When I’m trying to eat healthier food, the worst thing I can do in a supermarket is to browse the aisles.
My solution for this is to stockpile certain foods so I can concentrate my weekly shopping on fruit and vegetables, whole milk and perhaps meat. For example, I don’t buy cheese and butter every week. I prefer to buy enough for a month or two. Butter freezes well, although to freeze cheese I find it’s best to grate first then lay out in trays to freeze before bagging up. (Cheese that has been frozen in blocks generally crumbles when it’s cut. If I grate it and bag it without laying out it will generally clump into one virtually unuseable mass). Mostly I just keep my cheese in the fridge. I buy 1kg blocks and when I open each pack I immediately divide into three and wrap with clingwrap. I never lose a skerrick of cheese to mould that way. I also package meat into meal size servings before freezing and put bread and sometimes milk in the freezer. There’s absolutely no waste doing it this way.
Eggs come from a friend who has happy chooks that wander around outside all day scratching and pecking at whatever their hearts desire, so no need to buy the supermarket variety.
Breakfast supplies for the muesli eater in the house are a simple case of buying oats, processed bran and sultanas and combining them into a 9 litre lidded container. No need to go down the breakfast aisle again until supplies run low.
The pantry always has a stash of cans—tomatoes, chickpeas, butter beans, kidney beans, beetroot, mushrooms, pineapple. I’m a fan of single ingredient cans because it gives me more control over what I’m eating. If I want soup or stew, it’s easy enough to make with supplies on hand. Living up to this one idea of buying single ingredients makes my shopping life heaps easier, because I don’t feel the need to try every new incarnation of canned or packet meals that’s out there. In fact, it means a couple more aisles I don’t have to go down (or at least only for my occasional foray to stock up on single-ingredient items that may be in those aisles).
I keep a reasonable supply of herbs and spices, onion and garlic powder, liquid and powdered stock, pasta, rice, flour (plain wholemeal, normal flour and spelt flour), salt, yeast (it lasts for years kept in the fridge), olive oil, vinegar and naughty flavourings like Gravox, soy sauce, sugar and tomato sauce. It means I can easily create beautifully flavoured meals without resorting to a myriad of packets. I’m constantly surprised at how many packets of flavourings or ready-made dishes there are in supermarkets these days. Don’t people make simple things from scratch any more? I truly can’t believe white sauce, sweet and sour sauce, flavoured rice et cetera need to come out of a packet.
I do the same with the less-than-optimal food we eat. A big plastic container holds packets of biscuits so I don’t have to go down that aisle too often. I also find that when I am simply replenishing supplies rather than browsing, I buy the same kinds of biscuits each time. It saves being tempted by all those chocolate-covered, caramel-infused packets of sin. The same thing works in the confectionery section. As long as I have some chocolate and maybe some peppermints or lollipops at home, it’s okay to ignore the rows and rows of sweet treats. Not buying this kind of food every week gives me a break from looking at huge displays of it and I think, will eventually free me from its clutches. Also, when I choose just one or two items (one kind of sweet biscuit and one style of cracker) and stick to my choices, I don’t have the feeling that I am missing out. I am simply choosing differently. The trick is to make these choices at home on a day when determination and passion are high. The second trick is to shop quickly, using a list and trying not to deviate too much.
This whole procedure of bulk shopping waxes and wanes a bit, but I find that when I do take the time to do this for non-perishables and for all our personal items, my regular shopping trips are even quicker and more disciplined. Overall, it means the whole household eats healthier food.
