First I have to apologize this post is going up an entire week after I did this meal prep and cooking, but unfortunately life has been hectic and so has work so I didn’t get around to editing my video or photos until now. Either way this will still be a great post and helpful for your meal prep and grocery shopping trips. This week I went to Fairway Market to get my groceries which I have not gone to in quite some time. I find it to be a bit pricier than Trader Joe’s and Shop Rite or Stop & Shop, but you can’t beat their selection, variety and assortment of health and organic items. The one I go to is on Route 46 and is huge! I wound up spending around $170 on this visit but it included a lot of things like almonds (pricey), meats (pricey) and a large jar of olive oil. Those things add up quick, so normally what I buy costs between $100-$150 for me and my husband’s breakfast, lunches and snacks for at least four days.

Watch my video on some of my grocery shopping tips

Some tips when going grocery shopping:

1. Shop the perimeter – if you shop the outside areas of the grocery store first you will load your cart up with the best foods for you and leave very little room left for the impulse buys. Produce, meats, dairy should all come first and then you can go up and down the aisles for the items you NEED not the items you want to “browse”.
2. Buy organic (if you can afford to do so) – this is not a lecture on organic vs. non-organic I just personally choose to go with organic when I can afford to and have the option. That’s why I love Trader Joe’s because their organic is not much more money than regular and why not spend a few more cents to go organic. If you don’t buy organic just make sure to read the labels. If you can always go with the items that have the least amount of ingredients. For example nut butter should be nuts and salt, that’s it. If you start to see tons of ingredients in peanut butter put it down. There are so many extra chemicals and sweeteners going into food so be conscious of that
3. Water – yes drink lots of it, we know this, but don’t waste your money on purified water (all it is is tap water that has been filtered.) make sure to READ the plastic and that it says natural spring water. Don’t pay some big company money to put tap in a fancy bottle. I always buy poland spring, trader joes spring water, smart water or FIJI
4. If it can go bad…it’s good! Buy your fruits and vegetables in the raw form whenever possible. Don’t buy them in cans or frozen unless there is no other way to get them. You can buy raw and freeze things; i do that with strawberries and bananas for smoothies. I buy organic, slices them up and then freeze them.
5. Don’t ever shop when you’re hungry! We know how this goes, you will wind up buying everything in sight. Eat a protein bar before you head in so you don’t wind up picking up things that you don’t really want in the house.

It was also super cold out this weekend and I was not a happy camper having to drag all these bags from my car to my apartment, but we had to do it. I purchased a ton of fresh produce including spinach, carrots, peppers, asparagus, cucumbers, broccoli,  artichokes and onions. I also picked  up Fat Free Plain Greek yogurt, Fat Free cottage cheese, organic soups and broths, organic skim milk, grass fed beef to make london broil, natural chicken breasts and organic taco seasoning for chili.

Having a bunch of fix ins for a healthy salad is always on my list when I go shopping. I just love salads with lots of things in it and I use some apple cider vinegar and seasonings as a dressing. It’s so easy and simple and has a ton of health benefits especially when it comes to digestion. I make salad with our dinners as a side dish and when it is fresh like this it hits the spot!

Fairway Market is great because they have a huge produce section with lots of vegetables, greens and fruits. They also carry a wide variety of local harvest and organic so there is a mix for every price point. There are some greens I find here that I can’t find at other grocery stores near me, so I really love taking the extra few minutes to venture out to the Fairway Market. I like to stock up on spinach, brocolli rabe, peppers, onions, celery, cucumbers, carrots, artichokes, string beans and brussel sprouts.

One thing I can’t deny is I always make sure to have some form of healthy snacks in the house that I know will satisfy any crunchy or sweet cravings without completely derailing my diet. I don’t like to buy anything that will really make me feel guilty if I go a bit over board and eat it; so I like to get Puffin cereal as a sweet tooth fix, I love Boom Chicka Pop popcorn in a variety of their flavors like sea salt and slightly sweet and some type of Non-GMO and Organic chip to dip in some salsa for a movie night snack. It’s important to at least have a few things so you don’t start hating the fact that your entire pantry and fridge is just healthy.

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