Weekend Idiot Chef: Grocery Shopping

Food preparation is only half the battle in cooking and eating. Food selection is the other half. Grocery shopping can present a great challenge to the idiots among us, because if you go to a halfway decent grocery store, the dizzying array of choices can actually prevent you from making any choice at all. Thus, if you don't know what you want when you walk into the grocery store, you may walk out with a box of saltines and a can of refried beans. As tasty as those two items are, they won't make much of a meal, or very many meals either.

So, when grocery shopping, it is necessary to have a plan. The simplest way to create one is to plan your weekly cooking (or monthly, or daily, or however often you grocery shop) and make your grocery list from that. I suppose there might be other mechanisms, I just can't think of them. In fact, I'm not sure that they're anywhere near as efficient as the simple system of figuring out what you want to cook and buying it.

So, here's my grocery list (just the food items; there's other things I need that don't involve The Idiot's Cookbook).

Milk (whatever size you buy, buy it every week and make sure you use up the old milk before you go; nothing's a bigger space sink in your refrigerator than the almost-empty milk jug AND the new, full one).

Sparkling water (my soda replacement; cheaper and less empty calories).

Hot sauce (I used the last of it up, and it's important generically in addition to some plans I have for this week).

Soy sauce (same).

Mayo (I buy Hellmann's, and you really can taste the difference, especially if you're making stuff where mayo takes the flavor lead).

Ground meat (generally I buy chuck).

Chicken (I buy it in large containers that are cheaper than the shrink-wrapped, and last week they were out).

Stir fry veggies (that's right, we'll be making stir fry this week).

Onion (I tend to buy the sweet yellow onions unless a recipe specifically says hot or white).

Shredded carrots

Sugar

Yellow mustard (I don't use this as a condiment, so unless a recipe calls for it, I don't keep it around).

Frozen piecrusts (you'll see).

Canned onion soup

Frozen broccoli (Frozen vegetables are just as nutritious as fresh, and if you're baking them, like I am, there's no difference in taste).

Cream of celery soup

Fancy cheese (cheese is my weakness, and I intend to treat myself this week to a block of Really. Good. Cheese. I will probably eat it for dinner tonight with a fruit something-or-other).

Lemon

One other warning: do not go to the grocery store hungry. You will buy things you didn't intend to. Yes, you will. Don't argue.