My COVID-19 Grocery List

Fun fact about me: I hate grocery shopping.

I always get so mixed up and confused when I’m in there. I forget where I’m going and when I look on my phone for my grocery list, I get distracted with something else. I end up buying a bunch of extra food I don’t need but which seems like a good idea at the time and waste money.

I just don’t like it.

You remember when that study came out where they tested all the most used surfaces and they found that shopping carts were the most dirty or carried the most bacteria. Yeah, nasty.

With COVID, now we really have to think ahead and buy in bulk, essentially so we can limit our grocery store runs. But ever since needing to buy in bulk, I still like to have a variety of fresh food too.

I’m vegetarian and I have to think about the three most important parts of my plate: protein, vegetables, carbs.

Vegetables are obviously the biggest part of my plate, then protein and then carbs. So a sample meal is soup with vegetables and lentils or beans and baguette. Or a chopped vegetable salad with chickpeas and toasted wheat bread. Or a hearty tomato sauce with sauteed vegetables and fake sausage with a side of noodles.

Here’s what I get on my usual grocery haul:

Produce:

  • Apples

  • Bananas

  • Spinach (I eat a lot of spinach in green smoothies every morning)

  • Berries (whatever is on sale)

  • Celery

  • Carrots

  • Onions

  • Garlic

  • Potatoes

  • Kale

  • Brussels sprouts

  • Mushrooms

  • Sweet potatoes

  • Sweet peppers

Dairy:

  • Field Roast apple sage fake sausage (this is the best tasting vegetarian sausage IMO)

  • Butter (I’m a WI girl and I consume a lot of butter)

  • Cream (for coffee)

  • Plain Fage yogurt

  • Almond milk

Non-perishable:

  • Cans of Black/Kidney/Garbanzo beans

  • Canned tomatoes for making soup

  • Vegetable boullion

  • Quinoa

  • Lentils

  • Chia seeds

  • Tomato sauce with garlic flavor (for pasta except I don’t buy pasta anymore)

  • Bagels or bread (if I don’t want to make my own bread)

  • Peanut or almond butter

  • Cherry jam or orange marmalade (yes I’m an old lady and LOVE marmalade)

  • Honey

  • Sparkling water

  • Coffee

Frozen:

  • Frozen fruit for smoothies

  • Frozen vegetables

  • Healthy frozen meals to have if I’m sick of cooking

  • Black bean burgers/vegetarian burger

  • Cool whip or ice cream (I’ve lately been into chocolate coconut ice cream, so good!)

So this pull will last about two weeks for me. I may not need it all every time (frozen food, canned goods and honey lasts a while), so I start with the more perishable vegetables like mushrooms and peppers and keep the brussels sprouts and potatoes for later.

COVID-19 isn’t going away for a while, but even after that, I think I’m going to keep grocery shopping like this because grocery carts are nasty, I don’t like grocery shopping, and also… I’m eating healthier.

Since COVID, I’ve learned how to cook better for myself and really think about what I’m consuming.

What’s on your grocery list? Let me know here.