Groceries

In October we moved out to Fredericksburg, what also feels like the middle of nowhere.  The only food delivery we can get is pizza... And Instacart Wegmans, which has basically become my sushi delivery.  Part of moving way out here, we are no where near a Trader Joe's.  If you know me or follow my blog, I am a huge TJ's fan.  I pretty much only shop there.  I love the simple ingredients, uncomplicated store and organic options.  But now I live where my closest grocery store is Wal-Mart... Its been a struggle.  About 2 months after we moved a Lidl opened just passed the Wal-Mart.  Its honestly a little strange.  They have a good food selection.  They have their own bakery in the store.  Its similar to TJ's in that they have a lot of their own brands and a few other brands.  I am still leery of the meat but thats just me.  I have popped in on occasion for a few things because its extremely conveniently located.  But this week the ad was 25% of organic produce.  I am my fathers daughter, I can't pass up a sale.  I have been clearing out the fridge in an attempt to keep us fed this week.  Our power was out for 3 days and we hesitated on buying groceries until it was back on.  Well by the time it came back on, there were about 85 things that needed to be done with the use of electricity and no time for grocery shopping.  So arrive Friday and I have a bit of time before picking up the mini at daycare so I swung by to see the organic produce options.  I was seriously surprised.  Almost every major produce item had an organic version.  This was an improvement on my previous trip where I couldn't get organic broccoli.  I spent $65 and came away with the 3 full (reusable) bags of groceries.  I am honestly pretty impressed with myself.  And with Lidl.  I am really focusing on keeping our grocery costs down along with minimizing our waste.  That second part is really hard because most of what we eat is fresh.  Add about $50 of beef and organic chicken from Costco and thats a huge savings to our food budget every week.  

I actually took these pictures to show my husband everything I bought for $65 and figured it would be good to show. 

The first picture is my non organic haul of jamon sarano, 5 icelandic yogurts, balsamic vinegar, cilantro, blood oranges and eggs for the dogs.  Yes they are that spoiled that they get an egg on top of their food at each meal.

This picture is spinach, 3 heads of romaine, 3-6 oz containers of blueberries, clam shell of raspberries, 2 bags of avocados, bag of limes, bag of yellow onions, clam shell of strawberries, bag of honey crisp apples, grape tomatoes, cucumber and 8 small head of broccoli.  This is all the organic stuff!!!  And its good stuff!  None of it was over ripe and needed to be eaten instantly.

The other exciting thing that happened is our smoker arrived.  I have been dying to have a smoker since I had smoked duck breast at a few restaurants, but I was paralyzed by the decision of which one to buy.  Part of me wanted the convenience of the electric one.  I spoke with a former coworker who lives in DC and actually uses a barrel smoker in the city.  I kind of felt embarrassed that I would have all this space here and not have a barrel smoker.  A fair amount of research later and settled on this pretty lady.  I am pretty excited.  My thermometer arrives on Tuesday so the smoking shall begin next weekend!