it makes sense now that more and more people are looking into saving money and being more environmentally friendly.

Feel free to play along with me, live vicariously through me, or just laugh at me–it’s all good.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter in comments though.