Arm yourself with staples

No, not the paper restraining type, the 10 things that everyone has in their kitchen type. As I walked this morning in the beautiful foggy misty chill, I wrote my blog in my head. And I reflected on how much easier grocery shopping is now that I've narrowed down which staples I trust. It took some research. I blocked out a couple of HOURS that I could shop & compare labels without any distractions. Then, even that took trial & error to see if I liked that type of 'colon blow' cereal (as David calls it!) It's tough, because with a 5 year old and a junkfood junkie live with me, which leaves me buying 2 types of milk, 2 types of cheese, 2 breads, 2 butters... they don't know it yet, but since I do all the shopping and all the cooking... they're going to be eating healthier very very soon.

This morning I thought if I could spare somebody all that research & digging... why not?? It takes a lot of work to convert our cabinets & refridgerator to a healthy lifestyle. Having said that, here's my list of top staples that I've determined fit my daily needs. The lid color is how david shops for them!

Butter - Land-o-lakes Light Butter with Canola Oil (green lid)
Bread - Sara Lee soft & smooth Whole Wheat (red & brown label)
Cheese - Kraft 2% american slices, and the snackables sticks 2% Sharp Cheddar individually wrapped
Eggs - omega 3 large - I found Natures Heritage at Walmart (no hormones or antibotics) & of course Eggbeaters & whites only - great scrammbled with diced onions & tomatoes.
Milk - skim 0 fat
Dressing - Aldi - Fit & Active Ranch & Italian
Peanut Butter - Skippy Natural Creamy. (brown lid) No stirring necessary. It's by far the best tasting peanut butter I've ever had. After this, everything else tastes oily. (Thanks Anne!)
Yogurt - Dannon Light & Lively fat free Vanilla (purple) buy the 32 oz size, find out how 1 cup looks in a bowl and don't worry about measuring it every time. I slice up fruit on mine. Also good on whole wheat Eggo Waffles with a shake of cinnammin.
Fruit - Shop Aldi! Fresh & significantly cheaper blueberries, cherries, strawberries, apples, oranges, pineapple, kiwi, bananas. Go for fresh while it's still a tasty option. Nothering worse than $4.00 strawberries in December that taste like cardboard.
Sour Cream -
Almonds - Aldi again! (silver bag) They have a ton of protein and the right kind of fat. I keep a baggie in my purse now & a bag of them in my car all the time! (Thanks Whitney!!) They're my crunchy snack when I'm sinking.
Lunch meat - Oscar Meyer Oven Roasted turkey & rotisseree chicken. My newest favorite is the TLT - Turkey Lettuce Tomato on toasted wheat bread.
Bacon - Butterball turkey bacon. Decent in the microwave, kinda slow to fry.
Crystal Light - loving the strawberry orange banana. I keep a 1/2 gallon milk jug around, it's one tub of CL and just fill it up with cold water. Drink at least 1 full everyday! Lemonade is great too, I use it to sweeten my ice tea.

That's mine... I welcome yours!!! The research has just begun really!!!