This Week's Shopping List

This week, we're helped a bit by having holiday parties to go to all weekend. So, dinner is covered both Saturday and Sunday. However, we might have a dinner guest one day during the week, so that will add a bit back. Any savings we might glean couldn't have come at a better time, as all of the wholesale orders seem to piling up now.

As will likely be the case for many a winter week, this week relies heavily on frozen and canned foods. Although we don't completely stop buying fresh produce in the winter, we do buy a lot less of it. We try to buy as much local produce as is available (not much ... but there are still a few potatoes around), and when we need to, we fill in with some not-so-local produce. In most cases, we try to stay continental, at least.

This weeks menu looks like this:

Lunch: Broccoli, Potato & Cheese Soup with whole grain english muffins and sardines (I mush the sardines into the muffin, as a sort of condiment.

Dinner:
- Whole Wheat Spinach Lasagna (leftover from last week)
- Grilled salmon with mango red pepper salsa and rice pilaf with wilted kale
- Buffalo and BBQ chicken “wings” with sweet potato chips and carrot & celery sticks

I also have some Hanukkah prep to do this week:
- Black & White Hanukkah cookies
- More healthy truffles: Trail Mix Truffles and the one you all know by now, White Chocolate Macadamia Truffles

This was the week's shopping list (* indicates non-organic):

broccoli crowns* (99 cents/lb)
white potatoes
onions
garlic
kale
red pepper
sweet potatoes
carrots
bananas
pears
apples
oranges
milk
Florida's Natural OJ* (2/$5)
seltzer* (3/$1)
dates
dried cranberries
pumpkin seeds
almond butter
cashew butter
safflower oil*
spelt flat breads
whole wheat crackers
Annie's cheddar bunnies
dehydrated corn
dehydrated peas
powdered sugar ($1 off coupon)
white chocolate
dark chocolate

Wow! There were so many things that were out of stock this week! Must be the holidays! These are the things I couldn't buy: almond butter, cashew butter, spelt flat breads, whole wheat crackers, and dehydrated peas. In case you're wondering, nearly all of these things are snack foods (including the dehydrated peas ... a favorite of my daughter's), and we can live without them for a week without a problem. Somehow, they all ran out at once! I did buy spelt breadsticks instead of the flatbreads, since they had those, and they were actually a bit cheaper. I also bought fingerling potatoes instead of white potatoes, because they were locally grown. Since I used a can of crushed tomatoes this week for the lasagna, and since they were still on sale, I bought one more can of that. I also picked up a box of cereal that was on sale, knowing that we would need that soon, too.

The total from regular grocery shopping came to $73.49. We also had two wholesale bills come due this week. One is from a local health foods wholesaler (Neshaminy Valley, if you're in the area) and the other is a national natural products wholesaler (Frontier Natural Products Co-Op). From Neshaminy, my food order came to $37.85 (a bunch of cheeses, salad dressings, english muffins, boxed mac n cheese [everyone has their down days!]). From Frontier, my food order came to $36.19 (flour, chili powder, tea, granola bars, decaf coffee). So, that means we're up to $147.53 for the week, which is $25.03 over our weekly budget. Thankfully, we still had a surplus of $46, so we're still in the black by about $21. Whew!

Next week, we're expecting to pick up a large order of local organic ground beef. That might also push the budget, but it should hold us on ground beef for the year. We might also make a trip to Costco for some freezer replenishments. That store has done a lot to save natural foods lovers money!