The Modern Way to Stock Your Pantry

About author / Pamela Chester

Mom of two; graduate French Culinary Institute; kids cooking program instructor; Master's degree in food studies. Creates kid friendly foods and loves her slow cooker.

One of those chores that seem to take up a lot of time each week is shopping for food for my family. But this morning while on my big weekly grocery shopping trip, I got to thinking, there has got to be a better way to do this. You see I had my faithful sidekick with me, my high-energy toddler son. And this recently turned two year old was definitely acting his age! Now that he has figured out how to unbuckle the safety buckle on the cart, he likes to “help” by standing up and throwing things back into the cart. So I find myself trying to explain how we really don’t need three bunches of bananas or extra helpings of his favorite mozzarella cheese. Since he is in the stage of wanting to do everything himself, I give him my shopping list to hold, but then I find myself forgetting things and racing back to get them before checking out.

In my quest to make getting family meals on the table easier, I recently found out about a great idea for grocery shopping for time-pressed, harried parents: order groceries online and either pick them up at the store or have them delivered. Now that many city dwellers can do food shopping on the web, meal planning has become that much easier. You can spend a little time on the weekend planning the week's meals, creating your shopping list, and placing the order online, and then have everything you need to get through the week delivered. The delivery service usually comes at a fee, but it can definitely be worth the expense when you add up all the time you might spend getting to the store and walking each aisle, whether your kids are in tow, or not. You may even save a few bucks by not coming home with items you didn’t intend to purchase!

Of course there are always things you may run out of unexpectedly or that you’ll want to buy fresh, like seafood or a good loaf of bread, so you may not eliminate the occasional extra trip to the store. But now those trips can be limited to just a few items, which means getting in and out more quickly.

My favorite store also offers a free service where you can create your shopping list online and then sort it into a printable list by both aisle and section. It’s also great for those of us (like me!) who are shopping impaired and often find they have to run back for a forgotten item before completing the shopping trip. You can save a list with your weekly items and then just add other items you need each week. That way, if you consistently buy a lot of the same items, you can save time coming up with a new list each time.

I plan to spend some time over the weekend putting a master shopping list together, and take advantage of a promotion I received in the mail for free delivery of an introductory online order at my local grocery store next week. I’ll let you know how it turns out, but I am looking forward to adding a few more hours back to each week!