A new challenge

Yesterday in the car, Caitrin posed a challenge to me: go 7 days without eating fried foods.  It's tricky with me. Either I'm eating really, really well, or I'm eating like crap.  There's not a lot of gray area there; once I cross the line, I'm gone, and it takes a long time to get back.

But something about being challenged... I genuinely do not want to eat fried foods for 7 days. So much so that I personally extended this to chips and other not-good-for-you foods.  Luckily I was off today, so I had the opportunity to partake in my absolute favorite activity: food shopping.  Yes, that's right.  I love to food shop.  I love to find new foods and to develop new recipes in my head as I'm walking down the aisles.  I love to find a good bargain.  I play a game with myself every time I go to the grocery store: Spend under $50 for the week.  It's only me that I'm cooking for, but I used to spend an astronomical amount of money on food per week.  And the sad part is, I would end up throwing a lot of it out.  So I started trying to spend $50 or less, and now I rarely even make it past $40.

Today, I didn't have a whole lot in my fridge since I'd cleaned it out prior to vacation, so I did need to stock up.  But I only have 2 days left of breakfast and lunches, plus I needed food to pack for our 6 Flags trip this weekend.  It's been decided that we'll bring a cooler to leave in the car, rather than buying pricey (and fried!) foods at the park.  6 Flags will be my biggest challenge, because once the aroma of French fries hits my nostrils, I'm a goner. I'm depending on my friends to stop me, also considering we'll have healthy, fresh alternatives.

Which leads me to my grocery shopping adventure, which ended 2 hours, 3 grocery stores, and $43.67 later.  This is what I got:

Trader Joes:
Edamame, frozen and shelled

Liquid egg whites
Sweet Potatoes (3)
Red onion
Fat free crumbled feta ceese
Chopped yellow onions
Avocados (4)
Romaine hearts
Spinach, chopped & frozen
Apples (2)
Hummus, roasted garlic
Eggs, hard boiled and peeled (6)

Shop Rite:
Progresso French Onion soup (2)
Cucumbers (3)
Greek Yogurt, vanilla (6)
Cole slaw
Sour cream

Pathmark:
Broccoli slaw
Diet Dr. Pepper (for Caitrin)

Ordinarily I don't even keep my receipts, much less take pictures of what I bought.  But I was so proud and motivated knowing that I bought mostly produce and healthy foods that I did.  Here's to a great (rest of the) week!