First Diet Grocery List

Carrots/baby carrots & spinach!

Fresh fruit for snacks, frozen fruit for smoothies. Fresh lettuce/spinach and baby carrots and celery for salads, frozen veggies for stir fry or pasta dishes. Whole wheat pasta, rice. Small tortilla wraps...canned tuna, canned tomatos, eggs and liquid egg whites.

lots of salad stuff and soups. they are the best.

I was not sure when I first started eating them, but now that is the only way I eat eggs. Even when I grab breakfast at Subway I order the egg white version.

fresh fruits and veggies are not as expensive as they seem. Unless you are shopping only once month maybe try frozen or canned fruits and veggies. Oatmeal is great and most non sugary cereals are low in calories. I also love progresso soups for lunch. Yoplait lights are cheap as well. There are also generics of the name brand soups and yogurts that taste just as great but have less variety. My biggest trick to low cost grocery shopping though is that I buy meat packages from the local butcher. If you eat meat, this is the cheapest way to go. Good luck!!!

I use a meal planning service. She creates a meal plan for the week, supplies all the recipes AND the corresponding grocery list. :bigsmile:

I've switched to ground turkey, leaner and cheaper than ground beef..

I like turkey and turkey bacon is tolerable (of course, not as good as a pig .) Do you miss the "beef" flavor?

I only shop for myself weekly and I spend about 60 to 80 a week on groceries. I stick to the outside of the grocery store (meat, produce, and dairy) This shop makes 35 complete meals (which is 3 regular meals and 2 snacks a day)

chicken breast
tilapia filets
tuna
cottage cheese
celery
bannanas
mixed vegatables pack
whole grain bread
oatmeal
peanut butter
string cheese
plain yogurt
onions
alfalfa sprouts
bean sprouts

Almost all of the grocery shops have weekly ads that you can look up online. I make my grocery list every two weeks, and start by making up the dinner list. I use the ads to find out what sort of veggies are on sale and go from there. This week, Sunflower market has napa cabbage, bell peppers, and onions on sale, so I'll be making stirfry at least once. Squash is on sale too, so roasted veggies with chicken is on the list. I picked up a handful of whole chickens when they went on sale last month, it's easy to cook one up in the crockpot and have shredded chicken to throw into any meal for added protein.
The thing that helps me most is really dedicating time to both making the meal plans and making the actual meal. If you can put aside the time to chop up your veggies yourself, it saves you a lot of money and is much healthier (and tasty!). I don't buy frozen or canned veggies anymore, and I'm much happier for it.

I research what I want to get and look for the lower carb and salt items. If you can't afford the best vegetables then you can rinse them and that helps with the salt!!

When I 1st started I made small changes. Switched breads/pastas to whole grain, started using frozen veggies instead of canned, switched to low fat/2% cheeses, switched to Greek yogurt and started getting everything I could without added sugar. Items that I couldn't get without added sugar I'd read the label and go for things that didn't have sugar in the 1st 3 ingredients. I learned how to read labels so I could make better healthier choices.
I still primarily shop this way, but now I also go for things that are all natural or minimally processed when possible. Along with watching Sodium content and Saturated fat.