Food Prep & Stocking Up: Staying Realistic

Top left: Ice Cream (cat), Stocked freezer (including homemade Vegan parm!), Bread pizzas with Vegan chee, our huge stock of Coconut oil.
Top right: Some of our groceries. Not even half.
Bottom left: Our fridge door (including lots of homemade goodness; ketchup / tomato soup, Vegan ranch dressing, lots of store-bought and homemade seasoning...)
Bottom right: Homemade mustard soaking up vinegar, Strawberry banana smoothie, Circe (cat), our smoothie ingredients (which are now in flat bags in the freezer.)

This past Friday, Pooh and I went grocery shopping. We stocked up on everything I could think of and then some. My friend Corrine helped me sit down and think of a basic grocery list to start from. That was a huge help! We spent the entire day out and went to four different stores. (Three of which are local!)

We tried to be realistic when it came to buying groceries and stocking our pantry. Usually, if we buy fresh food, we tend to get over-excited and buy more than we know what to do with and it ends up being wasted. So sitting down and really deciding what we wanted to make before-hand helped. We'll see how it ends up working out, but so far it's been amazing.

Saturday we had some errands to run (we needed more tomatoes!) and then came home and made a ton of food from scratch. Sunday hubs and I didn't feel very well but we still spent the entire day making more food. I ended up making some homemade ketchup but, despite following the recipe exactly, it turned out more like tangy tomato soup; so I tried taking some of the tanginess out and we had it for dinner last night as tomato soup (along with some Vegan grilled cheese sandwiches!)

I'm really proud of us because usually, whether or not we feel well, we don't really bother to spend a good amount of time in the kitchen actually working on making food... And if we feel less-than-stellar, you can usually count on us lying around, playing video games all day. And while we still totally got in some video game playing time, we spent, by far, the bulk of our time fixing up food in the kitchen.

THAT is the difference in our lives. THAT is progress. And I am so excited that it just is coming naturally. Granted, I need to make a point to take it easier and realize that I'm far along in my pregnancy and can't push it too hard, but... When I became pregnant, I would always tell myself "active pregnancy!" I knew I couldn't just sit there and let hubs do everything with the excuse that "I'm pregnant!" Not that he wouldn't; he definitely would do anything for me, no questions asked. But I am not okay feeling lazy. I spent a couple of years after I gave birth to our first boy feeling that way and... never again. (At least not when I am totally capable of doing something... Usually.)

I have an appointment with the ultrasound technician every Monday and Thursday; and this Thursday, I also have a full-ultrasound and also see my OB. This Thursday I'll be 34 weeks along. I'm 33.5 weeks now; if I have Roo at 37 weeks, that's 3.5 weeks away. And if I have him at 40 weeks, that's just 6.5 weeks away! Both are so close!

I wish I'd gotten a picture of our girlie Charlie (our third cat; the top left is Ice Cream and the bottom right is Circe.) But Maybe she'll pose for me soon enough, haha. She was quite the snuggle butt this weekend. Man, I love our cats.

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Weekend Plans & A Vegan Grocery List

We're big on travel. It's always local; always in Ohio or very close in the surrounding states. But it's been our entertainment outlet for years. Driving new places, finding new favourite cities... Most often, we drive to one of the larger cities we're familiar with and then just drive around a bit until we find something interesting. We don't have smart phones and until this past few months, didn't have a GPS either (but now we do; thanks, Dad!) So we basically stick to my (great, if I do say so myself) sense of direction. (Which I'm so thankful for, considering hubs doesn't have much of a sense of direction at all.)

I am the driver in the relationship; hubs doesn't mind driving but I love, love, loooove it.

Our favourite and most-frequent trips are an hour / an hour and a half South to visit specialty stores like Whole Foods. We make that trip usually monthly (more in the warmer months,) to just buy groceries. But considering that Roo will be here in just a few short weeks, we want our lifestyle to be sustainable, whether or not we're able to be able to (or want to) make that trip.

So what we're planning on doing this weekend is visiting different local stores to see what we can stock up on here. Our goal is to buy a pantry (or something to act as a pantry,) and build a nice little stash of food. And if we can't get everything we need here, then we'll make that trip. But I'm really excited to push our boundaries and see what we can do local.

I thought I would share my giant grocery list for this weekend. (It doesn't include flour, flax seeds, baking soda, coconut oil (we have four giant jars of it,) agave nectar, EVOO (we don't use it much at all; maybe once every few months, but we have it on hand,) salt & other random spices... Because we already have those items; we always try to.)

VEGAN GROCERY LIST

FRESH FRUIT
Bananas (enough for a week)
Lemons (1-2)
Tomatoes (a goooood amount)

FRESH VEGGIES
20lb Potatoes
10-20 Large Onions (White and a couple of red) (or 2-4 bags)
4 Heads of Garlic
3 Large Bags of Carrots
1 Red Bell Pepper
Broccoli

GRAINS, BEANS, LENTILS
40lb Rice
15lb Pinto Beans
15lb Red Beans
15lb Great Northern Beans
10 Cans Butter Beans
Lots of Chickpeas
2 cups Sesame Seeds
Lentils
Cornmeal
Dried Yeast

SPICES, EXTRACTS
Oregano
Cumin
Cajun
Bay Leaves
Vanilla Extract
Nooch
Mustard Seeds
Cayenne Pepper

FREEZER, FRIDGE
12 Bags Frozen Fruit
12 Bags Frozen Veggies
2 Tubs Vegan Butter
2 Packages Daiya Cheddar Slices
Daiya Cheddar Shreds

OILS, ETC
White Vinegar
ACV
Raw Local Honey (get a few since we're using the hell out of it)
Lemon Juice
Maple Syrup
Grapeseed Oil

NOT COLD
4 Big Applesauces
3 Packages Tofu
12 Boxes of Pasta
1-2 Boxes Cupboard Soy and 5-6 Boxes Cupboard Almond Milk (original, unsweetened)
4 Bags Coconut Sugar
2-3 Loaves Bread
Nut Butter

Some of the items could be made from scratch; applesauce (super simple) to name one. We are planning on making our own pasta sauce, ketchup, bbq sauce, mustard, hummus, Vegan ranch dressing and Vegan "parmesan cheese" to name a few. But instead of making every single thing from scratch in the next couple of weeks, we thought it'd be easier (and probably cheaper since we don't want to waste food) to just buy some of the pre-made things in an effort to not overwhelm ourselves. We also don't generally buy Vegan butter but once every couple of months, but I figured if we're stocking up, it might as well be on the list. And when it comes to Daiya cheese, we actually *never* buy it. But I'm wanting to try and make some Vegan mac & chee, Vegan pizza and Vegan grilled chee sandwiches (with homemade tomato soup!) so... those are on there, too. Those definitely aren't normally in our kitchen, though.

I will be posting soon about stocking a Vegan pantry (and kitchen!) and how this list has worked for us.

What are your plans for this weekend? Anything exciting like grocery shopping? (I actually super love it.)

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