2: Shopping

Shopping is a process consisting of:

1. Know what you are trying to achieve
2. Create meal plan
3. Make ingredients list
4. Review products available
5. Buy
6. Store

Food prep is a process of:

1. Work out the most effective way of producing the meal(s).
2. Preserve nutrition
3. Create

Sounds all so very easy but it's quite a tricky subject. You want to have a meal that is nutrient-dense, keeps you full for longer, keeps away from chemicals and highly processed foods, and at the same time, meets your nutritional needs and is delicious.

It's an art. Healthy shopping is a process of buying multiple layers of ingredients that will not all be bought at the same time. You buy components that you go through over many meals. I shop based on a 1 to 2-month meal plan but I buy the ingredients twice a week so that fresh is fresh.

Let me explain that better. Let's say your food budget is $100 a week. So instead of spending $100 a week, you work out that you have $400 for 4 weeks of shopping. This means you buy:

1. Week 1:  Restock dry goods for $100
2. Week 2:  $100 of meat, poultry, fish. 
3. Every week: Fresh veggies for $50 a week

This is just an example and $ values may vary, but the point is, think of a 4 week period of shopping instead of week by week as this means you get accustomed to the purchase of ingredients better. Planning is the trick.

You want Brazil Nuts from Brazil

We are after the Selenium that is in the soil of Brazil so try to get nuts from the country of Brazil.

The two packs above; one pack appears to get their nuts from Australia whereas the other pack is from Brazil. It pays to read labels.

You only want a maximum of 1 per day per person. 

I will talk more about Brazil nuts in another blog but they are reported to help:

1. Promote the natural resistance of your skin to the sun's rays (I never use sunblock and have no problems. I don't get burnt.)
2. Reduce prostate cancer risk
3. Improve fertility

Fresh is Best

There is no way we will eat the Brazil nuts all in one go so I will pull out 20 nuts and reseal the bag using a vacuum sealer. 

With this shopping I am going to:

1. Make 4 salads for this week's lunches
2. Make tonight's dinner
3. Make a jar of sauerkraut
4. Make a batch of healthy 'body building' muffins

The cost of this shop was $100 NZD (3/11/2021) and I will create approximately 20 meals from it.

There will be ingredients left over for use during the next 4 weeks, so allocating say $30 to these ingredients, the cost for 20 meals is $70 = average cost per 'Healthy Meal' = $3.50

A meal will sustain you for at least 2-4 hours.

I am just trying to put a value on the process and the actual cost will vary depending on your requirements. The trick is to avoid bread, rice and pasta, as these items tend to actually make you hungry.