Shopping the perimeter

Sunday is always about food for me, always. I am a creature of habit and so on Sunday mornings I get up at about seven a.m. (right now my teenage self is shuddering at the thought) and potter around emptying trash cans and cleaning until about eight a.m. I haul the garbage out to the main dumpster at my apartment complex and I head off to the grocery store. I like shopping early because I avoid the crowds (although you would be surprised at how many people are at the store by then) and can spend my time picking through vegetables and still get home before nine a.m. Now that I am back on my healthy lifestyle I work very hard at only shopping the perimeter of the store. The concept is simple, all fresh products (i.e. veggies, fruit, dairy, and meat) are around the edge of the store while all processed, frozen, and canned foods are generally housed in the central aisles. So, if you stick to the perimeter as a general rule you are buying unprocessed healthy food. I bought a ton of food today, but only managed to spend about eighty five dollars which is really good for me. Mostly I bought produce, red lettuce, onions, yams, asparagus, spinach, stir fry vegetables, garlic, pears, plums, basil, and bananas. This will make a ton of things this week (and yes I eat a lot of yams, they are comfort food while also being really good for you). In terms of other food, I bought parmesan cheese, pine nuts, shrimp, chicken thighs, light coconut milk, oatmeal, light soy milk, and frozen mangos. As you can see, almost everything with the exception of the frozen fruit, coconut milk, and oatmeal came from the perimeter of the store. I did not buy any whole grains because I still have half a bag of brown rice and an entire box of couscous. I also have a ton of tomato soup left from last week which I need to eat this week. Last week, I ate everything I said that I was going to week and still ended up with a lot of food left over. This is a constant problem for me, cooking for one person is a process which tends to create a lot of extra food which I may or may not eat. However, I would rather have options and throw some food away than eat a really limited diet. This week is all about shrimp for dinner, the chicken is for lunch everyday. So I am planning on eating the following depending on my mood. Shrimp with light garlic lemon cream sauce Shrimp with basil pesto Roast yams Roast chicken thighs Roast onions Spinach with garlic Asparagus with garlic lemon cream sauce Shrimp Stir fry with light coconut curry sauce and brown rice Tomato soup Mango smoothies Oatmeal with cinnamon and soy milk (breakfast everyday) So far today, I have roasted the chicken thighs and I still need to do the onions and yams. The yams are already cut up and ready to go when I feel motivated to cook them. When I roast things, whether it is vegetables or meat, I tend to generally just liberally salt and pepper them and avoid a lot of other spices, that way they form a nice base for other dishes. I also roast everything in batches, preferably with similar types of vegetables so that they will cook at the same rate. I find roast vegetables last about a week in the refrigerator and the same is true of roast chicken. The shrimp I will cook in small batches throughout the week (although you can also cook it in advance), because it only takes a couple of minutes to cook. This at least is the plan right now for the week.