Tuesday 31 January 2012

Shopping lists

I'm terrible - I never write a shopping list. I just bumble around the shops, making it up as I go along. The consequence of this is that (a) I waste food, buying stuff I never get round to using, and (b) I forget to buy things that I need, and have to go back to shops. Over the last few years, I've got around the second problem by just popping to supermarkets to pick up whatever I need at the last minute. However, that option is now no longer there, and I've noticed in the last few weeks that I've found myself without things I've needed on a couple of occasions, and ended up either eating an odd combination of food, or scouring local shops in the hope that they stock what I need.

I'm trying to change my food habits at the moment, focusing on:
1) Eating more seasonally.
2) Eating less meat, and also eating some of the less "desirable" cuts of meat that we often shun.
3) Wasting less, both in terms of food waste, and packaging waste.
4) Sourcing from local shops

All these things mean that I need to plan more about what I'm going to eat, and do a proper weekly shop to enable me to get to the shops that will help me achieve the above. Whilst I have some local shops very close to me, they don't fit with some of the other criteria, and whilst I will undoubtedly still end up using them, I would like to get as close as I can with a majority of the food.

I'm hoping the eating more seasonally will be helped by my UK sourced veg box, which is arriving on Thursday. I've been online and checked the expected contents of the box, so I have an idea what to expect, and planned the rest of my food around it.

I've also checked my fridge and cupboard, so I have an idea what I have in that needs eating, therefore reducing waste. I have a mass of mushrooms and some sour cream (left over from the weekend). I'm therefore planning to get some liver from the butchers and make a stroganoff style dish. Liver is an overlooked ingredient, which will also help with my iron levels as I struggle already with anaemia and don't want it to get worse with reducing my meat intake.

I'm due to get beetroot with my veg box, and that instantly in my head gets combined with some feta on a salad, with the rest of the feta going well with some squash (from the veg box) and some lentils (from my cupboard) for another meal. Added to some soup ingredients (for my lunches at work) and a bit of stewing steak (as I'm expecting to cook for a gluten/dairy free friend at some point in the week) and I'm just about there.

I've realised it's probably a good idea to have a proper idea of what I have in the fridge and the cupboard, and also a running shopping list that I can add to during the week, so I've started these on Evernote (which is a list making program that syncs between my phone and computer - yes, I realise this is very geeky), and planned in a bit of time at the weekend to properly sort out my food cupboard and see what's in there.

So that's the plan. We shall see how well it works in practice...

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