How to Shop Without Losing Your Mind (well, without losing more of it)

Good evening, faithful readers! I hope all is well on your end of the screen. Today started off in a rough way for me, but the day seems to be ending a bit better.

Doug's sleep problems persist. We had received a recommendation for a psychiatrist in Crystal Lake, so I made an appointment for him...in January. Meanwhile, his neurologist wanted him to get tested...in Park Ridge. It's a lovely town, but far away from Crystal Lake.

This morning, he was awake before 5 AM (for how long no one knows), fiddling with our vacuum cleaner. It's not the ideal way to wake up, especially when it's two hours before I *actually* have to get up.

We went through this same situation with Jeremy. After he was diagnosed with ASD, ADHD and SPD, he was given medication to help regulated the ADHD and also to help him sleep at night. I usually don't sing Big Pharma's praises, but in Jeremy's case it has helped him tremendously. When Jeremy was struggling with sleep, it wasn't affecting as many people. Now when Doug doesn't sleep, it has the potential to negatively impact the entire household.

So I made an appointment at the office where Jeremy and I see (different) psychiatrist(s). I will be taking Doug tomorrow and though it will be a few weeks before we arrive at answers, I'm optimistic that the sleep issue will be resolved before Christmas.

Aside from that, Brooklyn seems to be cutting all the remaining teeth in her mouth at once. She is a snotty, congested mess. It's been tough to adjust my expectations about having "just" Brooklyn at home. I had a vision of getting all the things done, but I'm finding it's almost tougher to complete things when it's just her.

I try to remember that my main job is to be a mom, not a household manager. When I keep my focus there, I have a lot more peace and serenity.

Okay, so now on to shopping.

One of the things I struggle with when someone mentions a new way of eating is how do I shop? I am a creature of habit. I have my pre-determined route through the supermarket hardwired into my brain. God forbid they change the layout of my favorite store! It can take weeks before I re-learn my path. Those weeks' trips involve a lot of circling back and muttering things under my breath.

Then I struggle with the menu. I have two kids (the boys) who have sensory issues. I can't just upend the entire menu or I'm cooking multiple meals a night.

But I am an all-or-nothing person, so I spend the most time fighting against my own brain. That is the beginning of what, in the past, has triggered a shut down. Instead of figuring all this out, I scroll through Pinterest recipes and eat pizza. (This may or may not have happened when I made the ill-advised decision to be a vegetarian.)

So I have to keep it simple. I'd like to make zoodles or whatever, but mostly I'd like it in a world where I have endless time and every major pot and pan from the Williams-Sonoma catalog. The reality for me is four children, a dog, two guinea pigs and a revolving door of characters from the neighborhood. I need my food to be simple.

I also need my food to taste good. Not in a heavily processed, store-bought way, but in a flavorful way. I don't want to eat kale and celery all the time. I don't think that ends up being sustainable (for me, anyway). I would love to try bok choy and fennel and other mysterious veggies, but my husband and kids balk at my ideas to introduce brussel sprouts, which is one of my favorite things (true story, no one else eats them and I can't eat an entire pan of brussel sprouts without severe gastrointestinal consequences).

But I digress.

I am also crazy busy and don't have time to hit more than a few stores. I have tweaked my shopping experience and narrowed it down to two main stores. I do a Target run every other week for diapers and other random bits as needed.

So I shop at two stores, Costco and Aldi. I used to shop for most of my produce at Aldi, but with my recent shift in protocol, I'm finding it more cost effective to get (most) of my produce at Costco.

I hit Costco pretty hard. I buy their organic ground beef, ground turkey (they come in multipacks, where each of the packs is one pound), skirt steak (which we use for fajitas or just for a delicious meal), chicken breasts (they come in a similar multipack and are the thicker kind), then a bag of frozen chicken breasts (these ones are in a 10-lb bag in the freezer section). I also buy a pack of sliced cheese and some lunch meat for Brian.

Then I head over to produce. I grab a bag of lemons (for my daily warm lemon water), a bag of sweet potatoes, a bag of avocados. Then I head into the refrigerator and grab two bags of romaine hearts (this is the most I can fit in my refrigerator. I chop up one romaine heart per day for my salad, so I end up coming back before the 2-week mark to get one more). I also grab a package of the tri-colored peppers, baby portabella mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and the veggie platter. I love the veggie platter because the veggies are chopped up and easy to throw into the microwave in a steam bag (check them out in the food storage section at Target or WalMart--they are major time savers) for dinner. At $9.99, it's an amazing value. We go through two every two weeks. For real, it's a lifesaver.

I usually don't buy fruit at Costco. I don't eat any fruit on my current protocol and Brian only eats a small amount. The kids eat some fruit, but we have never been able to eat through a Costco-sized portion of fruit before some of it goes bad. The only exception to this is apples, which Jeremy eats like most kids eat candy.

I then head over to the freezer section to buy the aforementioned chicken breasts, popcorn chicken (a necessary evil in my house). Then it's on to string cheese, Mexican shredded cheese, eggs, milk, butter. I just discovered, on my last pass through Costco, hardboiled eggs that are already peeled. For. Real. Gamechanger. I don't care how many articles I read on Pinterest, boiled eggs are my Everest. It may be a little costly, but because I won't be standing over a sink of mangled eggs swearing at the idea of boiling them, it's well worth it.

I do pick up some Veggie Straws and assorted chips, but those are for Brian and the kids.

At Aldi, I buy green bell peppers, spinach (the container at Costco is too big for my refrigerator), grapes, dark chocolate, lunch meat for the kids, oatmeal for Brian, garbanzo beans, couscous and any spices I know I've run out of. I also buy hot dogs (you can clutch your pearls, I get it, they're the worst and I agree with you), tortillas, salsa, or whatever other small cans of things I need. I don't shop for those things at Costco because I have a major storage issue at my house (or lack thereof). I may also buy bacon and sour cream at Aldi. Aside from that, like I said, I buy most of my things at Costco.

Now, when I get home I do not make salads in mason jars or pickling jars or any other kind of jar. Again, I have a side-by-side refrigerator that is original to my house (which was built in the early 90s). I have been informed by multiple repairmen that it will probably last forever. Our precarious financial situation has made replacing a working refrigerator just a pipe dream. I have just enough room to store the bounty from Costco and Aldi. I did just do a major purge of the freezer, where I found artifacts predating Doug's birth (he's 6). After clearing a lot of that out, I am happy to report that the only thing in my freezer is meat, onions, dark chocolate and some baby food trays filled with frozen lemon juice.

Every morning at around 11:00 AM, as I am sipping my coffee, I pull out all the relevant ingredients for my salad, chop them up and throw them in my 2.5 cup Rubbermaid bowl. I stick it back in the refrigerator until about 1:45 (or when I am hungry), pull it out, drizzle some salad dressing, put the lid on, shake it up, voila! Salad!

I have been finding that if I do plan well, I only have to actually cook 3-4 nights a week. I tend to only eat one serving of whatever meal I have (plus 1/2 a sweet potato or some couscous) at a meal. This means that even if everyone else eats one serving, there are typically enough for one or two night's worth of leftovers. The chili recipe I found (which is amazing) will last us almost all week. I can only eat a bowl full of it before I am really full.

Ultimately, I want to cook simply but cook food that is full of flavor. I have had some meals flop while others are wildly successful. I made meatballs today and everyone (boys included) were over the moon for them. I don't take it personally if people don't like what I cook. Typically, my chicken dishes have fallen flat, but then that becomes chicken I add to my salads.

We throw out a very, very small amount of food. We have gotten in a good routine with leftovers. I try to cook on nights that are not chock full of activity, so on the nights we are busy we can just pull things out and heat them up.

I don't think I intended to write this much about shopping, but I hope that it helps! I don't feel like it needs to be fancy or expensive--in fact, I think those two things can make the whole thing unsustainable.

Please drop a comment if you have any questions, I'd love to answer them! Thanks for reading!