Pretty much every Sunday, I do my grocery shopping for the week. Creative, I know. The hoards of other people at the store every week tell me that I’m not the only one with this idea. However, for me, going to the store takes A LOT of preparation. I spend an hour or so (sometimes more) perusing the internet for new, healthy recipes with ingredients that I’ve never tried before. After coming up with a list of meals for the week, I make my shopping list. Now that I’ve learned my way around a grocery store pretty well, I categorize my list into different sections of the store–produce, dairy, canned goods, protein, etc. My shopping list ends up looking something like this:
In addition, I make a list of the meals I am going to make for the week, along with a few ideas for side dishes. If I didn’t do this, I would end up forgetting why I bought a certain ingredient and it would go to waste! At the top of the meal list, I also write my goals for the week. This week, in order to detox after Spring Break, my goals including exercising at least 4 times during the week, no alcohol, and drinking 64 oz of water a day!
Then I hit the store! I enjoy grocery shopping a lot. Probably significantly more than the average person. It’s right up there with cleaning in terms of things that are therapeutic, stress-relievers for me. While this is probably very atypical for most college students, I’m betting it will serve me well later in life! After putting the groceries away, Brad and I went for a walk. I think we walked about 1.5 miles or so. I thought about running, but today was the first day in a while that my ankles have been pain-free, so I didn’t want to mess them up! I love walking around Chapel Hill, especially when the weather is nice. I’m also loving the daylight savings time! The sun was shining our entire walk, and we didn’t get back until about 7:30 p.m.
Tonight I finally tried the Tikka Masala sauce that I bought a few weeks ago at Whole Foods.
It was delicious and had a mild curry flavor. I simply cooked bite size chunks of chicken in a little olive oil, then added the sauce, covered the mixture, and allowed it to simmer for about 10 minutes. I served it over brown rice.
I also served the meal with a simple cucumber salad with cucumbers, red onions, a dash of sugar and white wine vinegar. I thought it be a cool, refreshing side to offset the spice of the Tikka Masala. However, the sauce was incredibly mild, so it turned out to just be a tasty side dish 🙂 Plus, I got to use my new mini serving dishes!
Now it’s time to catch up on emails, look at my assignments for the week, and get back into the swing of things for school!
lise on life 