Yep, there’s a backstory y’all!

I was once a broke college student, like many folks out there. My second year of college, I lived in an on campus apartment with three other girls, two bedrooms one bath and a teeny-tiny kitchen with a teeny-tiny refrigerator. At the time, I couldn’t shop the way I do now because 1, I was broke and 2, there was no space to store anything! We also didn’t have complex kitchen utensils or many pots and pans for that matter, so a lot of my cooking was limited to a singular 12 inch pan, ready made meals and a dream. When I moved out of that apartment, I was able to move to an off campus apartment. As a gift, my parents got me my first set of stainless steel pots, pans, and kitchen utensils! That’s when it really occurred to me that I was able to truly dive into cooking for myself and exploring the world of culinary arts through YouTube as well as various food blogs. Like I stated in my pantry post, my step-dad taught me how to grocery shop by making sure my pantry basics were stocked. Well, again being a broke college student, juggling classes and a job, I couldn’t grocery shop everyday the way my family was able to. So every paycheck, I would buy 2 proteins (family-size), basic produce like bell peppers, potatoes, and broccoli and two frozen meals for when I got a little too lazy to cook. The family size proteins would last me almost a month; I would portion them into single servings and store them in the freezer until I was ready to use them. As a broke college student, you really had to learn how to stretch your groceries so they’d last you!

Nowadays, I use a similar method when I grocery shop. Every month I buy about 3 different family sized proteins and use that to determine what I am going to cook for that week. Since I am cooking for my boyfriend and I, we go through a lot more groceries than when I was living alone. I go grocery shopping for produce every week – sometimes twice a week – if we are looking to make something a bit more fun. When I buy proteins, I usually portion them into two portions per serving bag. This ensures that I am taking out exactly what we need for that day and nothing goes to waste. This method is specific to chicken, fish (I usually buy a whole fish fillet and portion that myself), and steak. We like to eat a variety of proteins, including clams, mussels, shrimp, ground beef and ground turkey. For these items, I usually buy what we’re going to eat that day and because I buy a full size portion, we usually have leftovers of these items.

When I am building a menu for our week of meals, I like to look at my freezer and start with our proteins. From there, I go to the pantry to see what dry goods will pair well with the protein I’ve chosen. Once I’ve done that, I take out my little recipe bible and get to work. Menu building is my favorite part of cooking and grocery shopping. For example, this week I saw we had shrimp, beef necks and chicken thighs. For Monday, I’m going to make shrimp scampi. On Tuesday, I’ll make some marinated chicken thighs with rice, and Wednesday I’ll make braised beef necks with grits. I checked my pantry to make sure we had all the dry goods that’ll accompany my proteins, and while doing that, I am taking visual notes of what we’ll need for produce. I assess what I have and build my grocery list based on that. This method of grocery shopping has always worked for me, and I have been refining it for years now. I can confidently say I  finally have it down to a science. Grocery shopping can also be expensive, so buying proteins and dry goods in bulk really helps us save money and ensures we have enough food in the off chance that we have to wait for the next paycheck to grocery shop.

I would also like to recommend not sticking to one grocery store. I understand the hassle of going to multiple stores, but if you can fit that into your schedule, it’ll save you money and teach you about the variety of groceries that are available to you. My top three grocery stores are:

• Grocery Outlet: I come here for chicken (be it whole chickens, thighs, drums or wings), snacks, sandwich supplies, eggs and last minute grocery items.

• Northgate Gonzalez Market: I come here for the freshest produce, dry goods, cooking oils, steak & carne asada.

• Trader Joe’s: I come here for what I like to call food accessories. I personally consider Trader Joe’s a specialty market, because of all the fun snacks, frozen food and accoutrements they have here but I wouldn’t do all of my grocery shopping here.

There are a couple of specialty groceries I like to visit when I have the time and money like Whole Foods, etc. But until my pockets run a bit more deep, these are the old reliables I like to stick to. I know I didn’t mention where I purchase fish, but I prefer to purchase fish from a small fish market in my city. They have the best fish and the nicest people working there. Happy Eating!.