Friends, I have a grocery store problem. I love them! This dates back to growing up in Georgia where I loved to accompany my dad on his weekly shopping trips to the Kroger in our small town. And man, when I think about the difference in what was available with small town grocery shopping 25 years ago versus what I have access to today in a larger city…it’s mind blowing.
I’ve always really enjoyed the process of shopping for food, as well as menu planning. Again, I think that comes from how I was raised. My dad always wrote out our menu for the week and did one big shopping trip.
True story. When I lived in Birmingham, Alabama, it was a huge deal when a Whole Foods opened up. It was on my way home from work and sometimes if I had a hard or stressful day, I’d just go walk around Whole Foods to decompress. If only they had offered the “drink a glass of wine while you wander” option back then I’d have really been set! 🙂
With the prevalence of high-end and specialty grocery options, I feel like I cant’s stay out of the stores these days…it’s probably my biggest budget downfall. Is it bad that I’d rather shop for food than clothes? It’s also a great outing with Finn and he seems to really like looking around at everything.
In the last month I have shopped at Whole Foods, ALDI, Trader Joe’s and The Fresh Market. I wanted to share some photos I snapped from my most recent trip to The Fresh Market and Trader Joe’s.
THE FRESH MARKET
In the past I have never done my weekly shopping at The Fresh Market. It’s always felt like more of the type of place where I pop into to grab a few things when I need them and seems to be the most expensive of the grocery store options I regularly visit. I like their bakery items and meat/seafood department the most. Well, my neighborhood Fresh Market just got an upgrade! Check out the size of this thing!
Finn and I were killing some time last Thursday before picking the dogs up from the groomer so we stopped in to check out the grand opening of the new store. The produce department is MUCH larger now and has great selections.
I was most excited to see a HUGE case of reasonably priced ready to cook and already cooked dinner entrees. Some were even portioned for one! I will definitely be utilizing these meals for nights where I need easy dinners and for teacher training travel.
The bakery is still as great as ever and they had this giant cake that was a replica of the store on display. I was super sad they had not cut it and started serving it though. Haha.
TRADER JOE’S
I decided to leave the house for the first time in three days today and when all else fails…go to the grocery store! Our local Trader Joe’s had an amazing display of pumpkins! They were beautiful. It made me bummed that I had just purchased a boring traditional pumpkin at The Home Depot a few minutes earlier.
Trader Joe’s also turned into a bit of a social outing and I ran into three women that I know. It was so nice to see some friendly faces and to chat a bit.
I saw a few interesting new products while I was there including this apple cider jam. Anyone tried it?
These raviolis look delish!
Carrot cake spread…I definitely need someone to give me a review of this one!
I also saw fresh sea scallops there for the first time and they were super reasonably priced at $13/lb. The wild salmon looked great too.
Here’s what I bought today! It’s random.
- Olive oil
- Dates
- Grapes
- Almond butter turmeric dressing
- Kombucha (priced so well at TJs)
- Roasted red pepper and tomato soup
- Pumpkin and butternut squash soup
- Blue corn tortilla chips
- Bananas
- Pumpkin pie spice
- Argan oil
- Avocado
- Peanut butter
- Kerrygold salted butter
- Canned salmon
- Canned pumpkin
- Honey
- Autumnal pasta sauce with butternut and pumpkin
- Coconut aminos
- Arugula
- Turkey
- Pumpkin spiced pumpkin seeds
- Walnuts and pecans
- Butternut squash spirals
- Frozen spinach
- Frozen cauliflower rice stir fry
Annnnddd kicking myself for not picking up some of this. I had to practice MAJOR restraint not to buy all the pumpkin and fall things. They had so much stuff that looked amazing as well as lots of things that I would never buy but in the moment I was majorly questioning why I wasn’t adding it to my cart. Oh, Trader Joe’s…you are good at what you do!
Do you enjoy grocery shopping?
Tried anything new and good at TJs lately? What about their fall stuff? Any faves?
