Creating a grocery list filled with healthy items isn’t as hard as you think! And my secret’s will keep the family from running away from the table with the look of death.  :)

It does take some planning.  If you do a little work ahead of time, it’ll save you money and time in the store.

I’m excited to show you how you can do the planning ahead of time. This little bit o’ planning will prevent your teens from rebelling because of the healthy food at the dinner table…

Creating a Healthy Grocery Secret 1: Defining a Healthy Meal

In order to create a healthy grocery list you have to know what a healthy meal is…

So let’s tackle this first…

Healthy meals should have ingredients that don’t come in a box…

This means recipe’s ladies!

Let’s get rid of processed foods, they are addicting and they do nuttin’ but expand our waistlines!

Now this doesn’t mean hours in the kitchen. I promise!

Really I spend way less time in the kitchen now, then when I cooked from a box.

How you ask…

I make use of tools like the crock pot and the grill, or my George Foreman grill in the winter time.

So what does our grocery list actually have on it?

Mostly fresh foods!

Some can goods and frozen foods are ok too.

So let’s look at the less obvious…

What to look for with frozen foods:

With Frozen foods, the only ingredient should be the produce, or meat.  There shouldn’t be added ingredients. Just keep it simple…

How about the canned goods?

Since canned goods are cheaper and they don’t go bad they are a great option too!

There is a thing or two we need to watch out for…

Watch out for sodium!

Look for low or no sodium options.  

You can season your food without the added sodium.

The seasoning in store bought foods add all kinds of hidden “stuff” we don’t want to add.

Let’s keep going to create your own healthy grocery list.

Creating a Healthy Grocery List Secret 2:Finding the Recipes

**Important**Poll your family and find out what their favorite meals are…

Don’t skip this step, if you have teenagers… or husbands with picky tastes…

Now we  take some time and cruise the web… we are going to find healthy alternatives to their fav’s…

Really this only takes a bit the first time… You can redo this once a year to refresh the menus. Block out a couple of hours total to do this. But don’t do it all at once.

Don’t panic!  Do the polling one day, and then do a recipe or two a day until you have them all or at least 15-20 of them.  

This is enough for a few weeks. And then you can recycle… ;)

Now where do you go to find those healthy meal alternatives?

I won’t leave ya’ hanging…

Where do I find healthy recipes?…

Here are my 3 favorite spots… and of course one of them is my menu board on Pinterest.  :) Save that board, I add lots of recipes there.

You will find my meal prep recipes there. And those items that my family has approved.

But I also use two other sites, here are the 3 I use:

• https://www.pinterest.com/ONEderlandWellness/healthy-dinner-ideas-for-weight-loss/
• https://www.skinnytaste.com/
• https://www.allrecipes.com/recipes/84/healthy-recipes/

There are a ton of sites to use, these are just my favorites.

You can just search the Homemade+recipe name +healthy on google and you’ll get some great ideas.

Here is one example I used when looking up my youngest’s favorite meal… Italian Hamburger Helper

Once I have the recipes together, I print them.  Once my family has tried the meal and they approved I add it to my recipe  3 ring binder.

Why are all of these steps important to create a healthy grocery list?

Including the family in the healthy lifestyle change, helps them!  My teens actually enjoy looking up recipes in the summer and on breaks. 

Another great perk… it reduces the whining…

This is a new habit that moves you toward your 100 pound goal… hint, hint, wink, wink…

One tiny healthy lifestyle change… and it’s a non-scale related goal!

Meal planning is key to creating your healthy grocery list for the week.  This is step 1 on your 100 pound journey!

Now that you know what a healthy meal looks like, and you have a list of menu options you can start your healthy  grocery list..

Creating a Healthy Grocery List Secret 3: Creating the List and Menu Plan

Now you know what a healthy meal looks like and you have a list of recipes to use.

Even better they have been family approved…

So what is the final step…

Now you choose a day, and you sit down with your recipes and you create the meal plan for the week AND your grocery list…

Check out my sample grocery list for a family of 4.  You can download it below.  :)

Grab your sample grocery list!

Now in the weeks coming up you should look up one or two recipes.  And add those to your weekly menus.

I have about 45 or 50 that I now ask the kids to pick through and choose each week.  That way they are picking the menus and there is no need for complaints. :)

Let’s Close this out…

 So what did we cover…

We covered what makes a healthy meal..

How to create menu’s that even picky teen’s will eat, and finally how to create a healthy grocery list…

I even threw in a sample just so I could make my list for the week. ;)

We learned a healthy grocery list, requires meal planning.  

This actually does a few things for us…

1. Creating the grocery list keeps us from going down the isles we don’t need.
2. This step alone save major time!
3. Creating the grocery list also saves us money because we only buy what we need.
4. This plan will reduce your waistline because you know the meals are healthy.  

Some of the websites you can use for recipe’s are listed below in resources. But experiment and find sites you like… look for recipes that have whole foods and spices.

RESOURCES:

• https://www.pinterest.com/ONEderlandWellness/healthy-dinner-ideas-for-weight-loss/
• https://www.skinnytaste.com/
• https://www.allrecipes.com/recipes/84/healthy-recipes/

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   Sample Grocery List