Episode 17: Our Grocery Shopping and Meal Planning Tips and Tricks
Watch on YouTube
Episode Transcription
Participant #1:
Hi, guys. Welcome back to the upbeat Dietitians podcast. Hello, everyone. Thanks for tuning in for another episode. Today we'll be talking about grocery shopping and a bunch of different tips we have for you guys. We also want to talk about how to shop on a budget, because that's a pretty common nutrition question. We get often. And then lastly, we'll kind of talk about how grocery shopping and meal planning can benefit your life. And this episode we really wanted to provide more, I guess, practical information because a lot of our past episodes have been kind of throwing information at you and advising you about or not entirely advising you. But
Participant #1:
it's like a lot of what not to do and not so much like actual like what to do to be healthier. Yeah, we want to help you with these fun tips. Yeah, everyone has to go go shopping and make food. So hopefully this applies to everyone. The first bullet point we're going to start with is grocery shopping essentials. And I might just be interpreting this differently than you are, Hannah. But for me, grocery shopping essentials are like a grocery list. Reusable bag, not being hungry, but I wasn't sure if you were thinking more in terms of things to actually buy that are essential to your grocery shopping trip. Did I write this or did you write this? I can't remember. I haven't either. I probably wrote it then. I think I wrote this. I wrote a lot of the main ones.
Participant #1:
Go with what you were saying. I'd have to agree. I think a grocery list is very good. I always have that. And I try to use reusable bags, but I really only am good about that when I go to Aldi where you have to. I do want to get better at that.
Participant #1:
Yeah. Not being hungry. I like to sponge coffee while I shop, if I can with Mass. It's been difficult, but that's becoming less of a thing. I went to Myer this weekend and then a sign on the door that said, if you're fully vaccined, you don't need to wear a mask anymore. And that blew my eyes. I've been seeing that kind of, I guess at a lot of stores. I've also been to
Participant #1:
one. I still wear a mask. Yes, I felt weird not wearing one. It's like in the beginning where I felt weird if I did wear one. Now it's the opposite. Yeah. I'm not ready for the world to see my face, at least in person. You can see me now. It's totally different. Let's go through just some general tips for best practice for grocery shopping. The first one sounds like it's simple and is, but there's some thought to it. And that is picking a place to grocery shop. And the reason this thought process happens, it might just happen automatically for you, but I know for me personally, I have to plan out what I'm going to Cook, and that determines where I'm going to go get my stuff, because obviously Walmart and Trader Joe's have totally different grocery items. So I take that into account and then also staying within budget as well. Certain grocery stores will be more expensive. Like if you go, like, a whole foods or a fresh time or something like that, while they might have certain healthier options, if you will, it probably will be pricier if you do shop organic, which we'll get to in a little bit. Actually, if you need to do that or not, it's like you already know the answer. But anyway, we'll get to that. If you do shop organic, it often is more expensive, but that is a good time to go to, like, a fresh time or a whole food, because they have a lot more of those options. Yes, my family is kind of crazy. I don't know. But when we go grocery shopping, we'll go to like, four or five stores. Oh, yeah, because we always go to Costco for, like, whatever items we need in bulk. There's always like eggs, bread, stuff like that. But then we'll go to Aldi for some other special things. We like. We'll hit up jewel. We'll go to Trader Joe's, and it's a full word exhibition. It's kind of what it is. You don't really have to do that, but I think we've just figured out what foods we like the most from different stores and then also comparing prices, like what's worth spending more on versus what the generic store brand is will do just fine. Yeah. Same. I usually can't get all the stuff that I want at one store. I can, but it just won't be as fun of a week. I like to get all kinds of different fun stuff. And yeah, it's a good point with Costco, too. Like, you have to go to Costco to get your big stuff, like your box stuff. But you can't get all that Trader Joe's. That's more like your fun things. Yeah. So I get that. I come from a family of seven. So Costco is like, my mom's favorite store. Yeah. She goes hard at Costco. I'm talking like hundreds of dollars. That's crazy. She goes hard. I feel like that's kind of a common thing that happens at Costco. Does your Costco have those self checkout registers now? We do now. Yeah. It's a game changer. Yeah. That way you can feel comfortable getting, like, three things. But who goes there and just gets like, three things? I used to go with my mom all the time for samples. I think they're bringing them back. I saw them. Really. I was like, oh, my gosh. I forgot what this was like. It's been like a year and a half since I've seen a sample at Costco. Good old days. Yeah. Okay. Moving on. Moving on. Once you figured out where you want to shop, it's kind of figuring out what the best time to shop is. And this can really depend a lot on if you work in nine to five job. If you work weekends, typically you are part time and you really don't have a consistent schedule. But typically during the weekdays, during working hours, that, like nine to five gap is a really good time to go shopping if you're not currently working at that time, because a lot of people do work during then and then also on weekends, really early in the morning is a great or at least one day open is a great time to shop because most people sleep in on the weekends so you can kind of get ahead of the crowd and go in the morning. And it's also important that you avoid grocery shopping really close to the holidays, as you might know, if you've ever done holiday shopping day of or day before. It is a wild time. Anchorage stores, so many things are out. So many people are like getting ruthless, taking whatever they can. That's left. It is competitive at that point. You should definitely plan ahead. So we recommend you plan ahead unless you don't mind not getting everything you might be looking for. Additionally, paydays is a big time to kind of avoid because a lot of people will be getting their paycheck, and they might be using that money to go to the grocery store and get something they need it. So keeping in mind, typically, it's a two week cycle, to my knowledge, sometimes they do once a month. I don't really know the day people get paid. If there is often on Fridays, like, Ross gets paid every Friday, and I think that's a pretty common one. Okay. Avoid Fridays every two weeks
Participant #1:
like the mid month March. Well, he gets paid weekly, too. Okay. I get paid every other week at my job. And Ross told me that he was very surprised to hear that I got paid every other week. He's only heard of getting paid weekly, but I've only heard of getting paid every other week. So I got paid at my job at Purdue. Also, I think every job I've ever had, it's been every other week. I know I've never had one, that's every week. It depends on your industry, I guess. Yeah. And the last time to avoid is right after 05:00 p.m.. That's when a lot of people are getting off of work and they might be hitting up the grocery store on their way home. So try to get in before 05:00 p.m.. And then also, it's important about figuring out when the best time to shop is when your store free stocks or fresh fruits and vegetables so you can kind of get the best deals on produce. This is something you can find out. I think if you talk to any worker, they'll disclose that information. I don't think it's very or if you go at different times, you can just tell sometimes when I go, I forget which day it is. I wish I could remember. But when I go to Myer on a certain day, they're often like stalking the veggies, like on there. So yeah, it can be good to know just their schedule a little bit. And you can always ask, like Emily said, that way you just get the most fresh produce instead of like the wrinkly old peppers and stuff that are just sitting there waiting to be bought. Four little guys. Yeah. All right. Speaking of fruits and veggies, let's go over how to kind of navigate the store a little bit. And again, I know it sounds kind of simple, but there's some thought process to it so we can kind of split it up into the perimeter of the store and then the inside of the store. And the perimeter is where you'd find most of your whole foods, if you will like your fruits and your veggies and meat and dairy. And the inside is more of your shelf stable foods. And people sometimes will say only shop the perimeter. Don't shop the inside. And that's just kind of bad advice, because there's plenty of good stuff on the inside as well. Like some of my staples, for example, that I'd find, like in the inside part of the store would be like my oats, my canned vegetables, like beans, for example, coffee. That's where you find your coffee at beans. And I said, beans, bread, tortilla, beans. More beans got to get my fiber in. While I'm talking about beans, I guess I'll point out that if you do get beans, try to get the low sodium or the no salt added ones. If you can't ever find those in whatever variety you get. You could always rinse them off. And it does get a lot of the sodium off, but that's just one little tip. It doesn't taste different at all if you ask me to get the no salt added. But anyway, nothing wrong with shopping both the outside and the inside of the store. A little tip for, like, your fruits and veggies, whatever is in season is going to be the cheapest. So it could be kind of good to learn that as well. What fruits and veggies are in that season currently, things like watermelon cherries are on sale. Meyer the other day. You probably wouldn't want to buy watermelon, like in January. It probably wouldn't even be there. And if it is, it probably like $10 for a melon. So it's always good to know not only to save money or also because it will taste better, too. Very true. I don't really have much to add on to that. Besides emphasizing that there are good things on the inside of the store. I hate that advice. Have you heard that before? I have, but I think it pairs well a lot with kind of. We're going to talk about it later, and we talked about it a bit before is when you're going through those inner aisles, they're more like snacky foods. And if you are craving something at that time, you might be more inclined to purchase it. And that's what I think. I'm trying to see the good intentions from that thing. But if you go in that's like, kind of the biggest thing about making a list, which kind of segues right into our next topic. That's kind of the best thing about making a list is you're going in knowing what you need to buy and you won't get deterred by other products. Granted, I am someone who this is a very weird thing. I do, but I like treating myself to a new yogurt every time I go. Oh, yeah, I totally do that. There are always fun flavors, and I don't really eat yogurt that often, at least like the flavored kind. But every time I go to the grocery store, one of my trips, I'll pick up a new fun yogurt so that can be fun. I guess that's not in the inner aisles, but that goes off of my list of what I originally wrote down. Yeah. Have you seen or do you know about those Chabani flips? I love Chabana. That's typically what I'm getting. Have you seen the chewy churro one? They have? No, it's their newest one. It's my favorite. It's so good. Is it like cinnamon toast crunchy kind of. It has, like, crunchy bits and also has, like, little chewy churro bits. It's kind of like churro dough. That sounds so good. I'll have to go look now. I love that one. And the chocolate haze craze, which is like the hazelnut one. That one's really good. Yeah. Love those things. Yeah, that's when what I'm craving at the time will affect what I am choosing because I'm looking. Am I in a fruity mood or am I in a chocolate mood? Yeah. Typically, the same thing going back to the list is having a grocery list kind of makes life a lot easier. With grocery shopping. It makes the entire process a lot less overwhelming, because not only can you plan out what you need to get, and if you're going to different stores, you can plan out what you need from each store, but also, if you keep an ongoing one throughout the week, you can kind of write down anytime you're running low on a product or you run out of products. So that way, you don't have to make a mental, like, oh, next time I go to Juul, I need to pick up bread. You have it written down. So then you don't forget or like, you're in the middle of the store. You're like, I needed. I came here for one thing, and I don't remember what it is. But you'll have the luxury of having a list right in front of you, which is really great. And also it eliminates the number of grocery store runs you make, which there's really no, there's not too much harm in going multiple times. But if you have a very busy schedule or you want to save gas money, having a list really helps make sure that you get everything you need at that one time. And you don't forget multiple things and have to go back. Then if you forget more things, you have to go back again. So it's time and cost effective. Exactly. I know it sounds like old school, but making a list really does help. Yeah. Sidebar what is this jewel that you keep? Speaking of, I've never heard of that before. Do you know how jewels near you? What is that? They're called jewel OSCOs. I've never heard that in my life. I think it might be an Illinois grocery store. I don't really know. Did you ever have a Dominic?
Participant #1:
No. I was going to compare it to that. Do you have Meyer there? We don't have a Myer. The only reason I know what Myer is because of Purdue. Yeah, but I think I'd compare it to, like, a smaller Myer. Okay, like, kind of around that. But they don't have, like, it's all food. There's no, like, clothing or, like, anything like that, like, that type of food. Yeah. Category. That's funny. I've never heard of that in my life. The more you know. Yeah, I do know that people don't know what Myer is. I have some friends who don't live in this area who followed me on Instagram. They're like, Where did you get that? And I'm like Meyer. And they're like, oh, there's no Meier here in Florida. I'm like, oh, there isn't. Yeah, because we both know what all these are both no trigger Joe's. We both know Costco.
Participant #1:
We do not have a Kroger. The only reason I know all of yours is because of her dealership. I know fresh Time Kroger. Meyer. Those are like the three I think. I don't think I've ever been in a Kroger, though. What we're going when you come visit? That's going to be one of our stuff. It's just like Meyer. Really? Okay. Cool. I kind of like it better for certain things, but it's just like Meyer, right? Yeah. Do you have a Whole Foods near you? I don't have a Whole Foods. The closest one is in Indy. Okay. So we just have fresh thyme. There's one called Fresh Market in Fort Wayne. I think we have a fresh market, do you? It's the same thing basically as those other ones. And then Trader Joe's is brand new here. You have Walmart, of course, right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Trying to think what else there is that's usually the big ones. I'm learning so much. I know there are so many grocery stores. You're going to come to Kroger when you visit me, and we're going to go to Juul when I come visit you. Okay. I'm trying to think of something fun about Jewel. Not to like, no jewel slander here, but I'm just like, I don't really know what I get from there normally. Do you have Sam's Club?
Participant #1:
Yes. Okay. I figured you'd do. If you have Walmart, my mind is blown. I like to like, we live in different worlds, even though we're just in another state over. I know,
Participant #1:
man. I am so close minded. Sometimes Illinois has what? I got to diversify a little. I'll take you to all our new stores. Okay. We are really good at getting sidetracked today, so I guess mostly my fault. Okay. Kind of going along with making a list. We kind of already mentioned this as well. Not shopping when you're hungry is a good tip. Everyone kind of already knows, because that could just lead to impulse buys that are not on the list. If you do see something new, you want to buy, that's great. I do that all the time. It's just if you are on a budget or if you are, I guess it's probably the biggest one, actually, if you're on a budget, that can be something that throws you off a little bit. Yeah. And when I'm hungry, typically, I don't want to buy a ton of fruits or veggies, depending on the mood I'm in. So that could potentially hurt you. And later in the week when you're like, I need to eat or I need to make this roasted veggie or whatever. And your hungry self did not buy it. All you got was a bag or a box of Oreos. Kind of going to our next segue. My transitions are never good. I just kind of face the top here. I'm like, yes, it's related. Another topic we want to discuss was how to choose ripe produce because you don't want to choose produce that is over ripened, and you're going to have to either immediately or it's going to go bad in the next couple of days, or you don't want to buy produce that's under. Who knows how long unless you're tracking it. Like, every day you're checking in got an Excel sheet. I would totally do that day. Three green peppers became soft. I would totally do that. Of course, I don't already have an Excel sheet for my produce. I'm sure someone has the resource, but like, the half life of produce, like how long it typically takes to ripen. I'm sure that's on the Internet somewhere, but if we find it, we'll link it. Yeah. I wanted us to go through some different types of foods, like how to tell if they are ripe. So a big one is avocados. That one. I don't know if it works. I haven't tried this yet, but I've heard that you can pop that little stem thing off, and if it comes off easily, it might be right. I just squeezed the thing and like, tell by squeezing it. And I have found that I keep them on the counter and then once they start to get a little bit softer, throw them in the fridge, and then they stay really good for a couple of weeks. Same if you leave them on the counter after they get soft, they'll just keep getting soft, and they'll be bad in like, a day. Yeah. Have you ever heard that before? I think I've heard something similar to it, but just thinking of someone breaking all the stems. How are the other people supposed to go? All the stems are gone. Old school squeeze method. Yeah, I am kind of particular with my avocados since I eat avocados every single day, and I will take five minutes at the avocado section feeling every single avocado because I'm like comparing sizes. I'm comparing color. I'm like if there's any little indents, I'm not getting that if it's too hard and you can, like, kind of tell the pit size too, based on the shape of it. And obviously you want to get like, a really small pit. I like to get at least one soft one that can have right away and then a couple of hard ones to save for later in the week. Yeah. I get sad when there's, like, the perfect squishiness or, like, hardness, but then in color, because for avocados, you want it to be more that, like, deep, brownish green color. You don't necessarily want the bright green because that's still not ripe yet, but I hate when it's the perfect product. And then it's like, this small. There's going to be like, one scoop of avocado in this, and I'm paying how much for it. Oh, that too. I don't get avocados unless they're less than a dollar, like a personal for myself. Of course they work $0.55 ones, and I freaked out. And there was like, oh, you are limited to eight avenues. I'm like, this is for people like me. They're usually like, $0.69, something like that at my Aldi, but they're always like, a buck or something like that when I go to Kroger. Meyer, that's when you start learning different prices when you go to different stores. And you also start learning what a good price for produce is that's kind of just practice that's really seeing the point. Yeah. You don't really know until you start to grocery shop. Yeah. How about pineapple? I've heard of that one. If you, like, sniff it and it smells pretty pineappley, then you know, it might be kind of ripe. I've also heard you can easily pull out the stem things. And that's how you know it's, right. But I haven't tried any of these. So I don't really know that one's kind of shot in the dark. Honestly. Yeah, I'd say so. I do not know. I kind of just look for one that feels. Yeah. Okay. And, like, color wise, if it is more of, like, a rich color instead of like that pale, brownish, greenish color on the outside. Pineapple is shot in the dark. So is like, cantaloupe that one? I've also heard the sniffing thing, like, you can sniff it and it smells pretty. Melony might be done. But watermelon. I know there's all kinds of tricks for. Yeah, watermelon. I've heard you can tap it right. If it's hollow sounding it's right. Is that right? Something like that. And then, like, the colors of it. If it has more of that, like, light Brown crackling kind of stuff on it, I think it's more right. I read all these different things on these, but I never actually utilized them. Yeah. I feel like I also don't buy those products enough to know. I guess I only do in the summer. So I'll report back after I get my first watermelon of the year. Please try out. Please post a review or, like, a tips with Hanna. Yeah, I'll do that Produce edition. That's actually a good idea. I could do, like, a whole course on that. Yes. Have you out here picking off stems of avocados? You just recording yourself in. No one around. You can do the same trick because all the stem is on. Maybe don't do that. Don't do that. Please don't do that. Don't do that. Just squeeze it. You can get a pretty good tell of how it is by squeezing it. And then in terms of pineapple and melon, just give them a good sniff. They'll figure it out.
Participant #1:
Okay. I didn't know where that was going to go
Participant #1:
about. Okay. The next two questions, I feel like everyone knows the answer to, but in case you don't, we're going to tell you the answer. First one is, do you have to always get the name? Brand is generic. Just the same thing. And in my opinion, generic in terms of food typically very similar in terms of taste, and it's a lot cheaper. So I usually get generic in terms of, like, canned goods, frozen veggies meat. I usually have no problem getting the generic store brand version. And generic is typically I don't know if you mentioned this, but generic is typically cheaper, which is very nice for staying on a budget and for life.
Participant #1:
We're all on a budget, just a matter of how big our budget is. All right. Next question. Very simple answer that we've already discussed more thoroughly in the previous episode. But do you have to get organic? And again, this is just our personal thoughts on this. But in general, no, there are some foods that I know some RDS recommend eating organic, and that's okay if you can't afford to and you like to do it. But in general, if you only get conventional, it's just fine. Yeah. That's kind of like the biggest thing is if you're able to financially afford it. Sure. Why not? But for most cases, if you're getting any type of specifically, like produce, that's going to be better than not choosing to buy any at all. Yeah, exactly.
Participant #1:
There you go. Life oriented. We can kind of talk about how to shop on a budget. And one of my favorite things that I think my dad has, like, conditioned me. Now this is how I will be grocery shopping from now on is coupons with grocery shopping. He'll take, like, the Costco ads, all the ads, the jewel ads, like lay them out, put marks next to anything he's interested in. And then he'll talk to us about what do we need to get for this week? He'll write it down and then he'll look across the stores, figure out where they're selling the cheapest thing at and then go there for that. I love that. I feel like it's so smart and not only can you often see all the deals, but often sometimes there are also coupons available. And stores love selling. They don't sell you coupons. They email you coupons, so stay on top of those or just like, searching in your search engine on your email for whatever you're going to is really smart. And there are a lot of resources out there. It's kind of a matter of you have to put the time into finding them. And some stores have perks. Meyer has M perks where like, every dollar you spend gets a perk point or whatever. And those eventually will turn into coupons or money saved or whatever. And Kroger has their points too. So that could be one benefit of going to the same store. Most of the time is you can get points of that store, and that can be coupons right there. I wanted to point out to you on this one. Coupons are great. I'm all four coupons, but just be mindful of which ones you're using just because you might save money on that project. You should get it because it might even be something you don't even need. And then you're just spending money on something you don't even need. So if you use coupons, just use them on foods that you actually plan on eating. That's a very good point. I feel like that can be applied to also everything. Another life lesson here is just because change in mind just because something or like that cute clothing, that item that you saw or that new brand of cereal that you're not really interested in. But just because it's on sale doesn't mean you should get it, because would you pay full price for that normally? And are you going to use that? And do you genuinely want that? If not, do not buy that. I'm so guilty that was closed. If it's on sale, even if I wouldn't even really wear it, I need to get out of that. They get you with all those emails, and it's like this week, 30% off if you spend a million dollars
Participant #1:
for a low loan price of seven figures, and then people are like, oh, I wasn't thinking about this, but since there's a sale, I may as well
Participant #1:
good. We might have to try that tactic out on our store. It works. I did not realize what you're talking about. I was like, what I thought you're talking about us going to a grocery store and buying things when you come visit and we go to Kroger, we're only going to buy things we don't need,
Participant #1:
like a great time to me. That's what we do when we hang out. We just grocery store. We just stare at everything we don't want. Okay, I think that is enough. Talk about grocery stores for now. Let's get more into, like, meal planning and prepping. Of course it goes hand in hand with grocery shopping, but right off the bat, I'm going to include in our other links description thing, this weekly meal planning calendar. I like to give out to patients and clients that my plate has, and I don't use this one specifically, but I do have my own little thing I use to plan out my meals for the week. So before I go to the store, I usually go on Friday or Saturday. I always plan out at least my dinners for the week because that one is the one that has the most variability. Breakfast is very similar from week to week, and lunch is usually just leftovers. And my snacks are always kind of the same stuff too. Like I always do, like a yogurt and then some kind of fruit, usually with maybe like some string cheese. So anyway, I plan out at least my dinners. But if you're someone who likes to have more variety, you could always plan out your breakfast and your lunches and your snacks as well. Or if you're kind of a beginner a bigger place to kind of start that way you do just have more of a plan. But anyway, I'll link this calendar. That kind of helps you walk through all the different meals. You can write down exactly what you plan on having. And then I would use those menu items to then make your grocery list. That was just a long, roundabout way of me saying that I'll include a weekly calendar link below. Check the description for your free meal planning calendar. Yeah. All right. I also recommend investing in quality food storage containers. I guess I could link some of those two, the ones that I use. I have gotten all of mine on Amazon. I have some that I use to store food in the fridge, like my Pyrex ones I usually use for that. And then I have ones I actually bring to work. And those are smaller ones that have sometimes little compartments. So depending on what kind of foods you usually have to go like for, say, lunch, probably you might want different containers, but anyway, I can link some of those as well. And I guess the biggest advice I can give for meal planning and prepping is making it part of your routine. So it's just like part of my every weekend. I either do it on one of the weekend days. I at least plan out all my dinners if not, get stuff ready, like veggies. I might get some of the meat marinating if I'm doing something like that. And it doesn't be like a whole four hour Sunday afternoon thing if it's even just like spending 30 minutes of your Sunday, just like making a plan that can really help set you up for success during the week. And then I always share my Instagram stories how I like to do this, but I find that it's really helpful when I get home from the store right away before I even put away my vegetables. I always clean them and cut them because we all know that if you just like, let them sit in the fridge until Thursday, they're just never going to get eaten. It's way just easier on yourself if you always have those ready to go. So yeah, I always clean them all up, put them in their own little containers. And I can just kind of grab from those throughout the week and then say, you don't do that, and you don't feel like prepping them or say you didn't get enough. For some reason, I always like to have frozen veggies on hand as well. For those days where maybe I have my meat that I want, but I don't have any other sides. I'll do like a frozen bag of broccoli or any of those, like bird's eye. Frozen things can be really good as a side. I always have frozen stuff on hand, too. For those weird days, we just don't know what to eat and seen. Well done. That's kind of meal prepping. I don't really have anything more to add. I feel like you sum that up pretty well. I also meal prep kind of regularly. I am a big leftover fan. Me too. So I love creating something big and making multiple portions so you can have it throughout the week. Some people who don't want to eat the same thing, you could make multiple big things. So then you're alternating if you don't want to deal with or whatever. But I really enjoy meal prepping because it just makes it so much easier throughout the week when you're tired and don't have the energy to Cook after a long work day. And also it's easier. I feel like to just get all the cooking done and then you can enjoy the food throughout the rest of the week. Yeah, that was a good point with the leftovers. People sometimes hear, like, meal prepping. I think it's like the whole spread of having a million different containers and having everything everywhere. It's like a whole day ordeal. But for me, meal prepping is literally just making extra dinner every night. So I have for lunch the next day. That's all it is. It doesn't have to be a whole thing where you're planning out breakfast, lunch, dinner containers for everything. Your fridge is just stocked full of containers. That'd be a good thing if you like it. That's not for everyone. Yeah. I feel like they might have that image of seeing a fridge with, like, here's my lunch for Wednesday and here's my lunch for Thursday. We do like this is a big container of this and you scoop out exactly. And then go from there that makes it so you can have, like, wiggle room, too. If you do plan out exactly every single meal you're going to have for the whole week. Like, say, your friends want to go out Friday and you guys planned it last minute. That makes it kind of hard to feel, I guess, comfortable doing that. Because if you're someone who hates wasting food, then you may have wasted that lunch or that dinner. So it kind of just takes the fun out of it a little bit. If you are super duper strict about what you're going to have every single day there's pros and cons to it, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. Yeah. I feel like there was one thing I remembered. I don't know where this would fit in, but I think maybe with making a list. But before you go grocery shopping, check in your house. If you have the ingredients you need for a recipe beforehand or even like a recipe you're interested in, make sure you have all the ingredients. And if it wasn't, like, a seasoning or something, you weren't thinking of, make sure to write that down. But also, it helps you not waste food that you already have because you might think you need more garlic, but you go and there's already like three cloves. Yeah. Exactly. That's a good point. It's good to have maybe like, a running list of the staples that you do run out of sometimes, like, I'll have a list where I'll just put, like, if I run out of flour, sugar, rice, those things kind of like fall into their own little list. They only run out like once a month, once every two months. Something like that. Yeah. Okay. I know we kind of already went over this, but we wanted to talk about what our favorite grocery stores are. I am learning today that there are some I don't even know about that Emily goes to regularly, so that's mind blowing. But I would say, you guys know I can't commit to anything when it comes to food. So it's a hard answer. As always, it just totally depends on my mood. But I have fell in love with Trader Joe's. I'd only gone, like once before, but they came to Fort Wayne, like, six months ago, and so I'm currently obsessed with that. I feel like I won't ever go out of it. I just love it so much. I love new stuff. And then I love Aldi. You guys know that. But just for my regular old boring groceries, I usually go to Kroger or Meyer, so they're not the most fun or my favorite. But those are usually where I go to get my staples. I have very similar preferences, like Trader Joe's, I think, will always be my top just because they always have new fun things. And I love everything about that store. It's just a fun time. Ross doesn't like it. I know. I think what it is is he sees how much of a Trader Hoe I am, and he thinks that that is weird. And so he's more turned off by my obsession than the actual store itself. He thinks it's weird how much I love it. And so I think that's why he doesn't like it because I'm just obsessed. But yeah, I have to go alone because he doesn't really like going with me. I know who doesn't like that environment. And like, I've gone to those with friends as a social
Participant #1:
right.
Participant #1:
I remember this because it was during sometime during the pandemic. I don't know, it's still going on, but sometime during Kovid because they were having a door checker and me and my friend went and the door checker. Also, the employees are always so nice. They're so nice. They make me feel so good about myself every time I'm down there. But the door checker greeted us and we had whatever conversation, and we went to every single aisle and looked at every item and 45 minutes passed. And the only reason I knew this is because we came out the door checker is like, you're still here.
Participant #1:
Yes. This is what we do for fun now. I do that too. I have to look at every single thing, so I don't miss anything new and I'm so new to it. I don't know even what their regular stuff is. So I'm still learning. Yeah. This is a fun fact about Trader Joe's, since I have had the privilege of being a Trader Joe my entire life. But they used to have this turtle named Tiki. I was a stuffed animal. And if you were a child and you found Tiki in the store, you'd get a free food prize. Oh, my God. So every time I went to Trader Joe's, my sister and I would find Tiki within, like, 5 seconds because we knew the main places they hit him and we'd get like, it was like fruit, not the wrap, not roll of what? You know what I'm talking about where it's like, I think so. Like the strips, like the leathers. Yes. So that was always made. I don't think they do it anymore. I was going to say they do have him up sometimes, but I'm also no longer a child, so I don't know if they give me, like, something for finding Congrats grown woman. So China Joe is my top one. Aldi is also one of my top ones because they normally have a lot of off brand stuff that is cheaper. And I also really like trying whatever they want. Also, I feel like they treat their employees well because they get to sit on their little chair. And I love that they make you bring a quarter like your Aldi quarter, so they don't have to have someone doing the cart unless someone just wants to lose a quarter. I guess that no one ever does that. And then also the reasonable bag. So go, Aldi. And my last one, I'd say, was Costco just because of the samples and it's ginormous. They have everything there. I went to Aldi recently and to make a point of how nice they are, I got in line and the guy was like, oh, my gosh. Hello. How are you? Tell me about your entire day. Start to finish. I was like, you're scanning so fast. How can I go through my entire day? But. Okay, here we go. I woke up and then I know, I know. It's so cute. And he asked every single person that tell me about your entire day. How are you today? It was so cute. Oh, my gosh. I want to make a little. I guess not really a PSA, but I know if you haven't gone to Aldi before, it can be kind of overwhelming. So here's how it works for those who have not gone to Aldi. Someone asked me recently. I want to go, but I'm really nervous about it because there's a whole cart thing and you don't have bags. How does it work? So you have your little Aldi quarter, you bring your own quarter, you get it back. So you're not going to lose the quarter whenever you go, you put it in the cart and that undoes this little chain and so you can detach the cart from the others. And then you put your little cart into the store, you do your shopping, and then you go through the checkout. That's normal. And then you have to bring your own reusable bags to bag your groceries. Or they have bags there that you can buy. And if you get, like, the paper ones, it's like, what, $0.15 a bag or something like that. So you can either bring your own buy those. Or if you forget them, you can just throw it in the back of your truck or your car, like, Costco style, where you just, like, load it all and unload it at home. I've done that. It kind of sucks, though, because Aldi is, like more smaller items in Costco. So it's like carrying in every single individual piece of garlic into your house. It's not fun. But then you load it all into your car, and then you return your car and get your quarterback. So that's how Aldi works. If you are an Aldi newbie what is this podcast? This is practical information. Yeah. Cool. I feel like that sums up our conversation today. Kind of where this is a good ending point to all our grocery store tips, budgeting tips and meal prepping tips, lots of practical, helpful advice. Hopefully for you that we hope you always took one thing away from this. If not how to go to Aldi. Let us know if you have any questions about any grocery store things, there's really no limit on that. It can be anything you want to know about. I was talking about grocery shopping 24/7. I love getting asked about that bonus question of the day. I'm curious about your answer. Emily. What order do you remove eggs from the carton? And I want to second this by saying or add to it by saying, what do you do with the shelves after you crack your egg? Okay. So I will go first. I will take the floor.
Participant #1:
This is my card in, and it opens this way. So I will start at this bottom row and I'll start on the right and just kind of go like, that. Interesting. And then we'll just go each row. And then for cracking the eggs, we have a composter in our backyard. We have this metal tin we keep under our kitchen sink that will put that. And then whenever it fills up, we'll take it to the back and compost it. That is very different from my experience with it. Really? Yes. I was nervous to have the exact same answer. I'd be like, okay, cool. See you next week. But here is how let me get a book. How I go through it. Okay. Open like this. Right. I go from the left, so I go bottom. But you start at the bottom. Okay? Yeah. Start on the bottom. But I go from the left, which it looks like it's not the left when it's in my camera on the left side. So I guess if you're looking at it from here. So I go left to right and then front to back, and then when I crack them, I just, like, crack it. And then I just throw the shell away. But I know some people who cross is rolling his eyes at me. Some people who put the carton back into or put the shell back in the car in. And that just seems like a sin to me. Why? I feel like that's really unhygienic. I feel like all the germs from, like, the egg yolk can cross contaminate. Yeah. As someone who's worked in food service most of her adult life, I find that very disturbing, but yeah. Do you put the shells so they're holding each other or like, it's a new egg? No, it's like they're holding each other, like you stack them. I don't do it. But then what happens when you need to recycle the carton and it has egg carcass on it? You just throw the carton away with the egg carcass. I don't love egg carcass, by the way. I don't like that at all. I feel like Ross has done that before. It's been an argument. Do you ever put the eggshell back in the carton? Yeah. That's what Ross did growing up. That's where I've seen that before. He thought it was weird to throw it away. So that was going to keep it for later. Like, that was a big change, and we moved in together. I was like, what are these eggshells doing in the carton? I didn't do that. That's disgusting.
Participant #1:
Married life is weird. I know you like saving them for later or what? It's so crazy how the way you grow up? Influences. I know, but germs can maneuver themselves through little particles in the air. Anyway. That's the thing. I wasn't sure if you would know that's a thing. I know you would hate that it's a thing, but it's a thing. It's no longer a thing here. I'm glad to hear that it changed. I don't like to shame food behaviors, but that is not something I like. The dietitian took control over that one perks of living with a dietitian. Yes, we're a little controlling, but we have good reason. Yeah, well, I'm glad we had different answers. I'm glad that we get eggs from different sides of the cart. And that's very interesting. Yeah. I'm glad you don't do it from the back. I think I'd be upset if you did. Well, I was just going to say if we ever lived together, I feel like we'd get in a big fight about the eggs because we would like meat in the middle. I was thinking about why I was like, Why? Because normally I do everything else left to right. And it's because when I go to make my avocado toast and I take the carbon out the right side, is closest to where I put them on the stove. I put them on the other side of the stove. I think our behaviors are logical. Actually, I just lied about everything I just said. Why would you, Hannah, we have to be honest on here. Well, not everything, but let me explain. We no longer have. We don't keep the cartons in the fridge anymore. So when I did have cartons, that's how I did it. We now have, like, one of those big plastic holders. Completely different. Yeah. So it has, like, three, three, three. It has, like, 24 slots, so that obviously I go left to right, front to back. But it's no longer a carton. So I guess I didn't really lie. I'm still going in the same direction. But it's not a carton of, like, six anymore. So never mind. Wasn't all lie. But actually, I take it from the back and I take it from the middle, and I leave the eggshells in there for days. On the other egg, I just drizzle the white all over the other egg.
Participant #1:
I get grossed out by, like, egg consistency sometimes, and that would freak me out if I just saw eggs marinating. Maybe I'll just come and poke a hole in all of your eggs. I think that would just send you into a dizzy. That would be the start of my villain origin story. I'll put some indents in your avocado and poke holes and all your eggs. You'll take the stems of my avocado. Yeah, things not to do. Now I know exactly how to get Jessica. I'm going to protect all my eggs and all my avocados.
Participant #1:
Okay, on that note, I always end it where I have to say, okay, that's enough of that. I was just waiting. I was thinking those are really bad ways to get back to your roommates. If you're having roommate problems, we are not condoning that behavior. So don't be a bad roommate unless they're food, unless you need to. No, that's how you do it. No, I'm kidding.
Participant #1:
There's a T shirt. Spread Love, not salmonella. You guys should see. We have a running list of all these ridiculous quotes that we say also share that one day. Yes. All right. Now we can finish. Okay. Thank you guys for listening this episode. We hope you learned something new today. We'll see you next time. Yeah. Tune in next week. Check out our new store up the dietitian store for very cool products. And you might see some funny quotes that you've heard from the podcast on there. Yeah, spread Love, not someone else. It could be a great T shirt. Yeah.
Participant #1:
Okay. Cool. See you guys next week. Bye bye.
