Grocery Time!

We went shopping a couple days ago to really kick off the vegan challenge. Here's what my list looked like: 

miso paste

earth balance soy free buttery spread

earth balance vegan mayo—check to see that it’s soy free

Lots of veggies—free for all!

Fruits

Craisins

pomegranate

Ener G egg replacer 

Cashews

walnuts

Almonds

Sunflower seeds

A couple of blocks shelf stable tofu

Vegetable base

Ezekiel bread

Pasta

Tahini

Wheat germ

Sublingual B12 supplement—look for Deva vegan B12 with folic acid and B6. Methylcobalamin Natural factors, superior source.

Flax seed oil—check for high lignin

Chia seeds

Sprouting seeds

I just copied and pasted from word. Typos, random italics, cryptic notes and all.

We ended up going to FOUR grocery stores. Yeah, that's not going to happen all the time, but I wanted to build up my vegan pantry stock from a couple stores. When I'm out of something, I can just swing by.

We went to an awesome Asian grocery store (It's the size of a regular grocery store!), New Seasons (like Whole Foods), Trader Joe's (Think small awesome health food store), and my standby Winco. 

Here's what we actually purchased: 

And at TJ's the next day (it was closed on New Years)

Trader Joe's has the best looking packaging ever!

We noticed throughout the shopping experience how simple it was for us to grocery shop now. There are basically two sections to shop in now, produce and bulk. I like the bulk selection at Winco and buy a lot there. I just grabbed veggies that looked great, some bulk staples like lentils, nuts, spices, and we were good to go. 

I also noticed how much room in my budget there was for things that I couldn't normally buy. I bought unusual mushrooms, mangoes, fun root veggies--basically whatever I wanted in the produce section. It was totally awesome and it made it super fun to cook with those ingredients later. 

I didn't take a before of our fridge, but I took an after! 

Looking pretty fly there fridge!

Thanks for reading! Best wishes and love from Portland.