Looking back: 2 weeks of grocery shopping+meal planning

Has it really been two weeks already? Shopping and planning for two weeks worth of meals was much easier than I thought it would be! I enjoy fun new challenges and I have a feeling that meal planning is one of those things that gets easier the more you do it. The only real downside of grocery shopping every two weeks, or once a month for that matter, is that you aren't able to consume fresh produce. Some people prep and freeze their veggies right after their grocery run but I'm just not that organized/don't have the energy/don't like frozen and thawed veggies. Towards the end of our two weeks I ended up making a run to Trader Joe's for some organic greens. I love eating fresh greens and veggies each week and we eat quite a bit so for us it was difficult to stretch our produce out over 14 days and still feel like we were getting enough nutrients. I think if I decide to shop this way in the future I might just try to do a big grocery shopping trip to last us 1.5-2 weeks meal wise and then pick up fresh produce when needed.

Monetarily speaking I don't think we saved much. In part because I'm still new to the whole planning meals for 14 days thing and partially because regardless of whether I shop once a week or once every two weeks the items I buy generally stay the same. We choose to spend a little more on some organic items rather than couponing and shopping the sales.

One thing I plan on doing more often as a result of this experience is having leftovers for dinner. It is so easy to make a big pot of soup and eat it for multiple dinners throughout the week.

Meals this week are simple because we are heading to Arizona on Tuesday for a little break from the clouds and gloom!

• Pizza- home made with bacon, prosciutto, mushrooms, cheese, tomatoes, and red onion
• chili - made Sunday for Sunday night and Monday night dinner. This chili is SO.GOOD. I will definitely be making it again soon!