Making Shop-Rite Purposeful

An expedition to Shop-Rite.  $176, the most I have spent at a single outing other than Pesach acquisitions.  To be fair, 10% of that went to a 42-count box of omeprazole and the cart overflowed primarily due to deluxe packages of paper towels and toilet paper.  Most everything else was on sale, with my only real splurge a container of kosher-certified good parmesan, something useful and hard to find sometimes.  And there is also what I did not get.  No yogurt. Other than Shop-Rite brand, which they did not have, yogurts have all gone Greek style.  Not that I object to Greek style, but I think $1 a container exceeds what I am willing to pay.  No squishy bread.  Pay a little more for the good stuff at Trader Joes and eat less.  No soda.  Gallon apple juice on sale, goes great heated and spiced. And ration on snack food.

Basically, as I pushed my cart through each aisle I thought partly what's a good buy and partly what might I do with it.  Big sale on poultry.  An Empire chicken cut up would supply the Doro Wat I've been meaning to make.  Turkey half-breast might last until Thanksgiving, but it makes an easy shabbos dinner.  Chicken leg quarters make great soup followed by stir fry.  I got a lot of fish.  Great salmon steaks reduced by half, repackaged to single pieces for easy dinner.  Gorton's fillets on sale, easy dinner.  Frozen tilapia perfect portions, easy dinner.  Tabachnick soups, easy accompaniment.  Pierogies, easy dinner.  Lasagna on sale, though the spinach and cottage cheese I need for it was not.  Macadam's chunk cheese which I need on sale, got two.  Frozen phony meat, easy dinner.  Frozen vegetables on sale.  Might live out of the freezer for the next two weeks.

As I used to beat on patients for dietary discretion, my own downtick in weight with little effort started with how I approach the supermarket.  Ban potato chips and commercial cookies.  Restrict bread.  Do my own baking.  It starts with the supermarket.  Now I seem to be moving past weight control to enjoying my kitchen and what I can do in it.  Everything I bought I can turn into a meal, mostly good meals, with reasonable attention to the time needed and the post meal cleanups.  This also starts with the supermarket.  Won't have to go back for a while, except for perishables, whose purchase I minimized.  The merger of better nutrition, more enjoyable meals, and a little extra time to do other things not related to food.