How I Grocery Shop
Tips & tricks gleaned from a lifetime of preparing for Supermarket Sweep
I love to cook. Love it. I’ve always loved it and got even more into when I worked as the national news reporter at Eater (ask me about the time I was sent to the Chick-fil-A test kitchen and they made me everything on the menu). When the pandemic happened, cooking became an even more important part of my everyday. Particularly as someone who works from home, I find that cooking is a nice bookend to the daily slog. I enjoy the ritual of both the list-making and the actual meal preparation. Chopping, sautéing and boiling are all therapeutic. And it’s something I have always loved, so when Tom and I moved in together, it became an easy division of labor: I cook, he cleans. I haven’t touched a vacuum in years.
What I have done is perfected the art of the grocery shop. So I thought I would share an easy-to-understand guide to how I navigate Publix/Whole Foods/Fresh Market/Safeway/whatever store you fancy, right here on le newsletter.
This is….expansive. Writing grocery lists might be my hidden talent? But I hope it’s helpful.
Also, if you want to skip ahead, I’ve shared my go-to items at Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, because I love looking into other people’s carts and think you might, too. (Plz comment with your go-tos so I can buy them on my next trip!)
PS. & speaking of shopping: I’ll be going live with the app ShopShops next Thursday at 7 PM EST so you can shop my closet! I have so many amazing pieces — lots of designer stuff and everything from dresses to jewelry — so you really don’t want to miss this. Prices will be great and shipping will be available nationwide, you just have to download the app and tune in on Thursday. Also, ShopShops is really cool — in the past, they’ve partnered with celebrities and influencers like And Just Like That stylist Danny Santiago and DJ Mia Moretti for their show Closet Confidential, which allows viewers to shop live and discover really cool pieces. I am kinda shocked they reached out to me TBH but this is right up my alley and I could not be more excited! Also next Thursday, I’ll be going live with The Washington Post — so if you want to ask me any questions about thrift shopping, drop a comment here.
Oh and another PS. You may have noticed I changed the name of the newsletter (did you know it had a name?) Previously, it was Big Thrift Energy because, well, that’s the title of my book. But it wasn’t really about thrifting. It was more about all the stuff from the week prior — news stories, thoughts, stuff I watched & loved. In writing this particular newsletter, I realized: I love leftovers. I love other people’s old things, the challenge of turning a leftover jar of olives into a new dish…so I landed on What’s Left. Because that’s kind of what this space is all about. The odds & ends (and leftovers) of what’s happening.
Now here are my tips for grocery shopping:
Keep in mind what you have in the pantry/fridge: This is where I start, before I even write my list. I check to see what’s languishing in the fridge or pantry — half an onion? A half-empty jar of sun-dried tomatoes? Then I will look up those items in the index of my cookbooks for inspiration of what I might make.
Write your list: My list is made on Google Docs, and it’s an ongoing document I write and replace every week. The first page is my grocery list, the second page is my weekly meal plan and the third page is my “to make” list (a list of items I want to make soon-ish).
Organize your list according to the aisles at the store: I usually shop around the perimeter of the store first, so the top of my list focuses on produce, meats, and dairy. At the bottom of the list is all the miscellaneous stuff — frozen foods, bread, flour, condiments. I am not a big snacker, so I never have, like, chips on the list. That being said, we will occasionally do a Trader Joe’s run and that trip is almost entirely devoted to snacks. At TJ’s, my list will be completely different (more on that below).
Think ahead: Honestly, I could write an entire cookbook about what to do with leftovers. That’s my niche. My genre. I love a challenge. So when I write my list, I try to think about what it will yield. Two weeks ago, I made turkey meatloaf, so I added English muffins and sliced cheddar to my list and made open-faced meatloaf melts with a little salad with the leftovers for lunch the next day. If I make risotto, I will turn the leftovers in to little cakes by forming the cold risotto into patties, dusting it with g-free flour, and frying on either side briefly. You can do the same thing with leftover sauced spaghetti, btw. I also LOVE to make rice omelettes, which is a Japanese thing that I think has real go-viral-on-TikTok potential. You literally just make an omelette filled with leftover fried rice and drizzle some soy sauce or spicy mayo over top. It is the perfect meal. Tom hates it.
Be practical: I always try to add a few easy-to-throw together meals to the mix. So this week, that meant picking up a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken but serving it with two homemade sides (cacio e pepe Brussels sprouts and cauliflower gratin). Another night, I made stir-fried cabbage, topped it with an egg, and served it with frozen gluten-free dumplings. Sometimes, if I grocery shop at Whole Foods, I will just pick up dinner to take home (I always get sushi for me and my mom and Tom gets a hot bar plate) — that way I don’t have to cook at all.
Does this all seem crazy? I just want to stress that I am cooking for three people, and I don’t have kids. So this obviously isn’t doable for everybody. But I think some of the key tenets are! Also, once you start shopping for groceries this way, you will never go back to writing a paper list. The great thing about Google Docs is you can bring your phone in to the store and just delete the items from your list as you go. You’re far less likely to forget something this way.
A caveat: I do the bulk of my shopping at Publix or Fresh Market. But every two weeks or so, I will stop in to Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, to round out the pantry. But my buy is completely different there.
Here’s what I always get at Trader Joe’s:
Cauliflower gnocchi: duh. The kale gnocchi is actually better IMO but lately they never have it.
Cauliflower rice: TJ’s is the OG frozen cauliflower rice and I really believe it’s better than some of the other varieties — it’s much more “riced” and tinier than the kind made by Green Giant, for instance
Soy chorizo: This tastes like the real deal and is so easy to sauté with some diced potatoes and a poblano pepper — just top with a fried egg
Pastrami salmon: I eat this once a week for lunch with half an avocado and a soft-boiled egg
Peppered turkey: This is not a TJ’s-branded product and is by the company Columbus and TBH I haven’t seen it in a while. But it’s really good and I like to make “sandwiches” by wrapping it in romaine and topping it with turkey bacon and avocado
Candied jalapeños: I don’t know why the jarred jalapeños at TJ’s are so good but they sure as heck are. I add them to scrambles, hash browns or frozen fries, and the brine is also great to add to salad dressings or even to potatoes while you cook them (the liquid will cook off but it will leave the spicy flavor behind)
And here’s what I always get at Whole Foods:
Sushi: Like I said, if I am shopping at WF around dinner or lunchtime, I often will pick up a couple rolls to bring home. The tuna bombs are great as is the Dragon Roll, which is vegan
Frozen brown rice: I buy the Grain Trust variety, which I noticed our Fresh Market recently started carrying, as well. It is so much easier than making from scratch and tastes excellent. Each little pouch feeds three easily, IMO
Frozen salmon: The frozen salmon (kept in the seafood section) comes with six portions, which is ideal for my household; I make salmon at least once per week so this will yield two meals for us
G-free dumplings: The Feel Good Foods gluten-free dumplings are the best frozen food product ever made and I will fight anyone who insists otherwise
Frozen pizza: Tom loves Against The Grain which I started hating after having like my 25th one. But Feel Good Foods makes a g-free Detroit (i.e. square) style that is wonderful. I also like the Caulipower frozen pizza crusts and I will just add olives or tomatoes or whatever is in the pantry and bulk it up. The Caulipower spicy chicken tenders are also excellent but they do not have them at my Whole Foods (they do carry them at my Publix, though)
One-count veggies: Okay so a lot of Whole Foods offer “juicer” veggies, so you can buy just one carrot, or one celery stalk. I haven’t made a juice at home since my Costco-purchased Jack Lalanne broke down circa 2015, but I love to buy these single servings to make sauces and stews. Typically, if you want one celery stalk or two carrots for a tomato sauce, you get stuck with about 20 extra that inevitably die.
Momofuku and Fly by Jing products: The Fly By Jing Chili Crisp is life-changing. I put it on eggs, drizzle it over salmon and douse noodles in the stuff. It is pricey but the jar will last. Whole Foods also generally has Momofuku noodles which I never buy because Tom is Celiac but they seem great.
No one asked, but if I could shop at any grocery store for the rest of my life, it would be Wegman’s. It is a magical, wonderful land full of the most incredible ready-made foods and a full sushi/sashimi bar (plus, all the standard groceries). It’s truly insane in the best way and worth the stop if you are ever driving in the vicinity of one.
And I’ll leave you with this….