Project Real Food: Week 1 Grocery Trip

Well.  That was not the best trip to the grocery store.  Looking back on it I guess it wasn't all that terrible, but when I left the store I was determined to never set foot in a grocery store again unless I was either alone or had a small army of reinforcements.  The need to read the label on every product that goes in the cart makes for a long trip.  Add in a teething baby, a tired mommy, and a crowded store and you have a recipe for disaster.  We survived the deli counter and the dairy case, but the produce section proved too difficult.  Sam - who usually sits calmly in the cart and flirts with other customers - was grabbing at everything and screaming in an octave known to shatter glass.  I was trying to hurry which meant I wasn't able to think clearly.  I pacified Sam with a handful of Apple Cinnamon Puffs.  By the time we got to the bulk section all I needed was peanuts, rolled oats, pecans, and pine nuts.  They were all on the same aisle.  Ready-Set-Go!  Except I was trying to do it all one-handed since one hand was occupied by Puffs.  Then a really snotty customer pushed me out of the way to get to the almonds and mumbled something about whiny babies and incompetent mothers, and I figured I should haul it out of the store before I force fed her a handful of Puffs.

I made it to the checkout counter and started to unload my basket.  There was one person in front of me, and she only had five items.  Then someone tapped my shoulder.  Does your favorite grocery store have one checker that you just can't stand?  Mine does.  I avoid the woman like my soul depends on it.  She is slow, she is chatty to the point of being intrusive, and she examines every item before she scans it.  And she was tapping me on the shoulder.  She said, "I can take care of you over here".  It so happens that "over here" was five aisles over.  I told her that I was fine, but she insisted and actually put items back in my cart, pulled it out of my hands, and took it to her register.  In other words, she took my cart with my crying child in it and walked away from me.  I considered force feeding her some Puffs.  Or my fist.  But I kept my cool.  I followed her and started re-unloading my groceries.  By the time I got my entire basket unloaded she had not scanned one thing.  As a matter of fact she was on the phone.  I don't know why.  I was trying to prevent Sam's head from exploding.  She finally started scanning my groceries and she did her typical "examine and pontificate" routine.  "Is this a yellow bell pepper or an orange bell pepper?  Oh, it's yellow?  I think this is more gold than yellow, though.  They should call it gold.  Do the gold ones and the orange ones taste different from the red ones?".  And if she wasn't jabbering pointlessly to me she was talking to the girl who was bagging my groceries about how sick she had been on Tuesday and who the manager got to fill her shift when she called in sick and how that person was completely unacceptable because they don't take time to connect with the customers.  (!!!!!!!)  Remember the crying baby?  Yeah.  They seemed oblivious.  The girl bagging my groceries did a terrible job.  She put heavy stuff on top of squishable stuff.  She didn't put the plastic "base" on the bottom of my reusable grocery bags; she just left it on the side so the bag was off balance.  She loaded one bag so full I could hardly lift it and barely filled the other two.  And she gave me attitude when I requested that she leave my chicken in the plastic bag I had put it in to prevent it from leaking  everywhere.

Nevertheless, everyone remained unscathed.  The store was not a fireball of death and destruction when I left.  And the moment the sunlight hit him Sam calmed down and started babbling happily.  We got home, I put him down for a nap, and collapsed in the recliner to look over my grocery receipts and type up this post.  And here's what it looked like:

Gallon Whole Milk  $2.24  (Not organic, but it is hormone-free and much cheaper than the $3.59/half gallon for organic)
Mini Sweet Peppers (Costco pack) $3.99
Baby Bella Mushrooms (Costco pack)  $3.99
Bulk Items (peanuts, pecans, pine nuts)  $10.93
Rolled Oats (1 pound)  $0.81
Heavy Cream  $0.50  (No that's not a typo!  It was on clearance because of the sell-by date.  Score!)
Bacon (1 pound)  $4.64
Chicken (whole fryer)  $4.90
Carrots (1 pound)  $0.69
Strawberries (1 pound)  $2.00
Baby red potatoes (2.25 pounds)  $4.14
Broccoli (1.25 pound)  $1.25
Cilantro $0.34
Corn on the Cob  $0.40
Parsley $0.49
Pineapple $1.50
Bell Peppers (7 assorted colors) $5.40
Lettuce $1.76
Green Onions $0.49
Jalapenos (3) $0.34
Bananas (3.75 pounds)  $2.03
Mangos (2)  $0.67
Beans  $3.73
Water Chestnuts $1.07
Tuna  $4.88
Pasta  $2.94
Mozzarella cheese-sticks $4.18
Pinot Grigio  $9.99

Total Groceries  $83.31


That's over-budget for us, but there are several items here that will last for two weeks or more so it should all even out.  This was definitely an expensive week because our fridge was running on empty!  Thankfully I had plenty of meat in my freezer which kept the price down.


Here's what I learned today:

• There is no such thing as bacon that does not have added sugar.  I checked every package at Target and Sprouts.  I bought the Sprouts store-brand because it was the most reasonably priced and sugar was one of the last two ingredients listed.  No preservatives or additives.
• Barilla Whole Grain pasta is not, in fact, 100% whole grain.  Oy!  To get pasta that is truly 100% whole grain it was going to cost nearly three times as much.  I went ahead and got the Barilla.  Next week I will plan on less pasta.  
• Lunchmeat is nasty.  Even Sprouts "off the bone" lunchmeat has sugar and tons of other additives.  I decided to spend my money on a whole chicken which I'll cook in the crockpot for sandwiches.  Then I'll use the carcass for making broth.  (I love that I just used the word carcass!)
• I am going to try getting involved with the Bountiful Baskets co-op that several of my friends use.  I'm nervous about the "lotto" approach of not knowing for certain what I'm getting, but I think it's worth the $15 to check it out.  

I'm excited to cook dinner tonight and see how it turns out with whole-grain (sort of) pasta.  We're having Pasta with Roasted Pepper Sauce and grilled Italian sausage.  I think it's a perfect night to sit on the patio after Sammy is asleep!

Have a great weekend!

Click here for our Project Real Food Week 1 meal plan.