Like being dropped in the middle of the Amazon...

Here I stand, completely exhausted, crying uncontrollably, bits of skin all over my hand, staring over what can only be described as a total massacre. Of vegetables.

How did I get here? Well, let’s rewind a few days…

After spending my Thursday afternoon studying the Canada Food Guide, I start to realize that something rather important is missing in my healthy eating game: meal planning. My healthy choices to date are admirable compared to prior attempts… but so far, my best strategy is to think of what I’m going to eat when mealtime arrives, traipse to the grocery store, buy it, and prepare it then. Not exactly an efficient strategy, when you’re doing it once or twice a day. I’m spending so much time in transit to the grocery store that I’m resorting to buying pre-prepared, ready-made options (like those super convenient premade salads), because I can’t imagine when I’m going to have the time to learn how to actually prepare a real meal and do it with all of this shopping. (My wallet is equally unhappy with this strategy, as I’m quickly learning that pre-prepared healthy foods are priced for a millionaire’s salary.)

Why am I doing this? Because I am the equivalent of a grocery store tourist. Sure, I went as a kid… tagging along behind my parents, retrieving the few items I was told to find as if I was on some kind of treasure hunt. But I never bothered to take it beyond the zombie level and actually figure out how to grocery shop for myself. Now, standing in the middle of a Loblaws feels like being dropped by helicopter in the middle of the Amazon. I don’t know what 75% of the things in the grocery store are actually used for. And I have no real idea how to plan out what I’m going to eat for the next few days and buy accordingly. 

So, it’s time to step up my game. I decide to learn how to grocery shop.

Knowing that this isn’t exactly the kind of thing I can google to find answers about, my first step is to enlist the help of my friend Canan, who is far more well-versed in these kinds of things than I. She willingly agrees to help, being all too familiar with my lack of food prowess from times I’ve been at her house, at dinnertime, and she’s asked me to help her chop vegetables (only to regret it later). 

So we go on a grocery store exploration mission later that evening. She orients me to the basics of smart shopping. She gives me some very helpful tips and tricks. We brainstorm some meal ideas. She gives me some recipes to get me started. I’m feeling very empowered by the end of this much-appreciated meal planning education session. Enthusiastically, I go home and fashion myself a meal plan for the week, and from that, I create what can only be described as an ambitious grocery shopping list:

Cans of tuna
Nuts (walnuts, sunflower seeds)
Chicken stock
Chicken breast
12 eggs
Chickpeas
Tomato
Strawberries
Bananas
Kiwis
Avocado
Berries
Grapefruit
Lemons
Parsley
Mixed greens and/or spinach greens
1 butternut squash
2 onions
1 eggplant
1 cucumber
2 red peppers
Edamame
1 stalk of celery
Broccoli
Garlic
Quinoa
Bulgur
Whole-wheat pitas
Whole-wheat pasta
Feta cheese
Balsamic vinaigrette
Hummus
Spices

The next day, my boyfriend Raph and I head out to the nearest Fortino’s to put it all into action. We enter the store at 6:45pm. By the time we leave, it’s 9:00. The time that filled the gap can only be described as a whole lifetime’s worth of lessons smashed into a two hour grocery shopping blitz. I learn where to find things like quinoa, chicken stock and sunflower seeds. I learn how much everything costs. I learn how to pick out the best fresh fruit and vegetables. It may just be the most educational two hours I’ve ever spent doing anything in my life.

The next day, I excitedly start to use up all of my fresh food. The satisfaction I feel as I put together an avocado, tomato and hummus sandwich on Saturday morning is…well, pathetic, but also motivating. Hey, I can really do this! I am out for the rest of Saturday afternoon and evening (consuming healthy expensive restaurant salad for dinner), but I wake up this Sunday morning ready to take on a new food prep challenge.

So now, here I stand, completely exhausted from hacking away at a bunch of vegetables, crying uncontrollably from chopping onions, bits of garlic and pepper skin all over my hands, staring over what can only be described as a total massacre of my kitchen…happily eating my homemade chickpea salad.

This can only get easier, right?

Until next time,
xo Janine

PS. As an aside...on today, the 10th anniversary of a worldwide tragedy... may we continue to take the steps we need to take to start living like the global village that we are. Lest we forget, 9.10.01.