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How I grocery shop when I don’t have a plan.

I originally shared a post a while back about how I grocery shop for the week when I’m too tired to plan out meals for the week / make a grocery list.  Since this has been my go-to way of grocery shopping for pretty much the past 5 months, I thought I’d share this grocery shopping concept again + share some of the recipes we made with this week’s grocery haul!

The below graphic maps out how it works…

For my 5 snacks for this week I went with the following:

fruit Snacks. I’ve been really into fruit snacks lately and I remembered eating (and loving) the above Welch’s ones growing up.  But now my tastebuds don’t think they’re very good lol.  Won’t be buying those again.  I much prefer Annie’s gummy snacks or Sour Patch Kids.

chocolate covered pomegranate seeds.  Delish.

siggi’s drinkable yogurt.  Hadn’t had those before and I liked them.

variety of Fage yogurts.

and some Boom Chicka Pop.  I’m new to the Boom Chicka Pop world and the above flavor is dreamy.

For proteins I got: salmon, peanut butter, chicken sausage, beans

 

For carbs: sweet potatoes, Kodiak Cakes mix, pasta, bagels, some farro-y mix

For fruit: peaches, blueberries, cherries, bananas

For vegetables: green beans, tomatoes, salad mix and red bell pepper

For fun drinks:

some knock-off Dr. Peppers bc they came in glass bottles lol.  I love glass bottled drinks in summer…and since beer is off limits in pregnancy…

limeade

milk

For cheeses, we have a plethora of cheeses that Cabot sent me so I didn’t need to buy any more.

And I grabbed a couple frozen meals for lunches.

Here’s some of the recipes I’ve been making with the ingredients this week…

BREAKFASTS

Kodiak Cake Waffles topped with PB + banana + syrup.  Served with an iced half-caf vanilla latte.  I love Kodiak Cakes mix, they are EASILY my fav pancake / waffle mix right now.  The waffle gets crisp and perfect on the outside!

Cheesy eggs + buttered bagel + latte.

Whipped banana oatmeal made with milk.  Topped with waffle cone crumbles, blueberries, and peanut butter.

LUNCHES

Amy’s! So easy to grab on my way out the door for full days at the office.  Such a pretty picture, amiright?

bagged salad with sunflower seeds and quinoa crisps that came w/ the salad + buttered bagel

DINNERS

salmon + roasted sweet potatoes with ketchup + salad + Dr. Pepper

Andrew cooked one night with a Knor rice side dish we had in the pantry.  Served with broccoli and chicken sausage.  Served with some limemade.

Last night I made the farro mix + green beans cooked in butter.  Served with pinto beans tossed together in a random sauce made with a leftover Chick-fil-a BBQ sauce + ketchup + Worcestershire sauce.  They came out kinda like baked beans!

Served along with my prenatal vitamin :)

SNACKS

banana + chocolate covered pomegranate seeds

Yummy cookies from fat cat creamery a friend brought us + a dark hot chocolate.

siggi’s drinkable yogurt + peach

bell peppers + cherries + tomatoes

out for a decaf vanilla latte at 2nd cup with a new friend

a couple chocolate chip cookies + milk made using this recipe.  I think I found my go-to small-batch recipe because these were AMAZING!

I was running errands at Target and got hungry, so I grabbed these for a snack.

tomatoes (these only kept me full for about 30 minutes).

Chick-fil-a ice cream cone yesterday on a sweltering afternoon

Boom chicka pop (and, clearly, no outfit is complete without dog hair).

OKAY! I hope this makes grocery shopping simpler for you or gives you some meal + snack ideas :)

30 comments

  1. This post was SO helpful! I have seen the shopping concept you posted earlier (5, 4, 3, 2, 1 theory), but this post showing what you did with what you bought was so helpful to see how to implement that into meals without a necessary/rigid meal prep/plan. I love it! I hope you do more of these!

  2. I agree on glass-bottle drinks, they’re so much better for some reason. My absolute favorite is cold cold, kinda flat, diet coke in a glass bottle. (Yes, everyone else says I’m gross for liking flat pop)

  3. LOVE these posts. I’m still in a place where I enjoy grocery shopping and meal planning, but sometimes life gets in the way and I end up at the grocery store with no plan. I bet your clients would appreciate something like this too!

    • It’s such a small thing, but it’s so nice when grocery shopping / meal planning is enjoyable. Fingers crossed after pregnancy grocery shopping will start being super fun again :)

  4. LOVE LOVE LOVE these kind of posts! Keep doing them if you can :) It is so helpful to learn simple grocery shopping methods like this.

  5. the meal ideas are so helpful! Keep em coming !:)

  6. I do a looser version of this but inevitably always have to go back to the store because I forgot one protein to make dinner or something like that. Love the graphic and will definitely use this in the future to give my loose way of shopping just a bit more direction. I HATE meal planning, I feel like it restricts me and what I am feeling for the day so I love the happy medium of this method, still having a list and enough to get through the week but can throw things together as the urge happens :) And super pumped to try that chocolate chip cookie recipe!

  7. I love this post! I don’t quite use something as well-outlined, but I try to buy from each food group like this so we can easily pull together delicious and filling meals. I enjoy when Matt goes to the store sometimes too because he always finds things that I don’t see. :) Wonderful post, Kylie!

  8. Hi Kylie!

    I love your idea for meal planning! I will definitely have to share this with friends/try out for myself. Your meals/snacks look so satisfying! Thank you so much for sharing :)

  9. I shop for every 2 weeks so we can make the best use of our nearest Kroger Clicklist pickup (which is an hour away). I map out 8 nights worth of meals, sometimes this means I’m making a casserole intended for 2 nights. I ALWAYS have a frozen pizza in case there’s a night we’re simply too busy for anything else. And I ALWAYS have sandwich meat and supplies on hand for the same reason. Breakfasts are almost always Van’s frozen waffles, variations of oatmeal or English Muffins topped with PB and bananas. I am super fortunate that my work has dining hall and they have an awesome salad bar, so I rely on that most days for lunch or pack leftovers. Grocery shopping used to make me so stressed, but then Clicklist has made it SO MUCH BETTER!

  10. the gold kitchen faucet and cabinet hardware *swoon*

  11. I love this idea! I am usually pretty good at planning meals, but I have been forgetting to buy snacks for like the last 2 weeks. No fun! So I did a major snack haul a couple days ago so I’m set for a while. Also OMG that oatmeal with waffle cone crumbles looks amazing!!

  12. I love these series so much! So helpful to see the variety of foods and creative ways you prepare them. Thanks Kylie!

  13. My mom never planned her meals in advance, so we always shopped like this. Pasta, rice, a couple of packages of ground meat, yogurt, etc. I remember when I first realized that other people planned a whole week’s worth of meals in advance. My mind was blown. I’m all for planning a few meals/recipes in advance, so I can try a fun new recipe and make sure I have all the ingredients, but planning every single one out in advance just doesn’t seem worth it to me. Too much time and energy!

  14. I’ve been all about gummy anything during this pregnancy! My favorite are the life saver gummies and Annies! Good texture!

  15. I love when you go grocery hauls + what you make out of them! :) And then add more. Hope you have a wonderful Thursday!

  16. Oooo I love all of these ideas! Again, I always appreciate how “normal” your eats are. No crazy (expensive) super-foods here! Thank you and thank you.

  17. Love your grocery haul! I Nneeeeeed to try kodiak cakes and that siggi’s!!! I am so obsessed with popcorn it is scary, and boom chick-a-pop is my go-to! I used to eat the Annie’s fruit snacks when I would nanny – they’re so delicious!

  18. I LOVE this way of grocery shopping when I can’t be bothered thinking ahead. I have printed out your graphic and keep it in my purse for reference! Thanks Kylie for saving us on the weeks that meal planning doesn’t sound appealing at all!

  19. Okay WHY have I never done this before! Brilliant. Structure so I don’t go completely crazy and end up with nothing that goes together. But freedom and room for fun so I don’t feel constricted! 

  20. You’re a genius! Thank you for sharing. I always do extensive meal planning and this is much more laid back. Also, I’m loving the idea of chocolate pomegranate seeds! I must find them. And the dog hair is the perfect accessory. ;)

  21. Love the number concept for your meal planning! Thank you for also showing us how you used what you got at the store! I will usually plan what I want for two of the weeknights and then buy our go-to items and put them together for the other meals. Want to try out your strategy sometime too!

  22. Pingback: Awesome Blog Posts That Aren’t About The Nordstrom Anniversary Sale – Cristina Was Here

  23. Will you post how you make your lattes?? I have an at-home espresso machine but haven’t perfected it yet and I’m curious what your taste buds like?!

  24. This is such a great idea! Do you have any formula to go by to determine how many portions or how much you purchase in each category? I’d like to try this but not sure how to make sure you get enough food. Thanks!

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