LISTmania: kitchen staples and grocery goodness

I decided to sit down and make myself a grocery guide.  I am an incessant list-maker and actually found this otherwise tedious task to be kind of fun! J  I figured if I was going to make a list for myself I might as well blog it too.  You never know when someone else might find it useful!

My family and I have very eclectic tastes when it comes to food…and we really do LOVE to eat.  So sometimes a simple trip to HEB or Wal-Mart does not cover all of our grocery needs so I shop at smaller, specialty/imports stores a lot too.  I’ll start off with a list of my favorite grocery stores.  I normally shop at:

-         Wal-Mart

-         Food Town

-         HEB

-         Phoenicia specialty foods

-         Trader Joe’s (now that we have one in the area, even though it is far away!)

-         Asian grocery stores

-         Costco

-         Dollar stores (occasionally you’ll find some good stuff at these too!)

Now let's talk about pantry, refrigerator, and freezer staples.  Keep in mind that I love to cook and since I do, I am often experimenting and trying out some new recipe, or making up one of my own.  Because of this, I usually keep our pantry/refrigerator/freezer well stocked because I never know what I am going to need.  Here are the items that I like to keep stocked in at any given time.

Pantry Staples
Pastas Penne Linguini Thin spaghetti Orzo Vermicelli Tortellini Wide egg noodles	Dough Bread (whole grain) Tortillas (whole wheat or brown rice) Pitas Multigrain Baking and Pancake Mix Jiffy (cornbread mix) Pretzels Crackers (saltine, Triscuit, Wheat Thins)	Canned Goods Black beans Canellini beans Red Kidney Beans Garbanzo beans Corn (low sodium) Green Beans Artichokes Beets Tomatoes Sauce Tomato Paste Rotel Tuna Sardines Pink Salmon Chicken Cream of Chicken soup Cream of Mushroom soup Peanut Butter	Spices Garlic cloves Chili Powder Smoked Paprika Coarse Kosher Salt Pepper Mill Don’s Cajun Seasoning Cayenne Pepper Lemon Pepper Sweet Basil Oregano Parsley Flakes Red Pepper Flakes Rosemary Thyme Ground Ginger Curry Powder Sage Poultry Seasoning Asian Five Spice Coriander Sesame Seeds Tahini Greek Seasoning Mix Italian Seasoning Mix Worcestershire Sauce Heinz 57 Balsamic Vinegar Apple Cider Vinegar White Vinegar Rice Vinegar Olive Oil Canola Oil
Veggies Onions Sweet potatoes Red potatoes Tomatoes Grapefruit	Grains Brown rice Quinoa Oats (steel cut oats or old fashioned oats) Barley Wheat Berries Israeli CousCous	Teas Jasmine Green Tea (loose) Chamomile Earl Gray Mint Yerba Mate (orange peel, mint and regular) Kool-Aid Water Add-Ins (Lemonade, Pink Lemonade, Cherry Limeade, Strawberry Lemonade, Raspberry, Orange Awake) Coffee
Sweeteners Sugar Sugar Substitute (Splenda, Equal, Stevia) Coconut Palm Sugar Honey Agave Nectar	For Baking Cinnamon Nutmeg Cocoa Powder Sugar Brown Sugar Baking Powder Sweetened Condensed Milk Evaporated Milk	Cereals Special K red berries Special K vanilla almond Honey Nut Cheerios Cocoa Krispies (my splurge) Cream-of-Wheat Barley	Protein Powder (Dymatize Elite)

Refrigerator Staples
Dairy Milk Eggs Butter (Best Life) Cheese Feta Swiss slices Kraft American slices Parmegiano Reggiano Laughing Cow wedges Cream Cheese (cooking)	Veggies Salad Mixed Greens Mushrooms Cucumber Parsley Cilantro Cauliflower Sugar Snap Peas Celery Zuchini Squash Asparagus Brussel Sprouts Green Bell Pepper Red Bell Pepper	Fruit Strawberries Mangoes Grapes Watermelon Cantaloupe Bananas Apples	Dressings Lite Ranch Light Champagne Vinaigrette (TJ’s) Caesar Vinaigrette Newmann’s Own Low-Fat Sesame Ginger
Roasted Red Peppers Dill Relish Sweet Relish Olives Capers Banana Peppers	Smoked Turkey sliced meat Honey Ham sliced meat Canadian Bacon Bacon	Sugar-Free Apricot Preserves Sugar-Free Orange Marmalade Pollener’s All-Fruit blueberry Sugar-Free Apricot Preserves Sugar-Free Orange Marmalade Pollener’s All-Fruit blueberry	Ketchup Bar-b-Que (sweet baby ray’s) Frank’s Hot Sauce Brown Mustard Mustard Olive Oil Mayonaise Sugar-Free Syrup Hershey’s syrup
Mexican sauces Salsa Valentina Jalapeño Salsa (Pineapple Mango)	Asian Sauces Low Sodium soy sauce Sriracha Hoisin Ponzu sauce Sweet chili sauce Oyster Sauce Chili Garlic Sauce	Reduced Fat – Croissant Dough (in a can)

Freezer Staples
Meat Chicken breasts Chicken Sausage Ground Turkey Tilapia Fillets Salmon Turkey Breakfast Sausage Pork Tenderloin Pork Loin Whole Chicken Beef Steak Cubes Rib-Eye or New York Strip Steak	Veggies Peas Corn Brocolli Chopped Spinach Mixed Veggies	Nuts Walnuts Pecans Sunflower Seeds Sun Dried Tomatoes Chocolate Chips
Pie Crusts Filo Dough

Now that you know what I usually have available in my kitchen, let’s talk about where I usually shop.  Where I shop definitely depends on pricing because let’s face it, I’m a cheap frugal girl!  I like to get the best price possible for the items that I buy.  Sometimes this means going to different grocery stores for different items but I also don’t like to drive all over town.  Driving around wasting gas defeats the purpose of saving money on groceries!  With that being said, here are the stores where I usually shop at.

Where I Buy What
Wal-Mart This is where I get the majority of my groceries.  Btw, Wal-Mart price matches, although I don’t have the patience to do this! Produce Meat Breads/pastas/etc Toiletries Cleaning supplies Paper goods	Food Town Meat Produce Dairy	HEB Fish Shrimp produce	Dollar Stores Water add-ins Sometimes you can find things like bread, spices, canned goods
Hong Kong Market (Asian Grocery Store) Frozen Edamame Jasmine Green Tea (loose leaves) Asian sauces Brown jasmine or basmati rice	Phoenicia Pitas Lamb Chicken Hearts Filo dough Imported cheeses (Feta, Parmigiano Reggiano, Fontina, Asiago, Romano, Goat) Fresh olives Beet Salad Prosciutto Greek yogurt Fennel Imported Olive Oil (large quantity) Spices Teas Desserts (baklava, chocolate covered almonds, imported chocolates and truffles) Sundried tomatoes Wheat berries Garbanzos Tahini Israeli couscous	Costco Trash bags Toilet Paper Paper Towels Strawberries Watermelon Frozen organic broccoli Ground turkey Chipotle Black Bean Burgers Salmon Steaks Laundry detergent Dish soap	Trader Joe’s Grapefruit Brown Rice Tortillas Imported Italian Pastas (Orechiette, /Stuffed Ravioli and Tortellini) Canellini Beans Cereal Wine Whole Wheat Pizza Dough Bacon Ends and Pieces Chicken Sausage Italian Blood Orange Soda Fresh Basil plant Cookie Butter

I hope you find these lists helpful!  Of course you’ll have to tweak them to suit your own family's likes and needs, and to the grocery stores that you shop at.  Nevertheless, I’m hoping this helps, even if just as a starting point for you.

Questions for you:

What are your favorite stores that you shop at?
What are some of your favorite grocery store items?
What are some items that you always have in your pantry/refrigerator/freezer?

Make-It-Happen Monday

Here are the things that I am hoping to make happen this week and this month.

GET IN MY BELLY!!! Grub Menu (7/2 – 7/8)
MONDAY	Chicken breasts, green beans, mashed potatoes
Tuesday	Cream cheese chicken chili
Wednesday	?? – 4th of July bar-b-que
Thursday	Ground turkey tacos (whole wheat, high fiber tortillas), Mexican rice, avocado pico de gallo, black beans
Friday	Steak, chimichurri, roasted veggies
Saturday	- out to eat OR - Curry chicken with onions, bell peppers over brown rice, cucumber salad
Sunday	- out to eat (hopefully Pho or Malaysian food again!) OR - Salmon, asparagus, orzo salad

Work Out Schedule (July 2 – July 8)
	Run	Cross Train	Weights
Monday	3	---	Arms: biceps, triceps, abs
Tuesday	4	Zumba, Spin	---
Wednesday	2	Step	Whole body
Thursday	5	Zumba, Spin	---
Friday	3	Pilates	Legs
Saturday	3	Step	Chest/Back/ Shoulders
Sunday	7	---	---

Right Now I’m…
reading...	The Runner’s Guide to the Meaning of Life (again), Slob (still), Charlotte’s Web (reading it with my little one)
listening to…	Michael Buble, Michael Bolton, Nat King Cole, and Frank Sinatra.  Believe it or not, I am only 33 years old!  I’m just in a jazzy kind of mood right now!
Watching:	Live with Kelly, The View, and Dr. Oz, all shows that I never get to watch during the school year because I’m usually at work when they come on.
Craving...	Jasmine Cream Tea with a double shot of boba (still haven’t had one since the last time I posted about it!) and a nice big, fat juicy dill pickle.
loving...	Being on vacation.  Today was my first official day of summer break and I must say, it was REALLY nice to stay in my pj’s for pretty much the whole day. J
wishing that…	Wednesday’s weather stays nice and clear for the 4th of July.  I do love me some fireworks!!

JULY goals

- tighten up on my eating.  I am a firm believer in not denying myself anything (everything in moderation, right?!) but I have been acting a little spoiled lately and eating a little too much of what I want.  I just need to tighten up a little.  Being home this month is really going to help me do this because I have more time to meal plan, grocery shop, and cook! - complete at least four projects.  That’s about one a week and very feasible, right? Here are the four projects I hope to accomplish: 1.    Make a new vision board. 2.    Clean out the closets and make a Goodwill pile.  A large one. 3.    Make a cute pin board for little one’s room. 4.    Spring Summer Clean!  - continue my Summer RUNstreak and try to log at least 20 miles per week all month. - improve my blog and make it more user-friendly - read at least 8 books this month.  On my list of books to read this summer: 1.      Slob – Ellen Potter 2.      The Runner’s Guide to the Meaning of Life – Amby Burfoot 3.      Delirium – Lauren Oliver 4.      Divergent – Veronica Roth 5.      Insurgent – Veronica Roth 6.      Running for Women – Kara Goucher 7.      Run Like a Girl – Mina Samuels 8.      The Rules of Life – Richard Templar 9.      Then Again – Dianne Keaton 10. Hot & Sweaty Mamas – Kara Douglass Thom and Laurie Lethert Kocanda 11. Jimmy Fallon’s new one 12. The Uglies – Scott Westerfeld 13. The Diamond of Darkhold – Jeanne Duprau 14. Legend – Marie Lu 15. Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer – John Grisham 16. Mile Markers – Kristin Armstrong 17.  Run Like a Mother – McDowell and Shea 18.  Bossy Pants – Tina Fey 19.  The Best Advice I Ever Got – Katie Couric 20. Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White

What are some of your goals this month? What are you grubbing on that you can't get enough of lately? What are your workouts looking like this week?

Ode to friendship

My reunion this past weekend was just as incredible as I expected it to be!

The fam dropped me off at my friend Cristina’s house and after visiting with the husbands and children for a while she and I hit the road for Austin.  We arrived right on time for our lunch date, and chose a table out on the empty patio because we knew with six women all talking at the same time we would probably get loud. J We ordered Mimosas and chatted while we waited for the others to join us.  Dianne, our mommy-to-be, was the first to get there and Jenny, our starlet arrived next.  Rachel and Ashley (who rode together) came soon after and our group was complete.  Well, not entirely complete, actually.  Sadly, there was one special lady missing from our group.  Our girl Rosie lives in Hawaii and between having a newborn (and her other four girls and stepchildren), work obligations, and trying to finish up her dissertation, she was unable to make the trip.  Yes, we think she is Superwoman too!  We missed her dearly and talked about how much we loved her so we wouldn’t miss her so much!

 

Over lunch we started catching up on each other’s lives.  The last time we had all gotten together was for Dianne’s wedding in January of 2011 so as you can imagine, we had a lot of catching up to do! 

Dianne, Ashley, Cristina, Rachel, Jenny

I ordered a grilled portobella sandwich on whole wheat toast.  The food was yummy but the drinks and the company were even better! 

After lunch we decided to head over to Dianne’s house, but first made a grocery store run for snacks and vino.  We wanted to be well stocked! 

When we got there, we got to re-meet her hubs, Brian.  I say re-meet because although we met Brian at the wedding, the bride and groom were busy entertaining all of their guests that night so we hadn’t gotten to chat with him that much.  Di and Bri’s house was soooo cute!  Almost as cute as being able to call them “Di and Bri”!  It was the perfect size house, with a nice layout and color scheme with lots of grays, and blues.  My favorite part was how they managed to blend their modern color palette and décor with homey touches that really made their home feel so cozy and comforting!  I expected nothing less, though, coming from my precious Diane!

We sat around and chatted for the next NINE hours.  Yes, that’s right, I said nine hours.  We started out snacking on some wine, grapes, strawberries, cheese and crackers, sliced salami, hummus and some dill dip and ended the night with pizza and chocolate chip cookies.  We also, between the five of us, finished off quite a few bottles of wine!  Our house-Sommelier, Rachel, had brought three bottles of red with her and there were also some great Chardonnays around the table.  Since Dianne couldn’t drink, the rest of us definitely made up for it and drank enough for her and us! J 

It was a magnificent night of camaraderie, sitting around the table eating, drinking, and spilling our guts.  It was like a good therapy session, only better because it was free and a lot more fun!  What I love most about this group of women is that although we are all so different, at the heart of it all we are alike in many ways, and that’s what bonds us together.  I feel like our friendship is like a metaphor for life.  We are all from different places, different backgrounds, different races, we hardly ever see or talk to each other, we are technically not a part of each other’s daily lives…and yet IT WORKS because we focus on our similarities and not our differences. 

Our main commonality is the love that we have for each other and the desire to maintain that love, and our friendship, in spite of those differences.  We all look forward to our get-togethers (although they don’t happen that often), and when we come together we pick up from where we left off, as if no time or space had ever come between us.  When we come together, we are, for that time, transformed.  We become the same young girls we were when we all met, before jobs, husbands, and babies.  We act silly and laugh, and sometimes even cry, like schoolgirls.  And yet, above all else, what makes our friendship thrive is that we have been able to evolve together, and cultivate our friendship through it all: young loves and heartbreaks, courtships and marriages, new jobs and crazy career changes and, of course, the joys of babies and motherhood. 

We support each other and empower each other, but are always honest with each other and tell each other like it is.  The history we share allows us to impart honest wisdom and advice that we may not feel comfortable enough to share in our other friendships.  I can really be myself with these girls.  They know all of my quirks and perks and love me anyway!  I know that no matter where I go or what I do, I will always have these ladies by my side, even if it is (mostly) in spirit!  I foresee many more yearly reunions and can see myself celebrating our children’s Quinceañeras, Sweet Sixteen’s, High School graduations, college graduations, marriages and grandbabies together! 

More than friends, we are family, we are sisters, and I treasure these girls!  I am truly blessed to have them and thank God for the day I decided (on a whim) to go study abroad in Mexico City!  Along with the opportunity to improve my Spanish, celebrate my heritage, and sightsee, in Mexico I gained lifetime friendships.

After we were all talked out and tuckered out, and our bellies were full, we came back to the hotel, talked for a bit longer and went to sleep.  We all slept late the next morning (none of our babies around to wake us up early), and met for lunch at a Mexican restaurant.  We figured it was fitting, and enjoyed some food that transported us back to our time in el DF.  We enjoyed our lunch, said our goodbyes and each went our separate ways, down different roads.

Cris and I came home and after my family arrived, we spent some time at her house with her family, and her parents.  We ate a delicious dinner, and ended the night Samba-ing in her kitchen.  My favorite things in life, all in one weekend: family, friends, food, and dancing…it really doesn’t get much better than that!

This is my ode to friendship and the superb ladies that love me, support me, encourage me, enrich my life and make it even more delightful.

May our roads lead us back together again soon.