Grocery Shopping Like a True Country Girl

Quickly after moving from the big city to the country it became apparent our big city comforts and conveniences were no longer present. I have always been a planner and have been planning our meals out prior to grocery shopping for a while now. However, I have come to realize my shopping and meal planning methods needed to be revised to fit this new country lifestyle.

Coming to Realization

I have grudgingly come to accept that there will be no more last minute dinner decisions, no more impulsive trips to the grocery store, no more craving for anything that isn't already in our pantry and lastly, NO MORE PIZZA DELIVERY or any food delivery at that! #InsertSadEmoji #FacePalm Hopefully, by now you can see becoming a bonafide country wifey has proven to be quite the transition for me. Going from living five minutes from more than four grocery stores to now living 30 minutes from the nearest grocery store has definitely been quite the adjustment. While it doesn't necessarily require scaling back to the once a month grocery store trips my grandparents used to make it has required me to adjust and learn how to grocery shop and store food to better preserve its shelf life.

Making Changes

My husband and I pretty much live on a rotation of the same meals with a few new recipes thrown in a couple of times a month. This means I usually buy the same items every time I shop with few new items here and there for the new recipes. However, being 20 miles from the nearest grocery store has made me reevaluate how I shop and do some research on how to better store food to cut back on trips to the grocery store. Below are a few tips and tricks I have learned from friends and family as well as some I learned from researching online.

Meal Planning

As I said before I am quite the planner and have planned out our meals before shopping for a few years now. This has proved to be very helpful in saving money as well as reduce the amount of food wasted. When we lived in the city I would plan our meals out for a week at a time however now I try to plan for two to three weeks at a time. This entails making a list of all the meals I want to prepare, write out the ingredients for each meal, check the pantry and fridge to cross off ingredients we already have then create a grocery list of all the ingredients needed plus any items we have run out of or are low on. We keep a running shopping list on the side of the refrigerator where we write down items we have run out of or are low on which makes it easy to know what we need to add to the grocery list besides the meal ingredients. Ladies, please note if you try to start doing this it will take your husband time to learn to remember how to write things down when he uses them up. Trust me, mine is still trying to remember and we have been doing this for years now! #Haha Well without giving you a list of all the items we buy, as they will change based on what your family likes, I’ll highlight a few specific things and how we shop for them and store them.

Fruits & Veggies:

I know, I know most of you are thinking you live in the country now why not have your own garden. Well, let me tell you I have definitely thought about it however I am currently already intimidated at learning a whole new life and I'm not quite sure I’m ready to tackle a garden and all the challenges that come with it. However, I have been highly considering it so check back in a few months or so, you never know I may have become a gardening genius! #InsertLaughingEmoji Until then I will continue to channel my inner city girl and buy them from the store like normal folks. When it comes to fruit and veggies I always feel fresh is best however I know that is not always possible, so I usually stock up on fresh and frozen. We tend to use all the fresh fruit and veggies first before we break into the frozen. I personally do not like frozen fruit because it tends to become mushy when thawed but the frozen veggies are a great substitute for fresh. After doing some research another tip I have learned is to dice up fresh veggies such as onions and bell peppers and freeze them in freezer safe Ziploc baggies. This has not only proven helpful in making our produce last longer but is also helpful in making meal prep easier.

Fresh Veggies:

⁃ Bag of potatoes

⁃ Summer Squash

⁃ Okra

⁃ Brussels sprouts

⁃ Green beans

⁃ Cabbage

⁃ Eggplant

⁃ Onions

⁃ Garlic

⁃ Salad mix

Frozen Veggies:

⁃ 2 bags of Lima Beans

⁃ 2 bags of Breaded Okra

⁃ 4 bags of Whole Okra

⁃ 2 bags of Cut Okra

⁃ 1 bag of Brussels Sprouts

⁃ 2 bags of Green Beans

⁃ 2 bags of Corn

⁃ 2 bags of Peas

Fresh Fruit:

⁃ Oranges

⁃ Apples

⁃ Bananas

⁃ Pomegranates

⁃ Grapes

⁃ Lemons

⁃ Avocados

Bread:

This trick I learned from my grandparents. Growing up my grandparents always stored extra loaves of bread in the freezer. I know it sounds strange, but it actually works! My husband and I don’t typically eat a ton of bread however we do use it for sandwiches pretty often, so I always buy two loaves now. One goes in fridge when we get home and the other in the freezer. When I notice we are starting to run low I pull the loaf out of the freezer and thaw it out on the counter, which usually takes about a day. I would not leave the bread in the freezer longer than a month as it may get freezer burned. We also do this with tortillas, we tend to eat a lot of tacos, so we always need tortillas.

Milk:

Okay, so I don’t personally drink milk unless I’m drinking hot cocoa. However, my husband goes through milk like it’s water, which often leaves me in a bind when cooking because we usually run out before I need it. To solve this problem, I refer back to another trick I learned from my grandparents, which is to buy extra milk and freeze it. We typically buy 1-one gallon of 2% milk, 1-half gallon of 2% milk and 1-half gallon of whole milk. I typically use the whole milk with things like cooking, so I don’t like it to be watered down which sometimes happens when you freeze milk other than whole milk. The trick to freezing milk is to take about a cup out of the jug before placing it in the freezer to allow space for it to expand. Note- we usually only freeze half gallons of milk and we do not leave the milk in the freezer longer than a month or past its expiration date.

Meat:

We buy about 15-20lbs of meat, which usually lasts us a good three weeks. I typically buy 2 packages of pork chops, 1 package of steaks, 1 5lb package of chicken breasts, 1 small whole chicken, 4lbs ground turkey and 2 bags of frozen tuna steaks. When I get home, I separate all the meat into one-pound sections or two pork chops/chicken breast etc. then wrap them in plastic wrap and place them into Ziploc baggies marked with the date before freezing. This helps keep the meat from getting freezer burned and lets me know how long it has been in the freezer.

Eggs:

Eggs are not a problem for us as we have some Rhode Island Reds (Chickens) that lay eggs daily and we usually have so many we have trouble giving the extra eggs away. My grandparents also used to have chickens while I was growing up and one thing I learned was if you are using fresh eggs straight from the chicken coop you should always break them into a bowl prior to using them in any dish to check for blood. Note - you only have to do this if you have a rooster and the eggs have the possibility of being fertilized.

Flour/Corn Meal/Oatmeal:

Another staple I have had to learn how to store differently is flour, cornmeal, and oatmeal. I have quickly learned that it is very common for people who live in the country to store these staples in airtight containers in the refrigerator or freezer. This seems to be very helpful in keeping them fresh and keeping those pesky little bugs out!

Well I hope this has been somewhat helpful for you. If you have any tips or tricks please share them in the comments!

XOXO,

South Texas Blonde