One busy person's shopping list
Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket and A Balanced Diet
Working with a client last week, I put together this shopping list.
She’s a busy woman, who’s struggling to eat well. Long days at the office mean she’s too tired to cook when home. She finds getting organised to take her lunch every day too difficult. And there are few healthy choices where she works.
So she ends up eating toast and biscuits.
And all the gorgeous healthy food she buys on the weekend sits in the fridge all week, goes off and has to be thrown away.
Which is frustrating, expensive and wasteful.
I’ve been talking to her about the idea that eating well shouldn’t be hard. To be sustainable it has to fit into her lifestyle. So we put together this shopping list.
And I thought I’d post it on Limes & Lycopene, as an supplement to my blogging on the foods that save me when I’m super-busy and how I make it easier to eat well.
The shopping list
- Natural muesli
- small tubs of low fat yoghurt
- Milk
- 9-grain Vitaweats
- Cottage cheese
- Hummous
- Tinned fish
- Bags of salad mix
- Fresh tomatoes
- Cucumber
- Individual fruit and nut boxes
- Tinned beetroot
- Tinned baked beans
- Wholegrain bread
- Frozen vegetables
- Tinned fruit
- Some pre-made vegetable soups from the fridge section of the supermarket
I asked the client to buy two of most things – one to have at work and one at home. And I suggested she also take the following to work:
- some plastic containers for keeping leftover bits and pieces.
- a plate, bowl and cutlery
- some home-made vinaigrette dressing of olive oil, balsamic and shoyu
What can you do with these foods?
This is a shopping list of predominantly long-life articles. There’s a bit of fresh vegetable and some dairy, but the rest is tinned or can be frozen. Most of these foods therefore can sit in your freezer, or cupboard and won’t go off.
From these foods you can make a healthy meal – regardless of whether it’s breakfast, lunch or dinner. From these foods you can make a meal in minutes. And these foods also provide healthy snack options.
For example, with these foods you could have the following meals:
Breakfast:
- Muesli + milk + tinned fruit
- Baked beans + toast
- Yoghurt + tinned fruit + dried fruit and nuts
- Smoothie from milk + tinned fruit + yoghurt
Lunch
- 9-grain vitaweats + hummous + salad mix
- Salad mix + cucumber + tinned beetroot + tinned fish + vinaigrette
- Toast + cottage cheese + salad mix + cucumber + vinaigrette
- Soup + toast + hummous + tomato
Dinner
- Baked beans + toast
- Steamed / stirfried frozen vegetables + nuts + tinned fish
- Soup + steamed vegetables + cottage cheese + vinaigrette
- Soup + toast + tinned fish + tomato
Snack
- Yoghurt + tinned fruit
- Vitaweat + hummous
- Dried fruit and nut pack
- Smoothie from milk + fruit + yoghurt
Is it healthy?
The plan we’ve put together isn’t perfect, but it’s a lot better than she’s eating at the moment. The above plan makes it easier for her to eat well, within the confines of her current life. It’s limited, but it’s achieveable.
These are also the foods you could have in your cupboard and freezer. Back-ups for those days you’re struggling to eat well. You may not need to eat like this all the time. But these foods could supplement your diet when cooking is too hard.
What do you think of the above list? Is there anything you’d add? Is it useful?
10 April, 2008
Comments
i think it’s great! it’s nice to see so many combos from the above list, and i think it looks very realistic and doable.
Looks like a good list – i have a few comments.
Tinned fruit and frozen vegetables have been helpful for me when I have struggled to eat the fresh ones (through busyness or not finding fresh ones to inspire me).
I have a dislike of salad leaves and shuddered at the idea of salad mix – especially as they can go a bit manky (although I will buy bags of baby spinach and rocket). But I think I would buy a box of sprouts which seem to last longer and please me more and would go in the meal suggestions you have made.
I wouldn’t eat the fish so I would probably substitute either cans of chickpeas or legumes or cheese. I find pre-sliced cheese on toast (sometimes with sliced tomato) a great standby in times of not being able to eat well (not sure it is the healthiest but it is so easy and comforting).
I also find sushi handrolls a great snack if eating out and needing something a bit healthier. You snacks are good but apart from the fruit and nuts, all of them need preparation or cutlery which is not always possible. Another snack I have found useful is dry roasted chickpeas that I have bought in the health food section of the supermarket.
Even if as you say it’s not perfect, it’s so useful to have a springboard.
Muselli is my love at the moment so it pleases me immensely to see that on the list (museli crumble my current breakfast).
I agree with Johanna on the salad leaves front.
If solo eating I find the fridge section soups far too big, and I’m too fickle to eat the same thing twice in a row.
Cous cous, and polenta are the two things that I always had when I had a ‘proper’ out of the house job. I still wouldn’t be without them, five minutes and a kettle-tada!
Lindsey – thanks, glad to hear it’s doable!
Johanna – I love mixed leaves, but bags of baby spinach or wild rocket are just as good. While frozen vegetables are fantastic, I thought it important in terms of texture, nutrition and also meal variety to have something fresh in there. And packets of sprouts – even better.
Canned beans and dry roasted ones are an excellent addition. Useful foods that can be mixed in with salads, soups, steamed vegies.
Part of the brief with this client was she couldn’t get out the office to buy other foods. Plus, while the snacks do take minimal preparation, I was keen for her to actually get up from her desk. While going to the kitchen and spreading some hummous on vitaweats takes only minutes, she needed that break from the computer and phone that she needed.
Regarding soups being too big – it’s one of the reasons why I recommended she take some plastic containers to work. The other half can be put in the freezer for another day.
Thanks all for your feedback, it’s interesting for me to see your responses.
This is so me. To eat well is a constant battle for me, one which I have to prioritise every day. Although I love to cook, it is so hard to do anything during the week, and the gallons of veggies I buy on the weekend with new good intentions stay in the fridge until I rediscover them again the next weekend.
At the moment, it is so very busy here, and you will notice on my blog that the food is getting simpler and simpler in an effort to keep healthy and to minimise the biscuits and snacks bought on the run from one client to the next.
Part of why I blog is to keep me honest about eating good food. Partly to make me get into the kitchen. Partly cos I love it.
If I didnt have my blog I would totally be this woman.
PS I would add raw or dry roasted nuts to the list, and replace any meat and fish with cans of beans / lentils. I would also try to buy a tub of fresh fruit salad to eat with the yoghurt, or even a tub of blueberries. I think the list is great!
Thanks for your comments Vegeyum. Simple foods, nothing wrong with that. Your tomato bruschetta looks wonderful. Particularly given the bread you’ve used – it looks grainy, dense and full of flavour. Sometimes we need simple ways to eat well.
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