214-SYNCPodcast_GroceryList

[00:00:00] Jenny Swisher: Welcome friends to this episode of the Sync Your Life podcast. Today we’re covering a topic that I get asked about often, which is, what’s on my weekly grocery shopping list? I have done an episode in the past that covers what I eat in a day, and I’ll be talking about that again here today, but I also have an episode on ingredient labels.

[00:01:15] Jenny Swisher: I highly recommend checking out that episode if you’re listening to this one, because reading and understanding your ingredient labels is half of the equation when it comes to eating healthy. But for today, let’s look at what is on my weekly list, and how I plan to utilize it. I’m actually recording this on the weekend, having just completed my meal prep for this week for the family.

[00:01:32] Jenny Swisher: And I just want to say this, I do not meal prep meals in advance. I definitely had an era of my life in my late 20s and early 30s where I was really into meal prep. But the more and more that I’ve learned about histamine and the role that histamine plays with hormones, I’ve actually steered clear of meal prepping like that for the simple reason that leftovers are a high culprit of histamine.

[00:01:53] Jenny Swisher: So again, side note, leftovers are a huge instigator of histamine and we know that women struggle with histamine intolerance, especially around ovulation when estrogen is high and our periods when estrogen spikes before it plummets. But we’ll save that topic for another day. I have talked about histamine intolerance before on the show, but I do want to go deeper with a guest of mine here soon.

[00:02:14] Jenny Swisher: So as we speak today, I’m sitting here with my Instacart order pulled up, ready to read it to you. And let me just say, if you’re not utilizing grocery delivery, what are you even doing? I do get sometimes frustrated with the produce selections that my grocer will select, but otherwise it’s a great option and it saves a lot of time.

[00:02:32] Jenny Swisher: For me and my busy family with two young girls Instacart is queen around here. We get two grocery deliveries per week to make sure that we’re constantly eating the freshest possible fruits and vegetables that we can. So, I will say this. I want to say this as a disclaimer. My kids eat what we eat. So, in case you’re thinking, well, what do you make for your kids?

[00:02:49] Jenny Swisher: My kids would never eat that. No, my kids actually do eat what we eat. Turns out, if you give a child food, they will eat if they’re hungry. That’s my opinion. I know there are sometimes, you know, kids have issues with texture or whatever, and that can be worked with. But, for me, in our house We don’t cook separate meals for our kids.

[00:03:06] Jenny Swisher: Our kids like things like gluten free chicken nuggets and hot dogs, all beef hot dogs, I should say, but we don’t have them on a 24 7 basis. So we rotate the same breakfasts in our house, and I’ll mention to you what those are for the most part, and lunches are pretty simple. So I don’t meal prep breakfast and lunch.

[00:03:23] Jenny Swisher: I focus most of my time, if I am preparing on the weekend, to making sure that we have quick and easy grab and go foods. Cutting up fruits, cutting up vegetables, making my own salad dressing, which I’ll talk about. But for the most part, we’re really keeping it simple. We’re rotating the same breakfast foods in the morning, cooking them fresh, having a salad that’s made fresh every day at lunch, and then of course, dinners sometimes do get meal prepped depending on our busy schedule.

[00:03:46] Jenny Swisher: So, some of the breakfasts that we rotate in our house are, uh, let’s see, farm fresh cage free eggs. Turkey sausage, you guys know I like to start the day with high protein and I highly recommend it. Diced vegetable hashes. A lot of whole food grocers will carry pre diced veggie hashes like sweet potato and onion.

[00:04:04] Jenny Swisher: Things that you can throw into your skillet with your eggs or sausage to add some fiber and veggies. Oats are a common breakfast food in our house. We make sure that we buy brands that are non GMO oats. And a favorite of my children that I’ve actually started to consume sometimes as well are the Kodiak Gluten Free Pancakes.

[00:04:21] Jenny Swisher: Now I will say, a lot of people disagree, but my opinion here is that the other Kodiak branded products are not necessarily the greatest for inflammation. I have found that there’s not a single other product in the Kodiak lineup that has a dairy free, gluten free option, aside from the gluten free pancake mix.

[00:04:38] Jenny Swisher: So if you’re truly looking to limit inflammation, make sure you’re purchasing the gluten free version of the pancake mix. So I will link that up for you in the show notes, so that’s a common question that I get. So those are basically, you know, the most common rotated foods in our house for breakfast.

[00:04:52] Jenny Swisher: And then for lunch, I’m making sure that I’m consuming four cups of vegetables in my lunch alone. So usually that’s raw vegetables. I just, I like a cold raw salad at lunch. But in some cases I will throw on some cooked quinoa or brown rice or black beans or something warm just to warm it up, especially on these colder days.

[00:05:11] Jenny Swisher: I always, always, always top it with a lean protein like nitrate free turkey, grilled chicken. Yesterday, I had grass finished steak that I put on top of it, or even hamburger, and I drizzle it in an olive oil based salad dressing. Now, I mentioned earlier, I make my own salad dressing. I know that we are in the month of January, where people are having health goals out the wazoo, we’re focusing on eating clean, we’re focusing on exercising, which is awesome, but here’s just something to know.

[00:05:36] Jenny Swisher: If you’re going for a salad each day, as most people are, Especially around this time of year. Just know that like 99 percent of salad dressings sold in the store are pure crap. They really are. They’re full of seed oils and inflammatory oils. It is so much easier to just make your own. You can utilize a bottle of olive oil, maybe some vinegar, some spices and seasonings, and you can do this in less than 10 minutes.

[00:05:59] Jenny Swisher: Using your blender, just pop it into a container in your fridge, and you have it for a solid week to two weeks. And you didn’t have to worry about spending the money on a salad dressing in the store that has all that inflammation as part of it. So, this way I know that I’m getting plenty of protein, fiber, and healthy fats in the first half of my day.

[00:06:18] Jenny Swisher: Other than those two meals, I do consume a protein shake late morning that’s derived from seed proteins, which is great for hormone health. And in the afternoons, after my workout, I will consume a 20 gram protein drink that has branch chain amino acids and 5 grams of creatine. So I’m getting protein through supplementation as well.

[00:06:37] Jenny Swisher: So I’m not a huge consumer of fruit. This is something that people ask about. I find that it actually fluctuates my blood sugar too much. So while I will sometimes have a cup of berries or an apple after my workout, I’ve found that unless I’m really, really hungry for fruit, like in the summer when it’s fresh and it’s tasty, I just, my body does better without it and everybody is unique.

[00:06:57] Jenny Swisher: So knowing what types of foods like fruit might spike your blood sugar could be helpful for you. So I should mention that before dinner even arrives, I have consumed at least a hundred grams of protein throughout my day. So my goal for the day is 130 grams of protein, and

[00:07:13] Jenny Swisher: I’ve already achieved 100 grams of that by dinnertime. So when it comes to meal prepping, I really only prep two meals in advance. So this week, we started the week with a grass finished beef meat sauce over brown rice pasta. Everything in our house is gluten free, dairy free. Uh, and of course I baked a spaghetti squash too, and we just mixed it in.

[00:07:32] Jenny Swisher: Like, even my kids don’t notice when we mix in the spaghetti squash to, to the spaghetti dinner. So, tonight we’re having a grass finished beef roast that’s cooked in the crock pot with bone broth. This is great for gut health replenishment. Uh, we’ll throw some veggies in there, like carrots, celery, onion.

[00:07:48] Jenny Swisher: Um, and then we’ll actually add some really yummy herbs and seasonings to that as well. So then the next four nights, uh, the plan is to have one night of wild caught salmon. We know that salmon is one of the highest foods rich in omega 3s, which is anti inflammatory. We’ll serve that with broccoli, which is a cruciferous vegetable great for hormone balancing, especially in perimenopause, and sweet potatoes, which is a phytoestrogen.

[00:08:12] Jenny Swisher: So, really simple dinner, very minimal dishes, probably happening tomorrow night, is the wild caught salmon dish. Uh, after that, we’ll be looking at a sheet pan dinner where I’ll use no sugar added barbecue sauce on chicken with diced veggies. Just one sheet pan means easy cleanup, and I’m all about the ease.

[00:08:30] Jenny Swisher: And then finally, we will be looking at crock pot chicken tacos and a homemade pizza night using Banza Chickpea Gluten Free Dairy Free Crust. So again, I’m going to read you the grocery list, but I’m just telling you what the meal plan is. Uh, so that you understand where the foods are coming from. But I’m telling you, just so you know, pizza can be amazing with the right toppings without cheese.

[00:08:50] Jenny Swisher: You do not need the gluten and the dairy in order to have a really, really tasty pizza. So, we still eat the foods that most people know and love, but we just make healthy swaps for the ingredients that tend to be inflammatory. My entire family is gluten and dairy free. We don’t use dairy free cheeses, or gluten free breads, like we don’t try to replace those things, we simply just don’t need them.

[00:09:11] Jenny Swisher: We have found other ways to get flavor. So to accomplish this meal plan for the week, this is what my shopping list would look like. For proteins, I would be looking for a pound of grass finished ground beef for that spaghetti dish. Three pounds of grass finished beef roast. I get this from Ripley Cove Farms.

[00:09:28] Jenny Swisher: They are a regenerative, 100 percent grass finished beef farm in southeastern Indiana. Uh, two pounds of wild caught salmon, two pounds of antibiotic free chicken breasts, some turkey sausage, some bone broth, I like Kettle and Fire bone broth, and that’s it for proteins. Really simple. For healthy fats, I would make my own salad dressing utilizing cold pressed extra virgin olive oil.

[00:09:50] Jenny Swisher: Coconut oil would be needed throughout the week for cooking veggies, and of course I always have to buy nut butters like almond butter to spread on my Kodiak pancakes and to use for snacking. And then finally, my vegetables that I’d be purchasing would be spaghetti squash, carrots, celery, onion, broccoli, sweet potatoes, some no sugar added salsa for those tacos.

[00:10:11] Jenny Swisher: Shredded lettuce, pico de gallo, and then for our pizza toppings, we like mushrooms, peppers, artichokes, and tomatoes. And then some other brands that I want to mention to you that I like, uh, just to reduce inflammation is Banza Chickpea Crusts. So unless you have a chickpea sensitivity, Banza makes a fantastic pizza crust.

[00:10:29] Jenny Swisher: I believe Cauliflower also makes one as well that is, uh, gluten and dairy free. We used to use those, but my kids are liking the chewier crust of Banza. We also typically buy almost on a weekly basis the Siete brand taco shells. They are grain free, they don’t use any seed oils, they use avocado oil, and those are really tasty as well.

[00:10:48] Jenny Swisher: We buy herbs and seasonings. My favorite seasoning that I use on my salmon, I also use it in my salad dressing, is Bragg’s. Bragg’s makes like a 21 herb blend that’s really tasty on most meats and most foods. And then finally, like I said, the no sugar added barbecue sauce. Now this is tricky because there are, again, you’re gonna have to listen to the episode about reading ingredient labels, but when it comes to no sugar added you have to be really careful that they didn’t add artificial sugar.

[00:11:15] Jenny Swisher: So, um, the brands that I like are Primal Kitchen, And Noble Made, found at most whole food grocery stores. Tastes just like barbecue sauce, it is barbecue sauce, it just doesn’t have the extra sugar or artificial sweeteners, which is key. So that’s it, it’s super simple. That means I’m having two Crock Pot meals this week, which is gonna make it easy for me on those crazy nights with sports.

[00:11:36] Jenny Swisher: Uh, we’re gonna have a fun family pizza night that contains all the protein and fiber without the inflammation. We’re gonna have a sheet pan dinner that’s easy clean up. And that’s what it’s all about. So the really the only night that I’m putting in the work is spaghetti night There’s a lot of dishes with spaghetti night.

[00:11:50] Jenny Swisher: Otherwise, it doesn’t have to be complicated. So in this meal plan We’re focused again on high protein Adequate fiber intake a healthy fat at each meal and flavor eating healthy does not have to be boring My family rarely eats out and if we do it’s almost always sushi or a quality Mexican restaurant down the street Cooking healthy at home doesn’t have to be a super time consuming thing.

[00:12:13] Jenny Swisher: In fact, we’ve actually come to prefer it. Now, I’ll be honest with you, and I’ll share with you, that we also have fun treats that are in my shopping cart as well. Because life is meant to be lived, my friends. With Two Small Girls, we try to emphasize fueling for energy and healthy desserts when our body is fueled enough, and we want to enjoy it.

[00:12:32] Jenny Swisher: This week I have a box of Simple Mills brand vanilla cupcake mix to whip up for my girls. They are gluten free, dairy free, and almond flour based. They use coconut sugar instead of refined sugar, and they are so so yummy. I also have some allergen free chocolate chip cookies that I found that tastes just like Chips Ahoy, that my oldest loves for her lunchbox, just as a little treat.

[00:12:52] Jenny Swisher: We also have some dairy free chocolate avocado based ice cream called Cado, C A D O, that’s the brand, that we use as a dessert on pizza night. So again, eating healthy doesn’t have to be boring and you don’t have to go without your desserts, and I will say this again and again. We, as women, set the examples for our children in how we fuel enough and how we eat for energy, making it easier on ourselves in the kitchen.

[00:13:15] Jenny Swisher: So we don’t have to do tons and tons of work and clean up and leading the way in the simplicity of clean eating and cooking is a decision. It’s just a decision. I remember the first time that I started on this adventure, 13, 14 years ago. We started with a pantry clean out. We got rid of boxes of Oreos and taco kits and all the things and we started to cook fresh using fresh ingredients.

[00:13:37] Jenny Swisher: It took a lot of time in the beginning, especially the first few weeks, but as we got going it got easier and easier and our taste buds changed. We started to actually crave our own cooking over restaurant food. So there is hope. I’m telling you if this is new to you, especially as we enter the new year, stick with it.

[00:13:53] Jenny Swisher: Get the new cookbooks, get the things that you need to utilize healthy eating, and just start to learn. When it comes to your meal plan, start with just mapping it out, right? Map it out on a post it note, write down the ingredients that are needed for each meal, save yourself some time by using Instacart or something, and then simply incorporate the family grocery unload time to be something that everybody gets involved with.

[00:14:14] Jenny Swisher: Everybody gets to be a part of family meal times. If you choose to meal prep, go for it, or you can simply keep meals simple like I did, and keep the cleanup easy. So thank you so much for tuning in my friends. Everything I mentioned today, everything on this food list has good hormone health benefit. Bone broths, omega 3 rich salmon, cruciferous vegetables.

[00:14:33] Jenny Swisher: All these things are things that we want to be incorporating into our hormone healthy diet and plan. So if anything, jot this down, use it as your meal plan for the week. It’s my gift to you and until next time, we’ll talk soon. Bye bye.