Grocery Shopping

I went grocery shopping today.  Unfortunately, that included going to Wal-Mart.  I haven't been inside of a Wal-Mart in years! It's not my favorite store.  But, small towns equals few choices.

I went shopping for two recipes today.  We will be having "Vegan Bacon Cheezburger Potato Pie" from Betty Goes Vegan and "Rustic Pasta" from The Kind Diet over the next couple of days.  I will post the recipes in a separate post.

Because my mom rarely cooks, I also had to buy a few staple items.  Knowing this, I did prepare and buy a few things in advance from Amazon.  There were a few things that I just knew Wal-Mart and the local grocery store wouldn't have.  This is why I would suggest anyone who lives in a small town, with few choices, to plan ahead and purchase some items from Amazon.  If you have an Amazon Prime account (which I think is the best way to go), then you get free 2 day shipping on a lot of items.

Here is the ingredient list for the two recipes:

vegan ground beef
plain bread crumbs
onions
A1 sauce
yellow mustard
Bragg's liquid aminos
liquid smoke
potatoes
vegetable broth
vegan margarine (Earth Balance is the best)
garlic
soy milk
nutritional yeast
vegan bacon bits
vegan cheddar cheese
tomato
green onions
pasta (I bought Quinoa pasta, it's much healthier!)
olive oil
celery
shoyu
sea salt (I bought Himalayan Pink Sea Salt)
garlic powder
green cabbage
marinara sauce

Surprisingly, I found quite a few of the items I needed at the stores today.  I didn't have to buy A1 sauce, yellow mustard, or soy milk.  I'm using almond milk instead of soy milk because my mom already uses it in her morning coffee.  Nutritional yeast and Bragg's liquid aminos are two of the items I purchased a week ago through Amazon.  Be sure to get the nutritional yeast with add B-12. You'll want a large amount, it'll become your favorite thing!  I also did not purchase bread crumbs.  Every single kind of bread crumb in both stores had added high fructose corn syrup, same thing for marinara sauce.  I instead bought two demi baguettes and organic tomato sauce.  Other items I couldn't find in either store: vegetable broth (shocked me), vegan cheddar cheese, and shoyu.

For now, I am just using water in place of the vegetable broth, the Bragg's liquid aminos in place of the shoyu, and I am making a delicious vegan cheese sauce instead of the vegan cheddar.

I spent a total of $45 at the stores today and $22 on Amazon last week.  It may seem like a lot for only 2 meals, but remember a lot of these items are staple pantry items I had to stock up on.

All these ingredients just for plain bread crumbs??

No vegetable stock??

I'm happily surprised that both stores had Earth Balance!!

I also wanted to try the new cashew milk!! Yum!!

Come back tomorrow! I'll be making Vegan Bacon Cheezburger Potato Pie (with a few modifications).  I'll post the recipe tomorrow too!