Frequent grocery store buys

A couple of my favorite bloggers have a link up where the topic for this month is frequent grocery store buys. I originally thought that I didn't have any or many anyway thoughts on the subject. But then I had to make a grocery list and I realized that I do have thoughts and I may as well share them here. This is sort of a "slice of life" post because I know what I typically purchase has changed over the years. These are a few of my current frequent grocery store purchases/items I keep in my pantry.

Fruit: I almost always keep strawberries and grapes in the refrigerator. Besides those two items, I rotate through a few fruits based on what sounds good when I'm at the store. I frequently buy apples, tangerines, and blueberries but you wouldn't always find them in my shopping cart/at our house. 

Vegetables: I always have onions in the pantry and usually potatoes. The latter are decent for last minute side dishes to meals: mash 'em, cut and air fry 'em, bake 'em, etc. Can't go wrong with a tater unless you're trying to watch carbs. In the fridge, I always have carrots. These are the best for a last minute side... Peel 'em, cut them and place on a plate. Not very sophisticated but we don't care too much about that around here! Lastly, some sort of green for a salad is almost always in the fridge. Jacob is liking garden salads right now so I've been buying those mixes. I will start buying the spring mix here pretty soon as Donnie and I prefer those kinds of green for salads that we have with grilled steak. 

In the freezer I like to keep cut carrot/pea packages. I use those packages for veggies in chicken pot pie when I make that and I use them in chicken/shrimp fried rice.

In the pantry, I like to keep stocked black beans and all variety of soup beans. I also keep canned corn and beans in the pantry.

I buy a variety of other veggies for a specific meal. For instance, I don't purchase red peppers unless I'm making something that specially calls for them. 

Dairy: The boys like sour cream (bleh!) with a few dishes that I make so I always have it for them. I like cream cheese on bagels so that's a must have for me. And of course cheese! I usually always pick up a block or two of cheese when I go to the store even if we're not low. It's like a reflex for me. Store=cheese. I don't fight it, I just buy it!! I decided to see what's in my cheese drawer at the moment. I haven't been to the store in over a week and in fact, I wondered if my cheese supply was low due to me not purchasing any in at least a week. Glad to report the answer is No! 😀

Protein: Eggs- lots of eggs. So many uses for eggs and when the number of eggs dips below six or seven, I know I will be picking up a dozen soon! I use them for baking, for hard boiling for salads, for pan frying with cheese for a quick lunch- for so many things. We go through a lot of eggs! I keep chicken breast and ground beef in the refrigerator/freezer almost all of the time. I keep deli meat- usually just turkey breast in the fridge. We also usually have a variety of protein bars in the pantry. I get large variety packs from Sam's Club. 

This is one kind that I always have stocked at home. We usually have other varieties/brands as well. 

Carbs- bread/snacks: I almost always have bagels as I made breakfast type sandwiches for lunch when I'm at home and the weekends for Donnie. Bread is more iffy- we probably have it in the house 50 percent of the time. As for snacks, Donnie usually buys whatever snacks sound good to him at the moment. He cycles in and out of favorites. I'm not a big snacker- sometimes I pilfer some of his snacks if we're watching TV together and he brings out snacks.  At the store, I rarely buy snacks for me. I do keep popcorn kernels in the pantry (and we have specialty popcorn packets for the popcorn maker) as well as oil in case Alyssa (when she's home) and/or Jacob request stove popped popcorn. 

I'm not including a lot of pantry and refrigerator staples which buy as needed such as flour, sugar, rice, nuts, pasta, etc. When Abby was in high school in one of her upper level honors French classes, one of the assignments was to make a dish at home with a partner from class and video record it. While making/filming, the students were supposed to be giving instructions exclusively in French. Abby's partner came to our house where the two of them made their dishes. Abby said when her partner saw our pantry, he told her that he knew where he was going to come in the event of an apocalypse! I don't think our pantry is apocalypse ready but it is full of items 😉

I'm sure I'm missing many things regarding what I typically buy.  These were just a few thoughts that I quickly transferred from my mind to pixels. When Alyssa is home this summer, the items that I purchase will greatly increase. Speaking of purchasing, I don't like grocery shopping but love how close we live to several grocery stores. It's comforting to know that an egg/cheese/bread purchase is a five or six minute drive from our kitchen to several grocery stores. 

Linking up with Dara and the gals at Share Our Lives and Joanne for Talking About it Tuesday.