Five Tips for Sustainable Grocery Shopping | Plastic-free, Healthy, Affordable

I used to be distraught when I walked into a grocery store. I’m not talking about showing up for a box of pasta, a jar of spaghetti sauce and a bottle of wine for the evening. I’m talking about “grocery shopping trips.” The kind of trips my mom would take to stock us up for the week. The trips that would make me shudder when I walked up to the automatic sliding doors, saying “Where do I even start?”

Meal planning is hard enough as it is, so having high standards for the ingredients of the meals I want to eat makes these decisions even more difficult. When choosing an item I like to ask..

Is this free of plastic packaging?

Are the workers in its supply chain treated fairly?

Are there artificial preservatives or dyes?

Is this free of unhealthy oils?

Are these animal products humanely raised and hormone-free?

Is this produce free of pesticides and chemicals?

With so many conditions and a limited budget, how can I find enough food to provide all the nutrients my body requires to thrive? A zillion hours later at the grocery store, I might make it out alive with only half a meal planned. All my standards are to sustain a healthy planet and a healthy me, but having high standards can seem stressful. The key is to keep it simple. Here are six tips to get you started on creating your own strategy for sustainable grocery shopping:

1. Make the ultimate grocery list! - The biggest move that finally solved my grocery shopping fears was creating an ultimate grocery list--a list backed up by research that I’d write only once. I found recipes and snacks that fit all my standards and put all the ingredients in checklist format on my Notes app. That way I can just uncheck the item when I run out of it and when I go to the store, I can stick to purchasing those unchecked items and stock back up! I’ve now found out this is kind of a thing and lots of blogs recommend it.

To create an ultimate grocery shopping list, I chose a few main recipes to base it on. These recipes are constantly modified by switching out produce according to what’s in season (farmer’s market life!) and swapping proteins. I also always make extra so I have leftovers available when I don’t have time to prepare food. These are the dinner recipes I ended up with after research and still use today:

Pesto Spaghetti Squash I don’t use cheese, I swap out proteins and sauces, and I throw in whatever veggies I have from the farmer’s market. It’s a little different every time!

Vegan Sweet Potato Quesadillas This one fit the bill, except for the fact I’ve had the hardest time finding tortillas not wrapped in plastic. I decided to make my own delicious cassava flour tortillas from scratch, and when I don’t have time I eat the stuffing with rice!

Thai Chicken Curry This one definitely changes each time according to the veggies I swap out. I also eat it with rice or quinoa.

My lunches have always been random. Lately, they consist of snacks, leftovers, eggs and rice, smoothies, or meals out. Ingredients for these are on my ultimate grocery list of course. I have always loved oatmeal so for breakfast, I chose overnight oats ingredients to add to my list. I eat oatmeal for breakfast every morning and just switch up the toppings. It’s been five months, and I actually like oatmeal even more than I did before. If you need more variety find another breakfast idea or two to rotate in. Next on my list, I have drinks, fruits and veggies to snack on, and my favorite finds from the bulk foods section! (Try making your own trail mix with bulk section ingredients!) The list is pretty long but the dry goods, oils and spices don’t run out often, so grocery shopping never takes long. I also put most the veggies into one “fresh produce” checkbox. A longer list might result in more food going bad, so if you love variation try switching out recipes every so often.