I eat like garbage and I don't know how to shop for groceries

smurfco

smurfco

Meatus McPrepuce
Anyone else in this boat, now or in the past?

I live alone and I can't drive, but I do have a grocery store right across the street. I order a lot of delivery food and most of it is junk. I feel very unhealthy.

But when I go grocery shopping I don't really know what to do. I mean I get milk, juice, apples, cereal, etc but I usually wind up spending at least a hundred bucks and I get three or four meals out of it. I don't know how to just stock up on vegetables, ingredients, etc. and just make stuff. I always have to plan meals (okay, I'll make rice and beans so I should get rice and beans, then I will have chicken so I guess I should get some chicken, etc)

I want to eat healthier and I want to cook more but I really don't know where to start. I am good at following a recipe but not good at just getting a bunch of basics and making a meal. I know this probably isn't difficult stuff, but I'd appreciate any help anyone can point me towards.

@Kerouac you are a chef, no?

Does this make sense to anyone...???

Love,
Fatlord
 
what's wrong with planning meals? plan 3-4 meals (in quantities that give you leftovers), buy the stuff for making those, make 'em, eat the leftovers. I think if your goal is eating healthier and cooking more, then you should err on the side of more planning, not less.
 
One easy place to start is with items that can be grilled:

Fish, such as salmon, tuna, tilapia (I cook it in foil packet), boneless chicken breast, pork tenderloin
Veggies such as asparagus, bell peppers, zucchini and yellow squash, etc. . . .

Find a marinade that you like such as Teriyaki, etc. . . for the fish/chicken/meat. Lightly coat veggies with olive oil. Throw on the fire and you're eating in a about 10 minutes. Not a lot of planning or searching for recipes.

There are multiple cookbooks that focus on creating multiple meals from one meal (i.e.: you roast a chicken for Sunday night, and use the leftover chicken for tacos for Tuesday night). You may want to look for something like that, too.
 
Here's what we do... I'm not much better than you at not buying crap, but my wife is the healthy one and does much better.

1. Plan for meals, don't just buy random pieces that sound good if you don't have everything to make that meal.

2. Stick to the perimeter of the store as much as possible. That's where the fresh produce, cheeses, meats, and such are. Only go down the isles when you need some pasta, soup, condiments like pickles or capers.

3. be VERY strategic with frozen foods. Frozen hash browns, frozen fruit, or the occasional fill in food like a bag of pizza rolls. Stay away from Hungry Man, Stauffers, and all those other pre packaged foods that are heavy on preservatives, salt, fat, and useless calories.

We also don't buy for the month or several weeks anymore with the exception of things like detergent, trash bags, and cleaners. Usually we buy 4 or 5 days at a time. This is to prevent food from expiring in the fridge (I'm not happy every time I have to throw out chicken or beef that didn't get used on time. :mad:) We also don't buy packaged lunch meat and usually don't buy pre-shredded cheese. We buy our cheese in blocks, shred what we want, slice what we want, and snack on it. Meat like turkey and ham is always sliced at the meat counter.
 
From my POV the biggest challenge of cooking for 1 really is food shopping and perishables, especially if your only cooking single servings. You can easily over purchase ingredients and wind up throwing stuff out as it spoils before you cook it all.

There are tons of food blogs and recipe sites out there and just because a recipe might be formatted for X number of servings, just scale it down for 1 or make it w/ the intention of having left-overs for lunch or another dinner. You can start with looking up recipes food you already like that's prepared in a healty-ish way (especially if you're replicating take out dishes).
 
I live alone too. I'm not a chef by any stretch but I am a damn fine cook. Just ask the people that had my sea food chowder on X-mas Eve and my spaghetti and meatballs on New Years Eve.

The thing is, I love to cook. Along with music it's something I've always loved..I never find it a chore and cook for myself every evening and take a work lunch that I make..My freezer is filled with individual servings of things like split pea soup. vegetable beef soup, chicken noodle soup, cabbage rolls, chile, etc. All home made, as well as single servings of frozen meats ,fish ,etc. I eat out\order in maybe once a month..

Maybe get yourself a beginner cook book and try messing around with some recipe's..
And for my evening meals I'm not exactly eating gourmet. Last night for ex I had sausages\sauerkraut, mashed potatoes and sliced cucumber. Tonight I'm having pan fried haddock, diced boiled potatoes and peas and carrots...It's cheaper too to eat in..

Maybe get a small chest freezer and get cooking. Just do it....Good luck.......

We're pulling for ya!!!

Edit...And stock up on things like spices, condiments, oils,etc..Buy them as you need them though...
 
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Buy more veggies, less packaged food. That's a good place to start. Grilled veggies can bee really good.
 
Lerxst said:
From my POV the biggest challenge of cooking for 1 really is food shopping and perishables, especially if your only cooking single servings. You can easily over purchase ingredients and wind up throwing stuff out as it spoils before you cook it all.
QUOTE]
This is where buying in bulk and freezing single servings works...
Click to expand...
 
It is difficult if you are single. Even with two of us a lot of produce I buy gets wasted because we can't eat it all in time.

Find a sweet young thing that cooks, get married. In the meantime, you can cook things that are good as leftovers, like stews, soups, and the MWGL.com official barbacoa. Get a crock pot if you don't have one, they are cheap and great for that kind of thing.

And I may get roasted for this (hah hah, get it?), but don't rule out frozen dinners maybe a time or three per week. There are lots of them like Lean Cuisine that are pretty good, and they are a good way to eat reasonably healthy and monitor calories etc. They aren't the cheapest way to go and aren't perfect health-wise (they are processed food, tend to have too much sodium, etc.) but they will beat most order-out hands down.
 
With a grocery store across the street, buy your perishables and necessities as you need them.
Don't stock up. Get it fresh when you need it.

You could shop every day for that day's meals and maybe have a bit left over to carry into another recipe for the next day.

Think like a restaurant.
Monday's special - chicken for dinner
Tuesday's soup - chicken vegetable for lunch
Tuesday special - spaghetti with meat sauce for dinner
Wednesday's soup - beef and pasta made with left over meat sauce.
Or save the sauce and make lasagne another night
Etc etc etc.


OR
Have a cook fest on a free day, and bag it in portions, toss it in the freezer. Then heat it up when you want it.
So, make a pot of chili, a pot of stew, a pot of soup, etc. Portion it out and freeze it.
Here's some examples. http://www.foodnetwork.ca/everyday-cooking/photos/make-ahead-meals-freezer/

A few might seem a bit ambitious at first. So, stick to the easier ones. I'm sure there are a million more articles on the 'net, too.
 
Thanks guys, this is all helpful. The cooking for 1 thing is tough for a lot of the reasons outlined above - I wind up throwing out a bunch of perishables because I don't need four chicken breasts at one time, nor do I want to have chicken four days in a row. But this is helpful.
 
bsman said:
Get married... :wink:
Click to expand...

I get married in under 6 weeks, I do 90% of the cooking, the other 10% is her saying she doesn't fancy anything we havein the fridge and phoning takeaway :embarrassed:

What I'd suggest is getting some good basic recipes and working from there - most of what I cook has peppers, tomatoes, onions in some capacity and then I add meat, quinoa, rice or whatever else. You could do the same with the bonus that you're making 2 portions so you've got dinner for tomorrow night two if you stick it in the fridge...
 
smurfco said:
Thanks guys, this is all helpful. The cooking for 1 thing is tough for a lot of the reasons outlined above - I wind up throwing out a bunch of perishables because I don't need four chicken breasts at one time, nor do I want to have chicken four days in a row. But this is helpful.
Click to expand...
That's part of my point. Why in the world wouldn't you wrap them individually and freeze them. Then you can have another one next Friday or next month...
 
smurfco said:
The cooking for 1 thing is tough for a lot of the reasons outlined above - I wind up throwing out a bunch of perishables because I don't need four chicken breasts at one time, nor do I want to have chicken four days in a row.
Click to expand...
When you buy the four chicken breasts, freeze them individually. Then you can thaw as many or as few as you want for dinner.
Also, I second the grilling, but I'd add baking to that. Fish, chicken, turkey, pork tenderloin, leg/rack of lamb--all these can be easily prepped with a few herbs and spices or a store-bought marinade and just thrown in the oven or on the grill.
Boil-in-bag brown rice or Far East cous-cous/quinoa are all easy side dishes (stay away from too many potatoes).
Steam fresh veggies. Or even do frozen veggies--they retain most of their nutrients. But stay away from cheesy sauces or butter. A little spray of olive oil and a dash of salt and pepper is all you need.
 
Awe man... love potatoes and butter...

I always have a 10 lb bag of taters on hand. And I buy butter when it's on sale. It freezes well too..I wouldn't eat margarine if you paid me
 
One more thing. If you don't have a lot of freezer space and you want meat, poultry or fish for one meal why not go to the butcher\fish counter and buy an individual portion from the dude...
 
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