You know I’m a foodie at heart and that I love to cook. I’m always experimenting in the kitchen and trying out different recipes, different types of cuisine. Doing all that cooking, though, requires that I also do a lot of grocery shopping. I’ve become very organized and efficient at it over the years, so I thought I would share some of my tips with you today.
One of the most important steps I take is that I make a grocery plan. I tend to shop at the same store every time unless I need some very specialized ingredients, so I’m really familiar with the layout of my store and the people who work there. The manager at my favorite store is also very helpful. (And he has a fabulous TW Steel watch, but that’s beside the point.)
Before I make my shopping plan, I sit down and make a menu for the week of all the things I know I want to make. I look at the recipes and then I look through my refrigerator and pantry to see what ingredients I already have on-hand, and what I need to buy. Then I create my shopping plan, and I organize it by the way the store is organized. For example, I like to start my shopping in the back of the store and work my way to the front. The back is where the milk and eggs are, so those go at the top of my list. I know the next aisle holds the pasta and beans, so those are next and so on until I reach the front of the store where the fresh fruits and vegetables are located.
I have found that using this approach saves me a lot of time and frustration at the grocery store. And time saved at the store is time I can spend cooking up something yummy!
