How Fit n Busy Mama Does Clean Vegetarian Grocery Shopping

So today was my first shopping day for our vegetarian diet (for lent).  After scouring recipes and preparing my grocery list last night, I was ready!  My dear friend and clean eating protege, Sara, tagged along today for some shopping to figure out how to buy organic/clean on a tight budget such as ours!

The list I actually took to the store looked like this:

 Although there are many times I use my phone's notebook, when I'm making my meal plan grocery list, I like old-fashioned pen & paper!  Plus, I can't tell you how many times I had a full list on my phone and one of my crazy kids deleted my entire list or changed it up for funsies.

I separate it out by location in the grocery store and highlight items based on which grocery store I need to get it from.  I ALWAYS STICK TO THE LIST!!  If nothing on my list is on aisle 2, I DO NOT go down aisle 2!  It keeps me from getting distracted.  I am on a very tight time constraint and I don't want to get sucked in to buying things I really don't need. 

Excluding a couple household goods, I spent a total of $100 today at Walmart & Akins with enough food for 5 dinners, cereal, milk, and some baking staples I needed. 

I take with me to the grocery store my dirty dozen and clean fifteen lists.  I have the "dirty dozen" app on my iphone which gives me instant access to the lists when I need to double-check them.




If it's on the dirty list, I buy organic.  Everything else, I buy conventional.  Most of my organic veggies I can get at Walmart and it's quite a bit cheaper than Whole Foods.  Here's a couple of my finds from Walmart:

 Organic baby spinach, 10 oz (for salads, green monsters, and 1 of my recipes) $4.98

 Organic carrots 16 oz: 98 cents (although not a dirty dozen, they are pretty high on pesticide level and these were very inexpensive so I opted for organic)

 Organic celery 16 oz $2.38

 12 oz broccoli florets for easy steamed veggie sides $2.48

 Organic no salt added diced tomatoes: 4 x $1.38

 Great Value Brand crushed tomatoes 28 oz (this can had the lowest sodium out of all the name brand cans!) $1.24

 Swanson low sodium no MSG chicken broth 32 oz box $2.38

Morningstar veggie crumbles (for my enchiladas)$3.67

The only things I could not get at Walmart today were:

•  organic mozzarella cheese
• whole wheat pastry flour 

(for my muffins, cookies, bread, and pancakes)

• vital wheat gluten

(for making my bread)

• Whole wheat lasagna noodles

 Now I did have to go to Whole Foods yesterday to replenish our fruit drawer.  It is very rare to see organic fruits at Walmart and many fruits we eat on a daily basis are on the dirty dozen list.  Here are the things I picked up at Whole Foods:

 3 cartons organic strawberries $4.99 each.  And these are amazingly delicious, big & juicy!

 Organic bag mixed salad $3.99 (for making side salads with dinner)

 Organic veggie blend (plan on making these with my enchiladas!)

 Leafy greens - nice to have some frozen veggies on hand when I need some with dinners or leftovers.

 1 lb bulk whole wheat organic couscous $2.99 (needed for recipes)

3 x 3lb bags of organic granny smith apples $5.99 each

With a couple other items I knew I could not get at Walmart, I spent $65.  So for this week's meals, snacks, side dishes, and staples, I spent $165!

So, with my first week of vegetarian grocery shopping down and day 2 of vegetarian eating done, I'm feeling pretty good!  My husband has had NO complaints as of yet and I was most worried about him and his meat-loving ways! 

Here was dinner tonight:

Couscous and veggie salad (adapted from eMeals) with baked pita chips and cantaloupe

10 oz whole wheat organic couscous
 31⁄2 c water
2 t italian seasonings
1/2 t sea salt
2 T olive oil  
1⁄2 c chopped sweet onion
2 carrots, julienned
1 lg zucchini, julienned
1 can black beans
1⁄4 c canola oil 
3 T rice vinegar 
1⁄4 t pepper
pita bread

 
In a med saucepan, combine couscous, water and oil. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 8 min. Add italian seasoning, salt and onion; simmer until couscous is tender. Cover and let stand 5 min. Add carrots and zucchini. Whisk oil, vinegar and pepper until combined. Add to couscous; toss to coat. 

Cook black beans in small pot on stove top over medium heat for 5 minutes, until cooked through.  

Add black beans on top of couscous "salad"

Tear pita bread into pieces and place rough side up on baking sheet.  Spray with olive oil spray, sprinkle with sea salt & fresh cracked black pepper to taste.  Broil in oven for 2-3 minutes.  Watch closely, it will burn very quickly.  

The kids were so-so with this dish.  I had to separate out all of the aspects of the "salad" so they would eat it.  I had plates with separated sections, with the couscous in one area, veggies in another, black beans separate, chips, and cantaloupe, nothing touching.  This was the only way they would eat it.  But, they did pretty good considering this is kinda advanced for little ones.   


I thought it was DELISH!  


Thanks for reading!!!