List your top 5 grocery store items.
Coconut Milk
My parents would always buy coconut milk for curry dishes.
My father being British would make Indian Currys while my mother was fond of Thai curry. Coconut-fried rice was also a staple of many meals.
The fats in coconut are beneficial for health, and the pulp is a good source of fiber for digestion.
Fresh Fruits
Apples and Oranges, Bananas and Berries, Seasonal Melons and exotic fare. Fresh fruit is always kept in ready supply.
A great alternative to sugary foods and full of vitamins, you cannot go wrong with fruit. As they say, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”
But make sure you brush your teeth. All that natural sugar will rot your teeth if left unchecked, and will summon doctors of dentistry.
Canned Salmon
Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, salmon was a staple of the region for many groups including First Nation people’s. The Chinook and Sockeye in particular played a big role in the culture and lives of the people.
I can remember school trips to Native-American museums in Washington, totem poles, and visits to the reservation in Yakima. My parents would often say, I was conceived on the Res.
Living now in North Carolina, the salmon here is predominantly Atlantic and especially pricey. Canned Alaskan salmon however is inexpensive by contrast. The cans are tall and hold a good amount of fish, enough for multiple meals.
Canned Salmon was the first food we fed our family cat, Mei Mei. She eats dry food now that she is older, but occasionally, we will give her a fishy treat from out the can.
Rice
Our grain of choice when it comes to cooking, sometimes mixed with bulgur or buckwheat. Rice pairs nicely with most dishes. Sometimes the Rice is the primary focal point of the meal as with fried-rice and rice-balls.
As mentioned earlier, Coconut-fried rice is a nice Thai dish. My mother enjoys cooking East Asian foods like Korean Bulgogi, Japanese Miso Soup, or Chinese Egg-Drop Soup. Rice often accompanies these dishes as a side and staple.
Frozen Veggies
Stir fry is probably the most common way we eat our vegetables, seconded only by tossed salads.
The pre-made stir fry mixes in the frozen foods section at the Food Lion grocery store seem to be shrinking, but we still buy them. I recall the bags were a couple pounds each back in the mid 2000s, but now they are often less than 16 ounces for the same price.
They have also begun to include sauce packets in the bag that take up space that previously help more veggies.
What we cannot get at the grocery store, we buy from local farm stands, or grow ourselves in our backyard garden. We sometimes also go to the Farmers Market.
Fat Wallet Refugee 