Welcome to the most boring post in the world

I've been putting off writing this boring post because it is pretty basic and makes me seem like a boring lawyer's non-wife who gets excited about shopping lists and planning meals, when it is actually the opposite. So after three years of living in Perth I have our weekly shopping down to a fine art. To make this post a little bit more interesting here are some photos of unlikely animal best friends: 

Source: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mothernature/20-unlikely-animal-friendships-5adf

Ahhhh so cute! Now back to the boring: 

To make things easier (and to make way for all the super fun things I have planned every weekend) we always buy the same vegies and generally just rotate recipes when we get bored (who wants to write a new shopping list each week?). New recipes are not acts of genius but stem from my need to use up ingredients. This week we had a spare sweet potato, carrot and red onion, chicken breast in the freezer, pine nuts and chickpeas in the pantry, and so had a warm chicken, sweet potato, carrot and chickpea morrocan salad for dinner last night.

If you've read my previous posts you'll know that my aim is to only go to the supermarket once a week (out of laziness - cos supermarket shopping sucks balls) and you might have noticed a trend in ingredients (can't be bothered changing it up*). Because of this I'm going to be boring and share my weekly, fortnightly and monthly shopping lists with you. 

*Actually, I think that what I'm actually trying to do is ensure that I don't spend time planning meals and asking Boyfriend what he feels like for dinner when I need to be focusing on my own work- especially when Boyfriend works long and inconsistent hours and might not even be home for dinner! Sometimes working from home and essentially working for yourself can really suck and requires a lot of self discipline, which I don't always have. So choosing from several recipes which all require the same basic ingredients eliminates time spent planning and shopping. So really being a non-wife is all about putting your own needs first and making life as a partner a little bit easier. 

But first a few tips born out of frugality, laziness and thriftiness:

- Find a quality green grocer. It is hard to find a green grocer which stocks fresh and cheap vegetables, especially in WA where a lot of produce is imported from interstate or overseas. If you happen to live in Perth  and are South of the River I go to Swansea Street Markets in East Victoria Park. The produce is fresh, budget friendly and they have a great range of continental products, quality deli and butcher.
- Wrap vegetables in plastic bags, cotton bags or these Fresh & Crisp Fruit and Vegetable Bags (available at Coles and Woolworths) to keep them fresh for longer.
- Store fresh peeled garlic in a jar full of olive oil in the fridge (keeps it crunchy and the oil is delicious too!).
- Freeze nuts to keep them fresher for longer.
- Prepare cauliflower rice by blending in a food processor, and freeze into individual servings.
- Shred corn off the cobs and freeze into individual servings.
- Pre-slice chorizo and freeze.
- Freeze fresh ginger.


And now for my lame shopping lists: 

Weekly shop:
Punnet of strawberries
3 Bananas
Punnet cherry tomatoes
2 zucchinis
2 carrots (500g)
Sweet Potato
Red capsicum
4 lemons
Avocado
2 whole tomatoes
Bunch fresh coriander

Fortnightly shop:
Bunch flat leaf parsley
Bunch spring onions
1/4 each Green/Purple cabbage
Cos lettuce
Pine nuts
Eggs
Black olives
Yogurt powder
800g Lebanese cucumbers
Fresh dill

Monthly shop:
Bag fresh peeled garlic
Cauliflower
5 chicken breasts
Bag frozen peeled local prawns
Chorizo
Ginger
2 corn cobs 
500g salt
500g dried chickpeas
500g dried french lentils

Pantry supplies:
Ground cumin
Ground premium paprika
Ground smokey paprika
Ground coriander seeds
Ground fennel seeds
Ground white pepper
Whole black pepper corn
Whole cloves
Ground cinnamon
Ground chilli powder
Ground nutmeg
Cumin seeds
Ground turmeric
Mixed peppercorns
Cardamon pods

This week we've had a healthy-ish bacon Caesar salad, vegetarian indian Dahl with cauliflower rice, tomato, and a cucumber yogurt dressing and have made up my summer zucchini 'pasta' with roasted capsicum sauce for lunches as well as some cucumber pickles.  I ended up having dinner at my sisters house last night as the boyfriend was working late and on Fridays we have home made pizzas if we're home (more on these recipes later) 

As a side note most of the recipes featured on this blog are focused around digestive health, and foods with anti-inflammatory properties - so yeah they're pretty healthy but still delicious.
 
 Wow! So we did it - we got through the most boring post of all time! The next few posts will feature recipe ideas and weekly menu plans based on the shopping list from this post. Woo hoo! Let's all be lawyer non-wives together!

Cheers, Jess