Grocery Finds!

I’m trying to revamp my diet a bit. For a while there I just felt like I was getting a little out of control with the sweets and carbs (oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies anyone?). Two things that I love and very much enjoy losing control with :). I want to keep myself in check a bit though because I think it’s true what they say, the more you eat sweets, the more you crave them. So, the past few days I’ve been trying to plan out our meals for the week and write out a good, healthy shopping list.

Here are some of the items I picked up for the week:

Starting from the left..

• cans of tuna! Although I try to limit how much tuna I eat (because of the mercury), I love having tuna salad! I usually make it with a little mayonnaise and greek yogurt to lighten it up and add some more protein. It’s such a great, healthy lunch I wish there wasn’t a mercury issue or I’d eat it all the time!
• Sugar free, fat free instant jello pudding. I usually never buy this, in fact I think the only time I bought it was to make a pie once. But I wanted to try “protein” pudding. You just make the instant jello normally, but add a scoop of protein powder. I’m thinking this will be my healthy dessert option.
• Canned pumpkin. Not sure if you can see that pumpkin behind the stevia, but I bought the pumpkin for pumpkin enchiladas (which I made last night) and for smoothies. I know it’s summer time, but I still love pumpkin pie smoothies! They’re just too good to wait until fall!
• Stevia sweetener. I usually use splenda in my coffee but we forgot it in Dallas so I thought we’d give stevia a try. I’ve heard really good things about it so I’ll let you know what I think!
• Salsa. I’m thinking I’ll use the salsa for a couple different things. First, to make sweet and sour chicken with it sometime this week. Second, salsa is a great topping for lots of thing like plain, grilled chicken or a baked potato. I got a couple potatoes so I’m thinking I’ll top them with salsa instead of cheese, butter, etc. It’s definitely a healthier alternative!
• Canned cream of mushroom, enchilada sauce, and beans! I’m using the low fat cream of mushroom specifically for a different enchilada recipe. I’ve never tried this before so I’m not sure if we’ll like it, but I thought I’d give it a shot! I already used the red enchilada sauce for pumpkin enchiladas as well as a can of black beans. I feel like we can never have enough black beans and chickpeas! We use them all the time! I’m trying to use chickpeas more by just throwing them on a salad. It’s an easy way to add some protein and fiber!
• Low carb tortillas. I usually just buy wheat tortillas, but since I want to watch my carb intake, I thought I’d give these a shot. We had them last night and they were pretty good (granted they were covered in sauce). They weren’t too chewy or weird tasting like some low carb tortillas. I’m honestly not sure I understand how a tortilla can be low carb….but I guess I’ll just take their word for it :).
• Salad dressing. I officially bought salad dressing! That means I will eat more salads! I’m not really a salad person, but I’m really trying to be! I wish I was one of those people who loved veggies and ate them all day long. I would really just rather eat cereal all day long. But I swear I’m makin’ a change!

Speaking of cereal..

• Wheat burger buns. Yes, that says Wonder Bread. These are tiny little wheat buns that I think will be great with the sloppy joe’s I’m making tonight! I’ve never tried them, but their nutrition info. looks just as good as any other bread!
• Kashi Go Lean cereal. I’ve never tried just the regular GoLean, I’ve only had GoLean Crunch. It’s definitely really good but has more sugar than the regular GoLean. I’m always a little skeptical about the GoLean because it kind of resembles rabbit food. But I bought it and actually tried it yesterday and it was really good! I’m pretty confident rabbit food doesn’t taste that good.
• Emerald Cocoa Roasted Almonds. I’ve never tried these before either but I thought they’d be a great snack if I was craving something chocolatey. There’s no sugar added to them, just the cocoa so they aren’t too sweet. They’re still really tasty though!

Rabbit food! The rabbit food has pretty good nutrition stats..

Here’s the salad dressing I picked up. I thought the flavor sounded pretty interesting..

I also picked up a bunch of produce! Gotta get those veggies in somehow!

I got some broccoli, salad mix, spinach, cucumbers, mushrooms, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, apples, strawberries, and baby carrots. I’ve noticed it helps me when there’s something easy to snack on like baby carrots. Usually, I love to have grapes around but they didn’t look too good. Cucumbers are also a great summer snack, so refreshing! I’m going to try and get most of my carbs from fruits and veggies, not so much from breads (although I’m not cutting them out completely).

Last, but not least, dairy!

A big carton of eggs, low fat cottage cheese, and greek yogurt! I love Fage greek yogurt, I think it’s the best! I know everyone’s in love with chobani, but I have to admit, I think Fage beats Chobani! It has such a great texture and taste. It’s not quite as sour as other greek yogurts. I also like that the flavored ones separate the sugary stuff so you don’t have to eat all of it (not that you ever have to, but you know what I mean!).

For a post-grocery store snack, I had some cottage cheese, strawberries, and almonds! Pretty well rounded: proteins, carbs, and fats!

My inspiration for these “well rounded” meals comes from this book:

It might look like another diet book, and I guess it is, but to me, it has a more realistic approach for people. It’s not just a huge list of foods you can’t eat and it doesn’t go on and on about restricting calories. It’s basically the 6 small meals a day approach, which I think is smart. The idea is to keep you full on nutrient dense foods, so you don’t find yourself starved, then binge.

There’s definitely more to it than that, so I’ll give you a breakdown later! I’m off to a spin class (yikes!), which me luck!