Ok so I’m not old and my last name isn’t Hubbard, but one thing I do have in common with this English nursery rhyme is that my cupboards sure were bare!

[That and she obviously had a dog with an independent and mischievous personality, which I totally do too. Smoking a pipe? Standing on his head? Reading the news? Yes, I can absolutely see Samson doing all those things along with stealing money from my wallet and taking CJ’s car for a joy ride. Then he’d come back home, give us this look and hope he could get away with it.]

Anywho, I digress.

As I was saying, our cupboards were in fact very bare and when that happens, so does another phenomenon – I eat like crap. That’s right, I totally blamed my poor eating on our pantry. Take that! Ok so my poor choices are part of it too but the fact of the matter is that when the selection at home is limited, I have to get creative when making meals/snacks and I tend to get lazy and just grab junk. Or eat out, which is neither friendly to my waist or wallet.

My main goal was two-fold – 1) get items that can be used in a variety of ways, thus giving me lots of options, and 2) buy healthy foods. Oh, and for the sake of our budget, keep it under $100. In particular, I wanted to buy items that I could take to work, so they had to be portable. What can I say, I spend almost half of my waking hours during the week at the office and I want to make sure I have healthy foods to eat while I’m there.

So, I made a list, checked it twice and then headed out to the store! [I also grabbed my coupons because it was double coupon day at Hy-Vee! Booya!]

2 hours later, I was back home and very happy with my haul. Not only did I meet my 2 goals but the grand total of the bill came to $98.97! Go Sarah, go Sarah, it’s your budget-day, go Sarah!

Here’s what I got as far as healthy items for me to take to work (meaning, I won’t show you pics of the dog bones I got Samson or the Ziploc bags that were purchased):

Frozen/Refrigerated items

• Salad mix
• Sweet Potato Fries (we had these for dinner last night and they were awe.some.
• Edamame
• VitaMuffin Tops (double chocolate of course)
• Chocolate Milk (a childhood favorite)
• Laughing Cow Light French Onion cheese spread (mmmmmm)
• Cottage Cheese
• Healthy Choice Steamers (for when we don’t have any leftovers for me to take)

Not pictured (because I forgot about them – oops!)

• Carrot chips*
• Sharp Cheddar cheese  

*Yes, I know that buying carrot chips as opposed to whole carrots is more expensive, but for me, it’s worth it. I am not a fan of the orange veggie so anyway to make it EASY for me to eat them is good. These chips are the perfect size/shape for throwing on a sandwich/burger or dipping into dressing or peanut butter (yes, carrots in PB. Sounds gross but it’s de-lish!).

The reason you don’t see a lot of fruits on the list is because CJ had gone out the day before and gotten some already. Apples, oranges, strawberries and pears – oh my!

Dry goods:

• Pop-Secret HomeStyle microwave popcorn (snack bags)  – hands down, my fav microwave popcorn. It has that salty buttery taste that reminds me of what mom used to make!
• Triscuit reduced fat crackers
• FiberOne 90 calorie bars – Chocolate Peanut Butter

Not pictured:

• Nilla Wafers
• Cheese-its
• Tortilla Chips

Doesn’t seem like a lot of food (sure seemed like more in the cart and as the total was being tallied at the cash register!) but the possibilities are endless! Cottage cheese and pears! Carrot chips and peanut butter! Triscuits smeared with the Laughing Cow cheese!

Here is how my menu looked today:

• Post workout drink: Small glass of chocolate milk (fact: chocolate milk is just as good, if not better, at helping you recover from a workout than Gatorade or water due to its high carb and protein content. Plus it tastes way better and makes me feel like a kid again!).
• Breakfast: oatmeal with strawberries
• Mid-morning snack: apple and FiberOne bar (not as good as it looks on the package but still tasty)
• Lunch: big salad paired with one of the Healthy Choice Steamers
• Mid-afternoon snack: microwave popcorn
• Dinner: Chicken and broccoli Mac n’cheese with a veggie/fruit and bread
• Evening snack: 2 Girl Scout cookies (we have like 10 boxes of these so it is my duty to eat them up)

Pretty good, eh? And tomorrow will probably be something totally different, with no repeats. Gotta love that!

I’m really, really, excited about my now full cupboard. What can I say, I dig food. And more specifically, yummy, easy food.

I also had a productive weekend in the de-cluttering department but more to come on that tomorrow. If I revealed everything today, you all might fall over and die from sheer excitement. And I don’t want to be held responsible for that (Death by Blogging).

So, come back tomorrow and until then, healthy eating!!

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National Eating Disorder Awareness Week

Don’t Call me Late for Dinner

Hate the Grocery Store