I have a wonderful store called Natural Grocers.
Dead Link Removed Their bulk selection is amazing if you have one near you. It is also where I get my teas. You can get loose tea in most health food or ethnic stores. It's primarily central and western U.S. The awesome thing is they will build one in your area if you write to them and ask. They are slowly moving eat so it may take more time. I avoid whole food if I can help it because my bill would double and I and most of their stuff is marked up conventional grown anyways.
So, my shopping list pretty much looks like this. The dry goods I don't need to buy every month so they tend to rotate on my list. It also depends on what I already have in my freezer.
bag of rice
bag of potatoes
bag of kidney beans
bag of 13bean mix
bag of dried peas (canned when I am feeling super lazy)
Some type of fruit depending on sales
carrots
celery
broccoli
fresh spinach (Balcony container garden and it does well in cold weather, but I buy in summer)
cabbage
radishes (I only buy these in winter because I container garden them)
tomatoes
2 dozen eggs
leeks (expensive but I can't cut onions to save my life)
2 cans green beans
2 cans corn
1 can tomato sauce
1 package cream cheese (organic valley)
1package regular cheese
1 whole chicken (my local store often has them discounted for $10-12 when they reach their sell by date so it's just a matter of knowing what day they restock :D)
2 lbs hamburger meat
1lb chuck roast or stew meat, which ever is cheaper.
2 or 3 times a year when hams are on sale after a holiday I buy one.
The whole chicken is my life saver, it is a bit of work but very worth it. I freeze the breasts and legs so we have fried chicken every 3 months or so. Then I boil the rest to make chicken broth which I freeze in individual servings. Half the chicken on the bone goes to chicken and rice soup with carrots and celery. The other half goes for chicken salads.
The breasts I dice and fry up and mix with steamed broccoli and 1 mix in one package of cream cheese.
This is the recipe for the hamburger meat which I just call Rice Stuff. It makes a ton and fills my 6 quart pan to the brim. I freeze it into about 10 individual servings.
1lb hamburger
2 cups cooked rice
2 cans corn
2 cans green beans
1 can tomato sauce
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup cooked kidney beans.
I make my own sauerkraut, which is super easy. Large stew in the crockpot and freeze leftovers. I use the broccoli stems, white rice flour and chicken broth to make cream of broccoli then add ham and potatoes for soup.
When I get the hams, I take all the meat of the bone and freeze for soups and casseroles later on. With the bone I make large batches of 13bean soup and freeze in portions.
Every few months I get a package of pork and make pork fried rice. I am not very good at making it though.
Another thing I do is slice potatoes and fry them up with hamburger meat and finely grated veggies and top with shredded cheese.
My breakfast recipe is scrambled eggs, tomatoes and spinach. I just dice a tomatoes and throw in a handful of spinach into the egg mix. It's amazingly good.
Dead Link Removed Are my best friend. I am not advocating this brand, but something like them. I buy them over time so I have bunch of different brands this link is it just the best reference I could find.
Hope that helps.
@CaptSpalding Not sure your age or gender, but men as they age can't convert CQ-10 into the usable form very well so Ubiniquol (sp?) is better, but more expensive. I'll try to remember to find out from my in-laws about health food stores in Ohio sometime this week.
