Shop Till You Drop (and the Last Supper)

The past couple days have been all about prep for our Whole30 that starts TOMORROW. And by prep, I mean spending a lot of money and fitting in a lot of “last minute” foods. To be clear… the book does not recommend doing that. We are going to majorly be paying for it by Tuesday or Wednesday. Whatever. Beer.

I spent my Saturday morning shopping for our new Whole 30 approved foods. Since I’m a Target team member (and no, this blog has nothing to do with my Target affiliation; I don’t speak on behalf of TGT, yadda yadda yadda) I wanted to do as much grocery shopping as possible at my local Super Target. I decided that whatever I couldn’t get I would try to find at the new Lakewinds Foods Coop that opened not too far from us.

So, I’m going to level with you. Grocery shopping took me almost 3 times as long as it normally does which was hard on me since I have my shopping down to a T. I won’t go into TOO much detail, but I will say this… read your labels!!! There were SO many foods that I thought would work for Whole30 that didn’t. On my list was canned sweet potato, but Target only sells one brand of this during the summer months, and this brand added cane sugar syrup so that was out. Citric acid in my usual brands of canned tuna. Even the organic chicken broths were a no-go. However, I could not be deterred! I was on a mission, and I was going to leave loaded and ready for tomorrow, damnit.

And to the victor belongs the spoils! (Sorry, I was too lazy to do any photo editing. You get the idea.)

Pantry foods. And no, those olives certainly aren’t for me.

Protein, protein, protein… and I’m actually not positive that this is enough.

Produce! This excludes what I got via our CSA on Thursday.

All items above were found at Super Target, with the exception of the pom juice, ghee and coconut amino in the first image. Honestly, I was pretty impressed.

Overall thoughts? Well dang, this is EXPENSIVE. My Target bill was just about $285, and that includes my team member discount, Red Card, Cartwheel AND I happened to have a Pharmacy Rewards discount to add on top. I’m definitely wondering how I can afford to keep this up. I’m hoping that the cost is somewhat offset but the savings in alcohol (we like spendy craft beer) and limiting our eating out . And honestly, I feel really proud of myself. Grocery shopping was a ton of work but the fact that I pulled it off felt like a great success. Tomorrow starts the hard part: day one of the program, as well as food prep for as much of the week as possible.

And since I’m sure someone will ask, what did Tim and I do for our “last suppers”? Well, breakfast for me was a trial run of eggs and swiss chard (big fail; I dont understand chard), lunch was a Clancy’s roast beef sandwich, and dinner was Noodles & Co whole grain tuscan linguine. We also spent the afternoon at Excelsior Brewing Co enjoying wonderful craft beer.

More to come as Day 1 starts tomorrow!

Here’s a full grocery list, should anyone be curious interested.

Produce:
3 containers of organic greens (baby spinach, mixed baby greens, arugula)
3 zucchini, 2 yellow squash
1 spaghetti squash
2 limes, 2 lemons
Garlic, shallots
4 green bell peppers, 3 colored peppers (this probably won’t be enough)
1 bag of red onions
4 avocados
1 container of strawberries
4 bananas
1 bag of baby cucumbers (this was a stupid impulse buy. wtf are baby cucs for?!)
1 bag of broccoli florets
1 bag of sugar snap peas
1 bag of green beans
5 sweet potatoes
1 bag of frozen butternut squash
1 bag of brussel sprouts

Protein:
2 dozen organic eggs
2 lbs of ground beef (all beef is grass fed organic)
1 lb ground turkey
1 lb stew meat
2 bags of frozen raw shrimp
1 bag Alaskan sockeye salmon filets
2 family sized packages of chicken breasts
1 flank steak
1 package turkey deli meat, 1 package roast beef (all natural, organic)
1 package Applegate bacon (pretty much the only Whole30 approved, widely-available bacon)
2 cans of salmon
2 packages of wild-caught tuna

Dry Goods/Pantry
1 bag pistachios
1 bag macadamia nuts
2 bags coffee (splurged for the good stuff since we have to drink it black)
2 cans coconut milk – full fat
2 boxes Larabars (meant for emergencies)
1 jar Kalamata olives, one jar green olives
1 container ghee
1 jar red curry paste
1 jar almond butter
1 jar sunflower seed butter
1 jar coconut oil
1 bottle coconut amino
1 bottle EVOO
6 pack of club soda
1 jar pure pomegranate juice

Whew!