it's the big one

Could you try shopping online? They deliver right to your place.

Depending on what's on sale at our grocery store, our shopping list typically has several boxes of whole wheat pasta in various shapes. Cans of different beans or bags of dried beans, fresh and frozen veggies, boneless/skinless chicken breasts, salmon fillets, ground turkey, or pork tenderloins. Cans of unseasoned/unsalted tomatoes. You can make a delicious meal with a can of tomatoes, some beans, fresh or frozen veggies, and some spices.

We have a large chest freezer in the basement, though, so we can stock up when prices are good. I keep my flours and grains (and my sesame seeds!) in the freezer and, when I want to bake, the night before I'll get the quantity of flours out to bring to room temp over night. I tend to use a lot of whole wheat flour. And I love semolina flour for Italian breads and many artisan breads.

I cook completely from scratch. We really try to stay away from packaged mixes or things like that.....you'd be surprised how much salt you can find in those packages! I have high blood pressure, too, so I have to be careful. For the most part, I bake my own breads, rolls, and muffins, too. (I love to be elbow deep in yeast dough....it's a great stress reducer!)

First thing I do is go through my store's weekly ad for the things I want to buy. Then I go through my cookbooks to see what looks good. I make up a complete menu for each week, from the entrees to the side dishes...we only have dessert on weekends. I look through the coupon books that come with the Sunday paper. And by Monday night, we're ready to hit the stores.

We shop for groceries once a week, usually on Monday nights. I have a $80.00 budget and I really do try not to go over that. That's for the two of us and does not include food and litter for the cats, but does include everything else (shampoo, conditioner, detergents, etc.) We shop at our favorite grocery store, as well as Target when there are good bargains to be had there. On Saturday mornings, we'll hit our local butcher shop, too. With an $80 budget, I have to stretch it as much as I can.

Every October, when we go to CT to visit one of my best girlfriends, we stop at Penzey's (they sell spices) to buy spices and seasonings. I have a complete list of what I want and I usually spend about $100 there. But that sees me through for the year....I won't buy spices at the grocery store. And since we've forgone the salt, we do use a great variety of spices on our foods.

I get my olive oil at Trader Joe's whenever I can get there. I buy virgin olive oil for sauting and extra virgin to use in salad dressings.

There's a local farmers' market on Wednesdays and I'll walk over there during my lunch break. I'll get fresh produce there, especially in the summer. I'll buy my instant yeast there....I get a pound at a time and that will last me about ten months or so, tightly covered in the fridge.

Oh, I also have a What's in the Freezer? list on my refrigerator at all times. That way I know how many pork tenderloins are in the freezer or how many chicken breasts I have on hand.

So this week, my grocery list includes:
Bananas
Granny Smith apples
Fresh veggies: Broccoli, lettuce, carrots, celery, spinach, one acorn squash
Frozen veggies: corn, sliced zucchini, pearl onions
Salmon (it's on sale and will in the freezer)
Pork tenderloins (we use them instead of pork chops most of the time; they'll go in the freezer. I get two meals from one tenderloin, which makes it economical)
Eggs (I buy eggs about once a month.....maybe)
Butter (2 for $5, a good price for around here, and I have a .50-cent coupon that will be doubled)
Milk
Yogurt (for my lunches)
Quaker Instant Oatmeal (2 for $6 and I have a $1 coupon; DH eats oatmeal every morning)
Cat food and litter

And my menus this week:
Broccoli Shrimp Pasta Toss with Sunny Snow Peas
Spinach Quesadillas with Homestyle Coleslaw
Herbed Vegetable Soup with Apple Cinnamon Muffins
Spiced Orange Chicken with Zippy Green Beans
Bow-Tie Lemon Chicken with Gingered Squash Saute
Twice-Baked Acorn Squash with a veggie salad

And that's more than you ever wanted to know about the method to my madness!

Your methods sound much like what I do, but I make little from scratch. I scour the ads and we eat according to what's on sale. We also have a chest freezer, which surprisingly, uses very litle electricity. With it, we can stock up on BOGO sales, especially for meat. I keep many ingredients for quick, healthy meals in the pantry & freezer, and often cook massive amounts on Sundays, and freeze in single portions, as DH's work hours wildly vary, and we eat separate dinners due to this.

My list is mostly Lean Cuisine and Weight Watcher's frozen meals and desserts (I'm a diabetic). Dh is the big meat eater/greasy food eater (yuck!).
I also eat a lot of pasta, fresh & dried vegetarian meals. I eat a lot of fresh vegetables, as well (love 'em!!!). Our store had asparagus for $1.99/lb this week (a very good sale here), so I'll be eating that all week (DH hates it), with pasta and Parmesan cheese.

I admire you for baking your own bread! I never got the hang of yeast, unless it's in my bread machine--and I can ruin that, too!

BTW, we eat a lot of the pork tenderloin, too. Our store often has BOGO on those, and DH is a big pork eater (I'm not). I spray a baking pan with PAM, make slits in the roast, insert peeled garlic cloves in the slits, rub with a bit of olive oil, spicy brown mustard, and throw in a few sprigs of fresh rosemary, and roast in the oven. DH makes a hard cider gravy with the drippings.

Shopping only once a month, I imagine the fresh veges are a problem.

Do you already include squash on your list? We love baked acorn squash - made with a little maple syrup or brown sugar. That's a staple for us in winter months, sale or no.

A salad that might be a change of pace for you, is VERY heart healthy, and quick & easy to make (basically just some chopping) - and has ingredients that will last a while until you make the salad, and then IT will last a while (while you eat the other veges that won't last so long) - is Tabouli. It is actually better a couple of days after you make it, the flavors all get the chance to marinate together, and the lemon acts as a perservative or something. Here's a recipe similar to the one we use: http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1950,...232202,00.html You'd need to buy bulgar (which is just cracked wheat). We find we don't even need to add salt, there's so much flavor! I practically live on the stuff. That and Hummus - though I'm lazy and don't take the time (usually) to make the hummus, I get it at the health food store (though good quality ones are generally available at the supermarket).

I eat both with mixed grain (or wheat) pita bread (I like it lightly toasted).

The other staple around here is Udon, which we use both hot and cold.

This salad is quick & easy to make. http://www.food.com/recipe/udon-noodle-salad-65369 We use a touch of maple syrup to "soften" the flavors rather than sugar. But if you like asian flavors, you may want to add udon noodles (we use wheat), sesame oil, soy sauce (if you don't already have it), and ginger to your shopping list. And you can prettty much add anything you want to it - snow peas are great, as is edamame. We also re-heat the "salad," and add chicken to it for a hot quick dinner. (It's probably good as salad with cold chicken, but Gary prefers this one hot).

If you don't already have these on your list and you like the asian flavors, we tend to pick up Annie Chun noodle bowls and soups to have quick meals on hand, though these might actually be cheaper to shop for online. Here's her website - but I noticed all kinds of offers looking for it. http://www.anniechun.com/ We don't have much freezer space, so these are a good alternative to frozen dinners for us.

Butternut squash is delicious, too. Roasted at about 425 degrees, it caramelizes and it's wonderful stuff as well as being quite healthy. And don't forget spaghetti squash that you can serve with a marinara sauce or just with some fresh sauteed veggies thrown over it. The neat thing about squash is that you can cook it in the microwave with little hassle.

As for bread baking, when DH and I first got married, my MIL (the best cook one earth, as far as I'm concerned) took me under her wing and she taught me everything I needed to know about yeast. It took me awhile to get the hang of kneading and I killed more than one batch of yeast before I figured it out. Now I tend to use instant yeast, simply because it's not as picky as active yeast...you don't have to worry about the liquids being at just the right temperature. I always try to have muffins and yeast rolls in the freezer to have with a good soup or stew, esp during the winter.

Our grocer has asparagus, both green and white) for $1.00 a pound, too. It's on my list. I love to roast it and serve with a wee bit of shredded Parm.

Mushrooms, especially portobellos, are usually on my grocery list. Right now, baby portos are on sale at 3 8 oz. packages for $5. You can broil a porto as a base for freshly sauteed veggies and a bit of shredded cheese for a delicious and healthy dinner.

Don't forget vinegars. I'm a big fan of balsamic vinegar especially. You can throw it into a sauce pan and reduce it down for a delicious bit of sauce over pork and chicken. With no fats or oils.

We eat a lot of brown rice. If there's a Trader Joe's near you, look for some of their rice trilogies. So good and good for you as well. And I love couscous, too. We tend to stay away from white potatoes or only have them as a treat, eating more rice and grains.

Did you know that you can substitute pearled barley for some of the ground beef in some soups and stews? Even chili.

It's difficult when you're only shopping once a month. My sister does that, too, because her DH only gets paid once a month, so she shops the same week that he gets his salary. She's big on convenience foods and doesn't cook much at all, largely because of their working hours. And she's working on her doctorate in education in addition to having a full time job as an assistant principal, so she's busy all the time. I'll ask her how she does it and what she has on her list.

I wish I was so organized! I am going to print it out and study your method.

It's a bit of a pain to get it going, but once you have the basics done, it's really easy to keep track of your foods. Have fun!