Simple Grocery Shopping and Meal Planning

I wanted to talk a little more on this subject of simplifying. This is becoming more of a priority for me - not only because I want to be more productive with my "work" time, but also because I want to give myself the chance at more free time. So, I guess I'm making it a priority!

I know that there are only so many ways I can accomplish more productivity + more free time. I either have to do less - - (working on that one too) - - or I have to make what I'm doing easier. That sounds kinda simple, but it takes some work to figure out exactly what in your life you can simplify, and exactly how to do it in a way that it can become consistent. Doing it for a week really isn't going to serve me much of a purpose, so this has to be convenient and easy to repeat.

An area of my life that can REALLY use this simplifying is my diet. I don't eat poorly, but I do have a bad habit of skipping meals or eating too late, and of course the occassional crap meal of mac-n-cheese for dinner. I've been uninspired lately when it comes to my own food, and stuck in a rut, and I think alot of it is because I'm just stressing myself out over not having enough time.
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​Time to start meal planning, prepping, or doing something to help me improve how I eat everyday, because I'm pretty tired of being hungry when it's completely unnecessary. But, I'm trying to approach this in a different way, not shopping for meals per say, but stocking up on ingredients for a variety of things. It's sort of changing how I look at what I have, so I hopefully don't end up with random leftover stuff, or nothing that I can make anything with....if that makes sense.

I talked about this a little in my blog post with the Simple Thai Coconut Soup demo, but wanted to explain my purpose a little more. I'm going to try shopping a little differently than I normally do, and work off of a list of ingredients for my meals for the week, versus planning specific meals where I end up with random leftover things. I figure if I have a "pantry" of 6 or so things to use, plus a few handfuls of things to make with those ingredients, I can get through the week without a ton of thought put into my food, but I'm still getting good meals and a nice variety. This is kind of my approach to meal planning, but it gives me a lot more flexibility which I like. My picky stomach makes it tough to stick to things sometimes.

Now, there are certain things that I kind of always have on hand because you can always use them, and they make a big difference when it comes to adding flavor to things....or even being able to make things at all. 

MY BASICS:
- garlic, onion, ginger, lemon and/or lime, tomatoes, bananas, coconut milk, black beans, chick peas, eggs, some type of potato -

It's pretty easy to keep these in stocked in my pantry, they're all pretty inexpensive (except lemons and limes right now, omg) and you can use them for soooooo many things. Other than those ingredients, I'm gonna try to stick to roughly 6 for about 5-7 days.

For my first week trial run, I picked out the following:
- spinach, carrot, sweet potato, mushroom, papaya, avocado, plus tofu and coconut milk -
I was pretty darn happy with how things turned out for the week. Grocery shopping was relatively easy between my basics and the handful of ingredients. Of course I got some snacks and other things too, I'm not trying to make this a painful challenge. It actually made meal planning and cooking, or even last minute 
food, much easier. I did a few things for my skin too with the same ingredients which was extremely easy since I just used what I was already cooking with.

So here's what I made for the week, including stuff for my skin/hair:
• thai coconut soup
• green smoothies
• sweet potato fries / guac
• papaya pancakes (with leftover potato / recipe coming Sunday!)
• Savory breakfast scramble with veggies
• Buddha bowls with roasted veggies, salsa, guac
• coconut sticky rice with papaya
 PLUS I also did the following for my face:
° coconut cream + lavender essential oil mask
° banana + honey mask
° papaya seed scrub

I've got some recipes up on Instagram, @simplecaresteph, so be sure to  check them out if you're in need of some inspiration for the week!

Let me know what you think of this idea or if this is something that you have tried , or want to try!

I was quite happy with it, so I'm doing it again next week. :)

Listen to the PODCAST, Episode 2!