pop nourish

Happy New Year! Wow, I can't believe it is 2020. I feel like I say this every year, but 2019 flew by! I know I have been slacking with posts the past couple of months, which is partially due to vacations and the holiday season but the reality of it is when I started pop nourish I had a lot of material built up and I was posting at an unmaintainable pace. When I first shared my blog publicly I wanted there to be numerous posts for my readers to enjoy. With the start of a new year, it is my goal to be fully dedicated to providing my readers with quality posts on a consistent schedule. I haven't quite figured out what I want that schedule to be, but I can promise you there won't be any more month long breaks in between blogs!

To start off 2020, I thought I would share my grocery haul for the week with you, and how I intend to use everything we bought. In Europe (which is where I live currently for those of you who don't know) it is very common to grocery shop daily, so you are only buying what you need and wasting less food. Although I like that approach, and sometimes my husband and I will just run to the store and buy what we need on that given day, I have found that I would rather plan out meals for the week and do one big grocery shop every Monday. I think this saves us money in the long run and we are eating healthier because we aren't eating out or shopping hangry since we have a plan in place for the week ahead.

 Here is our haul for this week:

Pictured: unsweetened almond milk - espresso pods - white beans - black beans - chickpeas - gold onion - red onion - broccoli - lemons - garlic - ginger - garlic powder - crushed tomato - tomato puree - granola ( no sugar added) - avocado oil - apples - english cucumber - cherry tomatoes - bell peppers (red and yellow) - scallions - green beans (or haricot verts if you're feeling fancy) - wasa crackers - peanut butter (peanuts and sea salt only) - romaine lettuce - gnocchi - tofu - canned coconut milk - paprika pesto 

Not pictured: Sourdough bread - basmati rice - frozen spinach - sweet potato - tortillas - chicken breasts for Markus - soy and sweet chili marinade -  frozen edamame

Here is our dinner plan for the week:

Monday- Chickpea Curry with broccoli, chickpeas, sweet potato, coconut milk, crushed tomatoes, garlic, and red bell pepper. This is probably one of my favorite recipes! I mentioned it in another blog post but here is the link.

Tuesday- Gnocchi with sauteed green beans, red onions, yellow bell pepper, and paprika pesto. Thank for the inspo, Mollie!

Wednesday- Asian style bowls with rice, marinated tofu (chicken for M), carrot, broccoli, scallions, edamame, and onion.

Thursday- Away game for  Markus so I will eat leftovers!

Friday- Tacos with flour tortillas, black beans, tomato, lettuce, cucumber (its a Swedish thing I think?), sauteed onion and bell pepper, chicken for M, and guacamole salsa and regular salsa that we already have!

Saturday- Home game, we will eat at the restaurant at the rink after the game.

Sunday- Off day, we will see how we feel and go to the store that day if we need to.

As for the other things pictured- some were staples that we needed to restock on like avocado oil, peanut butter, and garlic powder, I bought apples and wasa for snacks, bread for sandwiches or toast, lemons for my morning lemon water or tea, Markus has yogurt every morning so we got him some granola, espresso pods because coffee is a necessity. We also got multiple cans of coconut milk, beans, and pureed tomato just because those are pantry staples (check out my posts on pantry staples to see other ways I use those ingredients). For a weeks worth of meals we only spent around $100.00. This time around we already had breakfast stuff at home so we didn't have that added expense, and we plan on using what we already have or having leftovers for lunch.

Tips for smart grocery shopping:

-Have a list before you go into the store, this will help you stay on track and not throwing random things in your cart 

-Try to plan your meals so that you can use the ingredients you are buying in multiple ways

-Buy things on sale when you can. Even if you don't need three cans of beans at that time, if they are on sale it might be worth stocking up so you have them for a future recipe

-Shop around the perimeter of the store, this is where you will find fresh and less processed foods 

-Don't be afraid to buy frozen fruits, vegetables, and herbs!!! Did you know that produce is picked and frozen while at its peak ripeness? This means you are getting quality fruits and vegetables even though they are frozen. A lot of stores are also selling frozen herbs now, which is a great hack for when you only need a minimal amount and don't want to spend the money or have your fresh herbs go bad quickly.

Whewwwww, are you tired of reading yet? I'll wrap up this post by saying after a lot of travel and indulging these past 2 months, it feels really good to have a meal plan for this week and a stocked kitchen! I hope this year is off to a great start for you all! Thank you for checking out my blog, and I am excited for the potential pop nourish has to inspire and enlighten my readers in 2020.

xo, katie

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