Since I am focusing on meal planning, I thought let me start with vegetarian diet pyramid to make meal planning lot more easier. You can customize this pyramid then as per your diet restrictions or preferences.
So as soon as I look at the pyramid, I get the ideas of what do I need to buy/get during my grocery shopping visit. Now, all of us have different needs. I personally love to prepare variety of cuisine recipes to keep my family members happy with home cooked food. Most frequently I make Indian, Italian, Mexican, Chinese, and Greek. I also love to try Thai and many other cuisines. So depending on what cuisine and diet you follow, you can come up with your own ideas.
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Looking at the pyramid, you can see many of the items can be bought in bulk that has longer shelf life such as beans, legumes, lentils, grains, nuts/seeds, flours, pasta and oils.
Next, I focus on some vegetables that has longer shelf life like onion, potato, sweet potato, ginger, garlic, and I am sure there are many more.
Then I think of some other veggies that can stay longer in refrigerator such as carrot, beet, celery etc.
So for my weekly grocery, I have to look for very few ingredients like dairy, fruits and some vegetables. And I always try to buy mix of raw/semi ripe/ripe fruits and veggies so that they last longer.
Once you have worked on your basics, it is easy to manage everyday meals.
I also suggest to purchase dry spices in bulk. I mostly shop them from Indian grocers. I am a huge fan of fresh herbs as well. I mostly grow them in my garden as I find them expensive to buy from the store and lot of headache to store them right. I grow some vegetables as well but mostly the one that I can’t find at my local produce such as cluster beans, Pigeon peas, green chili and so on.
I hope I made it easier to manage your meal planning. Do visit my many other articles on meal planning and videos on youtube as well.
Bhavna’s Kitchen
Your one stop for Food, Fitness, Fashion/beauty and more! website: http://www.bhavnaskitchen.com My health and beauty starts from my kitchen! My love for food is infinite, my passion for cooking is my happiness. I love to prepare exotic vegetarian cuisine recipes from all around the world with a hint of Indian flavor…..I truly believe that good food brings family and friends together.