Meal-Planning and Grocery Shopping on the Paleo Diet

   I believe the best way to stick with your healthy lifestyle is having a system. I don't go grocery shopping on the same day every week (I should probably fix that...), but I have the same plan each time.

PART 1: Meal Planning

      Every week I look for three new recipes I haven't tried before. I try to hold out as long as I can on repeating recipes because I don't like to be bored with my food!  I don't search for meals...I search for the meat or protein portion of the meal.
     For example, I found an idea for Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Jalapeno bites, and then I thought about what vegetable I wanted to eat with it. Garlic roasted broccoli seemed like a good pairing. We plan on having a ton of veggies with every meal because we generally don't include a carb/starch.  We had plenty of leftovers because these are filling foods--we had a couple of lunches and a frittata made from the leftovers of this meal. Click here to get the recipe for Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Chicken Bites and Garlic Roasted Broccoli!

Protein; Bacon and Chicken
Vegetables: Roasted Broccoli and Jalapenos

So, we have three fresh meals a week. Those leftovers hold us over for a while, and any meals that aren't covered are filled in with scrambled eggs and/or a large salad. We also go out to eat once a week.

Here are my three meals and ingredients for this coming week:

Meal #1: Buffalo Turkey Burgers (w/out bun) and a large salad

Meal #2: Paleo Jambalaya (cauliflower in place of rice), w/ salad

Meal #3: Pesto Chicken Spaghetti Squash Bake, w/ salad (check back tomorrow for recipe!)

So I know I'll need ground turkey for meal 1 (we already have buffalo sauce), shrimp, sausage, and cauliflower for meal 2, and chicken, spaghetti squash, and pesto for meal 3. Any other ingredients probably land in our list of frequently consumed foods, which brings us to the next part:

PART 2: Frequently Consumed Foods

These are items we consume on a daily basis. Ingredients for large, filling salads are very important to keep stocked. We eat a lot of fruits, vegetables, and eggs for meals and snacks. Here's what that list looks like for me and Ryan:

• Fruit: apples, grapefruit, berries (summer only...too expensive later on), and bananas
• Vegetables: giant box of mixed baby greens or romaine lettuce, bell peppers, avocados, red cabbage, carrots, broccoli
• Eggs
• Greek yogurt, full-fat (this is surprisingly hard to find)

PART 3: Replacing Large Costco Items

There are certain items we buy at Costco in bulk because it's cheaper. Costco also stocks organic items that are cheaper than regularly priced non-organic items at stores like Kroger.  We only have to buy these every few weeks or months because the portions are enormous. These items include:

• almonds, walnuts, and/or pecans
• salsa, organic
• peanut butter, organic
• coffee
• spinach (to be frozen at home...no one can eat those monster-sized bags of spinach before it goes bad. We add frozen spinach to smoothies and saute it as a veggie side.)
• jerky
• ground beef, organic
• Aidell's chicken sausage
• Kerrygold butter
• olive oil
• balsamic vinegar
• coconut oil
• honey
• olives

PART 4: Miscellanous Items

I dabble with Paleo baking recipes, so this list includes any ingredients I need to experiment.

• Coconut flour (Trader Joe's)
• Almond flour (Trader Joe's)
• pure coconut milk
• unsweetened coconut flakes
• dark chocolate
• almond milk
• pumpkin

Creating the Grocery List:

      Any recipes I'm going to make for a particular week go into my recipe folders on BigOven. I use this website to keep recipes organized and create grocery lists. It's so easy! After I upload the recipe, I just click the little grocery cart icon and up pops a list of ingredients. I 'x' out the ingredients I already have (usually spices and oil) and then add the remaining ingredients to the grocery list. Then I add all of our regular, daily used items and head to the store. BigOven has an app that syncs up with its website. I open up the app and there's my list!

But if you're a "paper list" kind of person, here's a list I would take with me every week to the grocery if carrying around paper didn't drive me crazy.  I used to use this list, and I would check off what I needed while meal planning for the week.

(This list assumes an already stocked spice selection!)

This system works for us, and we rarely wind up with an empty fridge with no food. Ryan and I both very much enjoy food and this system guarantees we always have something yummy to eat!

Question to Readers: Would this system work for you? And what is a grocery staple in your household?

Good night!