boston suburbia: groceries & meal prepping

“Don’t wait for tomorrow, today is the day.” – I saw this notebook a couple of weeks ago at TJMaxx and immediately knew it had to be mine.  Starting at age 12 and continuing until present day, I’ve been all about keeping a paper journal. At my parents’ house in NY, in my old bedroom are dozens upon dozens of cute journals – some were classy & sophisticated with leather trimming from Barnes & Noble; others may or may not have had NSYNC plastered all over the front. I used to write every day, without failure. But one of my biggest problems was what I’d call “journal A.D.D.” — I would get bored with a notebook quickly and always want a new one.

I suppose that now, although I’m less of a ritualistic paper-journal writer, I still write every day in this blog. Although it’s still therapeutic to vent in a paper journal, it’s somewhat more productive to compose one’s thoughts into something appropriate for the public eye. It feels more accomplished. That said, I’m still always on the lookout for a cute notebook.

So far, the only thing inside this awesome notebook is a menu plan for the week:

Menu planning & meal prepping sounds more difficult than it actually is. It’s one of those things that you may think would take so much time, but once you sit down to do it, you’ll wonder why you’ve never done it before! It’s actually a huge stress relief to not have to worry about what to make for dinner, or if there’s enough ingredients in the fridge/pantry. Planning ahead = always a good idea.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t as organized when it came to making my lunch for today.

(Isn’t my lunch bag cute?) For the past few days, I’d been pretty good about packing it the night before, and I even prepped a handful of sandwiches on Sunday night so they are all ready to go. Today, however, I have a different schedule at work and have to eat lunch between 10 and 10:45 (ugh). Considering that, my lunch today is more like a breakfast:

From left to right: a small container of unsalted organic peanut butter, nonfat pineapple greek yogurt, a banana, wheat cereal, a clementine, and carrots. Maybe not the best lunch in the world, but it will do.

Grocery shopping in Boston suburbia presents lots of different options. Where we live, we’re lucky enough to have lots of different grocery stores within a few miles. Depending upon what we need, we’ll frequent different shops. Of course, if I had it my way, I’d do all my shopping at Whole Foods.

When I lived in NYC after college, I would spend my bartending tip money at the Whole Foods on Houston, and I would be so envious of the women who had their entire carts filled with items. How in the world do they afford that?? In Manhattan, nonetheless?? Le sigh. One day….

I once got yelled at by a Whole Foods employee for sampling the roasted sweet potato at the salad bar. It’s important to note that I was standing directly in front of the “no sampling” sign. Whatever. #YOLO.

Second to Whole Foods, in my opinion, is this mecca:

If you’re lucky enough to have a Wegmans near you, you KNOW what I am talking about. I’m talking about this:

I first heard of Wegmans from my boyfriend’s family; he’s from Pennsylvania, so when I visited for our first holiday season together, he took me to their local Wegmans. Overwhelming doesn’t even begin to describe it! One thing is for sure: don’t go in here without knowing what you want! You may never leave.

Last year,  a Wegmans opened up in Northborough, which is a town about an hour west of Boston. We’ve visited it a couple of times, mostly on our way home from NY or the Poconos. Word on the street is that there are more locations coming: one to Burlington, MA and then another in Newton, MA. Joy!

As any Boston suburbanite knows, there are two “staple” locations for groceries:

Shaws/Star Market and:

Market Basket, or “Mahhket Bahskeht” if you want to say it correctly with the proper Boston dialect. I have a love/hate relationship with the good ole’ MB. At our old apartment, we lived in the midst of a MB Bermuda triangle- there were literally three different locations equidistant from our place. It almost seemed wrong NOT to go there! The prices at MB are ridiculously low, which is the draw. But I dare you to go in on a Sunday afternoon. It’s probably worse than one of the circles of hell. Truly.

Lastly, I can’t leave out this gem:

Trader Joes! I adore TJs and it will always have a fond place in my heart. When in NY, I used to frequent the one near Union Square all the time with my girl Roberta. We’d meet there after work to buy frozen thai food and cheap wine/beer. When I moved to Boston, my first apartment was in Allston, and my roommate and I would walk to the TJs down in Coolidge Corner. It was about a 10-15 minute walk, and we’d often go there with the mission of buying one or two items. By the time we left, we’d usually have one or two BAGS full of items, sometimes so heavy we’d have to take a bus back to our apartment instead of walking. I mean, who could pass up $2.99 Joe-Joes? (I don’t even know if that’s a thing.)

Sigh. Now I’m hungry.

I’ll leave you with this, unrelated to anything, because it’s Wednesday and why isn’t it Friday yet? -

Reader Question(s): Where is your favorite place to grocery shop? What is your standard go-to lunch to bring to work?