Happy Sunday! Hope you all are having a great day of rest! As for me, I had some much needed errands to finish. Sundays for me are normally laid back and lazy, but the weather was beautiful up here in Pittsburgh and I took it upon myself to drive out to one of my favorite places to shop, Giant Eagle Market District in Robinson Township. Check out what I had for lunch there!
Now, let’s get down to business. First of all, if you haven’t been to Market District in Pittsburgh, you simply must go. Secondly, if you live in the city of Pittsburgh you should go to Market District RIGHT NOW! All kidding aside, this is my favorite place to shop for food in Pittsburgh. Market District features local organic produce, free range meats and a wide variety of wild caught seafood. Plus, I have found grass fed dairy products and raw cheeses there too! Not only that, but you also find a plethora of ethnic items, specialty foods, and truly bizarre food items like this bad body featured below.
I must warn yunz (note: “yunz” is a variation of the word “yinz”. Don’t even think I forgot about teaching you guys Pittsburghese!) about an issue I always run into when shopping at Market District. If you plan on going to this store, please allot yourself a good three hours to shop. I know that may sound ridiculous but if you are a die hard foodie like me, you WILL get distracted by the wide variety of food you will find. Every time I try to keep my shopping time down to an hour at Market District, I fail miserably. This place is a food lovers Heaven! Take an afternoon on a weekend and explore this store. You are going to need the time. Believe me! Check out the links below for information on Giant Eagle Market District. There are several branch stores in and around the Pittsburgh area. I normally go to the store located in Robinson because it is the biggest one I have seen yet in Pittsburgh. Seriously. This place is HUGE! You have to see it for yourself (and if you’re ever in Pittsburgh, track me down. I’d love to show it to you!)
http://marketdistrict.com/Locations/Overview.aspx
So let’s dive into what I found and how much every thing broke down in terms of finances. I want to let you all know that I did recently get paid and decided to stock up on a lot, and I mean A LOT, of food because of that. I normally buy food for about two weeks, but this time around I actually bought enough food to last me an entire month. Yep, you read right. One month!
Between the sales I found in the store today and because of my recent purchase from Beyond Organic, the amount of food I bought this week will last me roughly a month (I say roughly because I have the tendency to eat a lot). I took advantage of some awesome deals and stocked up on some primal goodies that will last me a fairly long time. In all honesty, the amount of food I purchased this week would last the average person probably over a month. My total spending for food came to a total of $292.52. Before you all have a serious anxiety attack over that, why don’t you indulge in some dark chocolate to boost your mood. Stick with me here! This will all make sense soon!
Feeling better? Great! Let me go over exactly what I bought with you now between Market District and Beyond Organic. I will start with my Market District purchases as this post is primarily geared towards this store (I will do a post on Beyond Organic at some point in the future. For now, we’re keeping it real and sticking to da Burgh!).
Market District (please be advised that all produce listed is organic): 2 bushels of kale, 1 red cabbage, 10 whole tomatoes, 8 Haas avocados, 2 pounds of celery, 2 pounds of spinach, 1 pound of sweet orange baby peppers, two 12 ounce cans of roasted red peppers (compliments of the fine Italian Dellalo family), one pound of strawberries, 12 ounces of blue berries, 12 ounces of raspberries, 2 pounds of Nature’s Basket organic hot salsa, Habanero hot sauce (if you haven’t noticed, I love spicy stuff) almond butter, 3 bars of chocolate, Spectrum Mayo (soy free), six cans of Wild Planet Salmon, 1.25 pounds of Wild Alaskan Salmon, 2 dozen eggs (cage free, soy free), 12 oz bacon (Manchester Farms), pastured half and half, 2 boxes of celestial black cherry tea, 2 cases of water, four cans of full fat coconut milk, and BAM! That ended the shopping spree! My shopping cart was seriously loaded after all that!
Total spending at Market District came to $195.52. Now let’s add all this with what I purchased from Beyond Organic.
Beyond Organic Order: Six 16 ounce bottles of plain Amasi (green fed dairy product), 2 pounds of cheddar cheese (green fed dairy product), three 12 ounce packages of grass fed beef hot dogs. Total on this order came to $97.00 (note: this total included shipping charges).
This all brings us back to my total spending on food this week which is $292.52. Considering this food will last the average person about a month, if you divide the total by 4 for the 4 weeks per month, you will end up with a total spending of $73.13 per week. All that food for that much per week? BARGAIN! not to mention the high quality food you are consuming! Now, if I did not purchase any beyond organic items and stuck solely with my Market district order, the amount of food would probably last me about 3 weeks. Divide $195.52 by three and you end up with $64.17 spent per week on food. BARGAIN AGAIN! Want more? If you sign up as a Giant Eagle member (which, might I add, is FREE) and use your Giant Eagle card, you now have the added bonus of earning fuel perks for your purchases. The more you spend, the more points you earn that are redeemable for money off gas. I currently have earned $1.50 off a gallon of gas. CAN I GET A “WOOT WOOT” !?!?
Think living a primal lifestyle is expensive? THINK AGAIN! Afraid that the paleo diet will run you into serious debt? FEAR NOT! Having a hard time coming up with excuses for not eating as clean as I do? WELL THAT’S BECAUSE YOU DON’T HAVE ANY EXCUSES LEFT! And that’s real talk, ya heard? 😉
I hope this post was helpful and I hope this gives you all an idea of what I eat and how I shop. Again, I don’t normally buy a months worth of food in advance, but given my recent pay check, the sales I found, and my added online food order, everything should even out to last me a month long (I’ll keep you all posted on how long this food lasts me to be fair). Keep in mind, a lot of this food will be prepared ahead of time and will more than likely be frozen for quick, reheat dinners in the future. Also, any produce I don’t get to is normally frozen to keep safe and store long term for later use.
Until next time, eat smart, train hard, and enjoy life! Now if you’ll excuse me, I am still a little hyped from the amount of coffee I consumed this morning. Time to practice some kettlebell swings to burn off this energy!
