Grocery Shop Like You Know What’s Goin‘ On

One of the more frequents comments I hear from people who are just starting to cook is “I hate grocery shopping.” Believe me, I empathize.

It’s not easy staring at aisle after aisle of colors, flavors, and labels, then trying to mentally organize all that into something that would constitute a sane meal. No wonder so many of us opt for the escape hatch of the pre-made: skip the effort of processing all that information and cut straight to the eating.

But shopping for groceries doesn’t have to be so effort-intensive. Like anything else, it’s a skill that can be honed. Here are some tips that can help.

Tip 1: Skip the Middle Aisles

Overcome with choice in today’s Supermarket o’ Plenty? Here’s what you do:just ignore everything in the middle of the store. Suddenly, you have a lot less noise to take in, and you can focus on the signal — a.k.a. the non-processed, good stuff.

A cook is after things that have received as little processing as possible, because you’re doing that part yourself! The middle of the store is filled with stuff where corporations have done all the “cooking” for you. (We won’t go into all the details of why such cooking can be questionable, but suffice to say it’s not always done out of respect and care for your health.)

Instead, head straight for the perimeter of the store, where you’ll find things like fresh veggies, fresh bread, fresh meat, fresh dairy, fresh everything. These are things you can cook, not just “heat ‘n eat.” Shopping at the periphery also happens to be one of Michael Pollan’s Rules for Eating Better.

So next time you walk through sliding glass doors and gasp at the variety, just put on blinders and walk past the middle aisles. You’ll be doing your poor overloaded brain (not to mention your health and your wallet) a favor.

Tip 2: Have a Mental Shopping Framework

If you are a hyper-organized list-maker and always arrive at the store knowing exactly what to buy, I assume you are not really reading this article out of necessity.

But if you are more like me and like to shop on a whim, you will need more of a guide, so you don’t go home accidentally with 12 bars of chocolate and a package of bacon. (It happens.)

I call what follows a “mental framework” for grocery shopping. It’s not a checklist per se, but more of a rough guide of the types of things you should be getting.

In general, you will want your basket to contain:

• 1–2 forms of starch — rice, pasta, potatoes, bread
• 3–6 kinds of fresh vegetables — kale, carrots, tomatoes
• 1–2 forms of protein — beef, chicken, tofu, bacon, eggs
• any number of desired flavor agents — garlic, sriracha, soy sauce, exotic spices, nuts, herbs, sauces, chutneys, etc.

Why is this framework so powerful? It ensures that you can always put together several satisfying, balanced meals from whatever it is you’ve bought, even if you have no idea what you’re going to make yet! This offloads the task of thinking up what to make to a later time, so you do not have to make a full plan in your head while you’re stuck in the awkward liminal space of a busy supermarket. Just buy some stuff you like, or feel good about, or enjoy the look of, to fill all 4 categories and you’re guaranteed to be able to cook something once you get home.

Tip 3: Keep Tabs on Pantry Basics

Many folks starting out have Empty Pantry Syndrome, and to that I say “No worries, just stock up!”

Pantries contain the staples of a kitchen — those baseline ingredients that go in pretty much everything you cook. And thankfully, pantries are a lot easier to manage than fridges because the very definition of a pantry is that it’s full of food that doesn’t go bad (thanks, Mark Bittman). Therefore, you should always aim to keep the following around, regardless of whether or not you have immediate plans for them:

• olive oil (and optionally, canola or sunflower oil for frying)
• salt
• pepper
• sugar
• flour
• an assortment of dry grains such as rice, quinoa, pasta, couscous, etc.

Whenever you shop, remember to ask yourself if you are about to run out of any of these. When in doubt, buy more. Like I said, these things don’t go bad (or, in the case of oil, they take quite a while to go bad). As long as you store everything in a cool, dark place, you can overstock and not worry too much about the consequences. It’s better to have too much olive oil than to not have any when you’re trying to cook!

Now that you have these 3 tips in your back pocket, go out and shop fearlessly. Of course, it will take some time to build up the confidence and fluency to get in and out of a store in under 10 minutes flat, but with practice, you can definitely do it. Good luck!

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