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How to Stock Your Kitchen
© H is for Home
My friend and I talk about health a lot. But I couldn’t believe what he said to me the other day.
“When you come over, we can go shopping and you can show me how it’s done.”
Brain freeze!
That came as a bit of a shock to me!
What could be easier? You go round and put fruits, veg, nuts, seeds and good protein sources in your trolley, then you pay :-)
But of course it’s easy to assume that everyone knows what you know. If you’re used to having cereals, sandwiches and pizza as your staple diet, the fruit and veg aisles can look a bit daunting…
OK, most folks can manage apples and oranges but there’s also a lot of unfamiliar stuff… what do you do with asparagus or celeriac, sharon fruit or kumquats? My favorite for confusing checkout staff has got to be the cherimoya or “custard apple” — guaranteed to get a minute of stunned silence followed by “what’s this?” :-)
So, here are my top tips for stocking, shopping and preparing healthy meals. And for making it as painless and efficient as possible. They’re aimed at folks trying to eat more naturally on the Habit Guide diet but they’ll work for any diet you choose.
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Go food shopping twice a week or more if you can
Fresh food quickly loses vitamins even sitting in the fridge, so you want to keep the minimum you can and shop as often as you can. For me, twice as week is a compromise I’m happy with, but if you walk past the store every day… even better.
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Keep a stock list
Everyone’s stock list is going to be different depending on how many mouths there are to feed and other personal circumstances. My stock list is very simple and is only for my son and me. This list is roughly what I have in the house after I’ve been shopping:
Fruits: 12 bananas, 6 apples, pears or oranges, 6 “other” fruit portions, the equivalent of say an apple… Blueberries, mango, grapes etc. Fruit generally needs to be bought in advance as a lot of it is intended to ripen at home. Pre-ripened fruit is usually more expensive. Don’t forget lemon or limes if you want to make classic salad dressings.
Salad vegetables: (stuff you can eat raw) 2 bags of mixed baby salad leaves — spinach, watercress, rocket (arugula) etc. 2 salad vegetables other than leafy greens — tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumber, salad onions (scallions) etc.
Vegetables for cooking: 2 or 3 (depends on pack sizes) vegetables for steaming or roasting — asparagus, carrots, sweetcorn etc. My preference is to steam most things except aubergines and parsnips… stuff like that which are great roasted with a drizzle of olive oil.
Starchy vegetables: New potatoes, sweet potatoes etc.
Fats: 2 fats — olives, nuts, seeds, avocado, linseeds for vegetarians.
Store cupboard items: — Rice, quinoa, millet, lentils, beans, extra virgin olive oil, healthy spread such as “bertolli,” cans of sardines and wild salmon. Various different sauces and chutneys for livening up meals. Celtic sea salt and black pepper mill (used rarely.)
Sources of protein: — depending on your ethical and personal choices — eggs, meats, fish, bean sprouts, lentil sprouts, tofu etc.
Dairy or dairy substitutes: 1 large pot of plain live (bio) yogurt, 2 litres soya milk (make sure it’s made with the whole nut) or rice milk, oat milk etc.
Fresh herbs: Great for adding fresh and interesting flavours to spice up lunchtime salads and evening family meals. Very nutritious too! — mint, dill, parsley, coriander, basil, thyme etc.
When it’s time to go shopping, a quick scan in the fridge and fruit bowl using my stock list and I know pretty much what I need. I know it looks like a lot, but most often the actual list of things I need to replace is quite short. The list changes slightly depending on what’s in season.
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Don’t be too specific
Your list should say “2 salad veg, 2 protein, 6 apples, 3 ‘other’ fruits” etc. You don’t need to be specific about the optional stuff ’til you get there. Then you can go by instinct in the actual choosing. What makes your mouth water when you’re looking at all the fruits for example?
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Go for best quality at the best price
Choosing quality comes with practice. After a while you can spot a top quality fruit or veg at a hundred paces. Many fruits (but not all) are ripe when the skins give slightly when pressed e.g. kiwi, mango, papaya (paw paw), cherimoya — apples are a notable exception. Oranges are best when the skin feels slightly loose. Watermelons are very tricky. It takes years of practice to test for ripeness by the tapping and listening method but I always leave them for about a week at room temperature and then they’re usually perfect :-)
Do a bit of research to find out what’s in season in your local area. Chances are it’s these that’ll be on special offer at your market. Every September I hold out ’til figs hit 25p each then it’s BUY BUY BUY! :-)
Get as much organic produce as you can for your budget.
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Make a meal of it
The Habit Guide diet is a framework, a crystal clear mental map of your daily healthy diet. Within that framework, you get to choose what veg, what fruit, what salads, what grains, what protein etc. For me it just depends on what I’ve got in and what I fancy.
It’s so easy to make meals by throwing together well chosen whole foods and they’re almost “gourmet.” I’ve rarely had restaurant food that tastes as fresh or as good as the Habit Guide diet and the best part is… you get to feel great! :-) Each combination is a new taste sensation, so you’ll never get bored.
Never again will you have to spend time thinking about how to stock your kitchen or what to eat. All the hard work’s been done for you… all you need to do is pick one of the regular, 1750, 1500 or 1250 calorie versions and you’re up and running instantly.
Bon appetit!
Mike Kinnaird
Habit Guide: How to be Happy & Healthy
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Hi Mike,
Thanks for a great site. I noticed that you advocate eliminating dairy and gluten but that you list yogurt in your ‘How to stock your kitchen’ article. Do you find that most people can tolerate fermented dairy products?
Thank you!
Hi Annette,
People vary in their ability to tolerate dairy so if in any doubt, or you have health conditions, best to focus on human food only. Yogurt is certainly going to be less problematic for lactose intolerant folk but still contains casein. Rather than being puritanical, the Habit Guide approach is to deliver a diet that can easily be fitted into normal life without feeling restirictive but provides for options depending on your committment, health status, ethics and so-on. If you’d prefer no dairy, then simply have the fruit without the yogurt as the snack option. It’s useful to know that dairy is not a natural human food and its effects can be hard to track down.
Hope this helps Annette… if in doubt, leave it out :-)
~ Mike