The Chic Life: Healthy Grocery Shopping

For dinner tonight, I split up the grocery shopping. Hubby went to the regular chain grocery store while I went to the healthy-health food store. Do you ever shop at those kinds of places? I love shopping them! They always have such interesting foods.

I blame my love for odd-ball health foods on my dad. He has always been extremely mindful of his food and diet and has always tried to pass his knowledge and healthy food tips on to me and my sister. When I was a kid, this was the biggest pain ever. Did we get to eat bleached white bread like the other kids? No. Did we get to eat Fruit Rollups like the other kids? Nope. Did we get to drink Kool-aid like the other kids? Not so much. Ok, some times, we would sneak a couple quick bites/sips at friends' places or when we could convince our mom to sneak some "garbage" into the house, but in general, we were forbidden. Dad tried to reason with us kids that these junk foods we craved provided no nutritional value, were like "eating cardboard", etc, etc. Did he persuade us from desiring the most-delicious Fruit by the Foot (one of my personal, childhood faves) and other un-healthy treats? Heck no, we still wanted our goodies!

However, now that I'm getting older, times have changed. These days, I genuinely appreciate the healthy habits that he's instilled in my sister and me. Nowadays, I actually prefer wheat bread over white bread, don't care about the fruit snacks, and I'm not at all interested in drinking Kool-Aid. Now that I'm more mature, I actually get really excited when I see a big wall of hearty and healthy grains, nuts, dried fruit mixes, and all that good stuff. I want to try a little bit of everything, but one can only eat so much at a time, eh?

For today's shopping spree, I picked up some Israeli couscous, sliced almonds, fresh ground almond butter, Buckwheat pancake & waffle mix (a favorite of my dad), toasted wheat germ (I've been looking for this for forever!), quinoa, and raw pumpkin seeds.

While I was there, I also picked up this Yogi Tea Cold Season Sampler, which contains 4 of their teas: Breathe Deep, Echinecea Immune Support, Cold Season, and Throat Comfort.

Thanks Dad for teaching us your healthy habits. I'm hoping to continue to make the most of them!