Grocery Guide: Health Food Edition

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Dose of Prose

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I love to cook and bake! I definitely have stepped up my cooking game, as I made Thanksgiving dinner for my family this year! Pretty impressive, right? I enjoy trying out new recipes and I’d say I have a pretty specific regimen when it comes to meal prepping and grocery shopping. Along with cooking, grocery shopping has become one of my simple pleasures (only when I’m not hungry and the store isn’t crowded of course, haha). Anyway, I created a post a few weeks ago called A Grocery Store List You’ll Actually Use (I hope you used it 😉) and I decided this week to create a part 2 of that post with more details and specifics when it comes to the groceries I buy and the meals that I make. If you are trying to start cooking more but don’t know what to buy, or if you want to incorporate more health foods into your diet and need some inspo, this post is for you!

Disclaimer: Food is not a one size fits all. I am not a nutritionist, physician, dietician or any sort of doctor nor do I have any licenses that make me capable of giving medical/health advice. Do what works best for you, your body and your budget. I am aware that some people have certain food allergies/intolerances and/or have no interest in investing money into high end/health food grocery stores. It is not my intention and never will be my intention to tell you how to live your life. I am simply offering a guide based on what works for me, with the goal of educating and inspiring you on other options you can potentially use in your routine. Feel free to modify this guide to your liking.

I shop at a total of 3 grocery stores: Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Erewhon Market, which all fall under the category of health food supermarkets. These grocers, specifically Whole Foods and Erewhon, have a higher price point, so it is typical for me to spend $60-100 a week for groceries. I usually go to a soulcycle class on Saturday mornings and get my main groceries at Whole Foods (which is down the street) afterwards. I consider Whole Foods to be my main grocery store because it’s where I get the majority of my groceries, specifically my dinner meals. For snacks, I usually go to Trader Joe’s and for brunch and other miscellaneous items, Erewhon is my go-to.

I guess I have a general habit of working out and then grocery shopping afterwards because just like soulcycle with Whole Foods, I go to Trader Joe’s and Erewhon after my pilates classes, haha. This system works for me because not only am I getting a great workout in, but also I have a positive grocery shopping experience because I usually workout early in the morning, so once I get to the store…1) the food has just been put out, so it’s super fresh and 2) the store isn’t crowded. Anyway, the point is, I get what I need on the weekend and meal prep for the week. Although my groceries are expensive, the return on investment is high because I have significantly cut down on eating out, saved money from eating out, and overall, I physically and mentally feel at my best because of how productive I am from the foods that I am putting in my body. Of course I like to switch things up and sometimes my grocery list won’t be the same, but I’ve developed what I believe to be a simple health food grocery list that yields quick, healthy meals that will last you the whole week. Let’s get into it.

Whole Foods List ($60-100)

• veggies for a salad (ie. lettuce, tomato, carrots, bell pepper, cucumber, broccoli, etc.)
• protein
  • 1 lb seafood: shrimp, scallops or fish (ie. salmon, tilapia, rockfish filet or whatever their catch of the day is)
  • 3 lbs chicken: drumsticks are my fave (you get about 10 drumsticks) OR I’ll get an already cooked rotisserie chicken 
• veggies to cook as a side with the protein listed above (ie. mushrooms, brussel sprouts, kale, spinach, etc.)
• sparkling water – Waterloo, La Croix and Topo Chico are my fave
• dairy (ie. milk, butter – see my dairy-free guide for the brands I like)
• eggs – I get the large, brown, cage-free eggs
• hot tray  (pro-tip: if you are getting hot food that isn’t soup but is “soup-like,” put it in a soup container instead of the box container, not only to reduce the risk of spillage in your car as you’re on your way home, but also because it’s the most bang for your buck 😉.)
  • pizza: I always get two slices of the veggie pizza
  • entreé: they change this up all the time, but I love to get the veggie lasagna, samosas, jalapeño beef, beef stew, buffalo chicken wings and/or baked chicken when they have it! 
• dessert: I go to the cake/pastry bar and get mini desserts from there – my latest obsession is the banana cream tart…so good.
• random things I sometimes get but sometimes don’t:
  • chia seed pudding (overpriced, just make it at home tbh)
  • pancake mix
  • bathroom toiletries – soap, lotion, etc. 
  • kombucha
  • sushi 
  • frozen breakfast meat (I like the chicken apple sausage)
  • frozen hashbrowns 
  • fruit (either pre-cut or fresh)
  • some sort of lunch since I’m hungry from my workout (I either make my own sandwich at the deli or get food from the The Eight Bar restaurant inside the store)
  • bread (I normally get the Ezekiel brand)
  • pasta (there’s this chickpea based pasta that’s awesome)
  • granola bar/protein bar

Trader Joe’s List ($15-25)

• brown rice (I get the frozen kind because it’s so easy to make)
• tea/coffee
• chips: I love their corn chips, popcorn and regular potato chips
• cookie butter (the cocoa + cookie dual blend is bomb.com)
• banana nut bread 
• instant oatmeal (I get the flax seed kind)
• salad dressing (I like the balsamic and the goddess dressing)
• pasta (I tend to go for any veggie/legume based pasta they have)
• random things that I sometimes get and sometimes don’t: 
  • alcohol (wine/champagne when I’m hosting dinner parties)
  • bathroom toiletries
  • eggs
  • coffee creamer
  • fruit 
  • cookies
  • seasonings

Erewhon Market List ($30-70)

• HFactor water (this water is for my workouts – I get either plain, blood orange or watermelon flavored…see my latest fitness post for more gym bag food/drink recs)
• Essentia water 
• yogurt 
• overnight oats
• soup (their chicken noodle is simple, yet delicious)
• Tonic & Juice bar – my latest fave is their matcha-cado smoothie…it’s super filling and delicious (sometimes I’ll get a juice, but I try to stay away from this section in general because it’s pricey lol..$16+ for a smoothie/juice, yikes!). 
• hot bar – I still haven’t mastered how to be cost effective with this, but all I can tell you is that if you want a side dish, it’s weighed by the pound, so the more you ask for, the more it’ll cost. If you just want a meal, it will come with a main dish and two sides for $15. At the end of the day, it all comes out to be expensive, but depending on what’s on the tray and whether or not I feel like cooking, I’ll either get a full meal or just sides, not both. 
  • steak and egg burrito (literally the best breakfast burrito I’ve ever had…they have other vegetarian/vegan breakfast burritos and I’ve heard great things about them, but if you eat meat you gotta try this one! Pro-tip: if you don’t see it out, just ask if they have it because they usually hide them in the back…yeah that’s how sought after these burritos are…)
  • buffalo cauliflower (you will have to fight World War III to get your hands on this – they always run out and have to cook more, but it’s worth the wait, trust me)
  • fish – I love their sea bass
• random things I sometimes get and sometimes don’t:
  • eggs
  • smoked salmon 
  • cold brew
  • matcha
  • fruit
  • dark chocolate
  • granola bar

Meals to Make

I eat very clean and simple. My dinner usually consists of a salad with a main dish. The main dish will be some type of lean protein (ie. fish or chicken) with brown rice and a cooked vegetable (ie. kale, spinach, brussel sprouts, mushrooms, etc.). Otherwise, I’ll do pasta with veggies and/or seafood. I do a lot of what I like to call half-assed cooking haha, which is basically when part of the dish is already made and I only have to prep/cook half of it. For example, I’ll get a side dish off the hot bar at Erewhon or some protein off the hot tray at Whole Foods, so the only part of my meal I really have to make is either a salad or maybe cooking some rice. This saves me so much time! I know that shopping at 3 different grocery stores sounds excessive, but they’re all so close to each other and it’s nice because if I run out of one item, or if one store doesn’t have an item, I can get it at another store. Check out the slideshow below for some visuals on the variety of dishes you can make based on the grocery list above! 

I hope this blog post was helpful. If you like these types of posts and want to know step-by-step how I make a certain dish, leave a comment and let me know! I’d be happy to share.

-Kaamilah