Shopping lists are an essential ingredient if you are to have an organised approach to planning and preparing nutritious meals for your family.  They were around long before the days of personal organisers, smartphones and endless ‘to do’ lists.  My mother has always written her list on the back of a used envelope and I tend to use some sort of scrap or excess paper.

I imagine that the process of writing a list goes back to when shopping day was a major expedition, perhaps by horse and buggy, and it was vital to buy everything that was required for a month or longer.  No popping into the supermarket after work to pick up something for dinner and ending up with $50 worth of impulse buys.

Each week I buy fresh fruit and vegetables for the week plus a few basic items that I need from the supermarket. Although I write a list every week, it really comes into its own when I shop for pantry staples at Simply Good.  I try to do this about every 3 – 5 months as it is a 90km round trip.  I am not using a horse and buggy but I do have a regard for both the environmental impact of driving that distance as well as my time and energy.

Last Saturday was a big shopping day so we set out early.  Our first stop was Simply Good, followed by Aldi, fruit and vegetable stall, the local butcher and finally the Co-op.  I checked the pantry and refrigerator before writing a comprehensive list to ensure that nothing was forgotten.  The list does vary from time to time but this will give you a broad idea of the sorts of ingredients I buy.

As you can see, most of what we eat is whole foods cooked from scratch so I am buying ingredients – not meals.   We eat a gluten-free diet and some of the items reflect this choice.

Next week I will show you my pantry and discuss the storage and organisation which works for me.