How I Grocery Shop (My Healthy, Easy and Repeatable List)

If you’ve ever stood in the grocery store at like 6pm, starving, overstimulated, and staring at everything wondering what you’re even supposed to eat this week, trust me – you’re not the only one.

That used to happen to me all the time. And honestly it made healthy eating feel way more complicated than it needs to be.

What completely changed things for me was realizing:
I don’t need a brand-new meal plan every week.

I just need a few meals I genuinely love where I can easily switch up the ingredients, toppings, or little additions to keep some variety – and then a grocery list that supports those so I don’t have to think about it all the time.

Once I started doing that, grocery shopping got so much easier – so simple, repeatable, saves money and it keeps you very consistent without feeling like you’re following some strict plan.

And just to be clear – I’m not saying everyone should eat the exact same meals every day. But having a “default grocery list” you can fall back on is honestly one of the most underrated healthy habits ever.

The way I think about grocery shopping now

The biggest thing that helped me was that I stopped grocery shopping for my “fantasy self.”

You know… the version of you that cooks five new Pinterest recipes every week, uses every herb before it dies and somehow has time for elaborate dinners.

In everyday life, I just want dinners to be:

• easy
• satisfying
• realistic after a long day

So now I don’t start with recipes anymore but instead, I start with meal templates.

Basically just meals I can eat on repeat, and then I buy ingredients that work for those meals.

My 3 routine meal templates

You can eat two meals a day, three meals, whatever works for you. The important part is just having a few go-to meals you can always fall back on.

These are mine:

1. A quick first meal

Something filling but easy.

For example:
• bread or rolls with eggs, avocado, and some protein
• Greek yogurt with fruit and toppings

This doesn’t need to be fancy. Just a breakfast that actually keeps you full.

2. A comfort-style dinner

This is the meal I genuinely look forward to eating pretty much every day.

For me, it’s usually some version of:

protein + carb + veggie

For example:
• rice or risotto
• chicken or fish
• a green vegetable

And then I just change the flavor depending on my mood. Sometimes I’ll also switch it up and use things like gnocchi, potatoes, or lentil pasta instead, just to get a completely different flavor and mix things up a bit. That’s super easy to vary.

3. Easy snacks

Things like:
• chocolate
• yogurt
• fruit
• something crunchy like crackers or chips

And yeah, I don’t restrict myself from eating anything – I’m really not into that mindset. I just enjoy those things in a way that works for me. For example, I love adding them as toppings on yogurt or just having them as a snack.

My simple repeat grocery list

This isn’t some perfect “clean eating list.”
It’s just the foods I actually eat regularly.

The goal is to buy ingredients that mix and match easily.

1. Protein (the most important category)

If I have protein at home, dinner is basically solved.

I usually buy:

• chicken
• salmon or another fish
• eggs

And I also like to add some plant-based options like:

• chickpeas
• beans
• lentils

2. Carbs

You really don’t need ten different options – just pick one or two you enjoy.

I usually rotate between:

• rice
• potatoes or sweet potatoes
• lentil pasta
• bread or rolls

One thing I can also really recommend here is that if you’re trying to include more fiber-rich options, just start keeping an eye out for those when you’re shopping. There are so many good and healthy options nowadays and a lot of them are actually really tasty too.

One of my personal favorites are lentil pasta, because they taste super mild, so they work with almost any sauce. At the same time they’re really high in protein and for me they’re one of those foods that make me feel full pretty quickly and keep me satisfied for a long time.

3. Vegetables

I don’t try to buy every vegetable in the store and I just take the ones I know I’ll actually eat.

My usual rotation:

• spinach (super easy to add anywhere)
• broccoli (works with almost everything)

Then I add one extra veggie for variety, like:

• bell peppers
• zucchini
• mushrooms
• tomatoes

4. Fruit

I keep this simple too.

Usually just one or two fruits like:

• bananas
• berries
• apples
• grapes

In summer, I’ll sometimes buy things like peaches or watermelon.

5. Flavor boosters (these make meals fun)

These are honestly what keep simple meals from feeling boring.

I always keep things like:

• olive oil
• salt & pepper
• garlic powder
• paprika
• curry seasoning
• Italian herbs

Plus a couple sauces:

• soy sauce
• pesto
• tomato sauce

And sometimes lemons because I love them and find that they make everything taste so much fresher.

6. Snacks

This one is pretty important.

Often times, if we pretend we don’t like snacks, we often end up feeling restricted and then overdoing it later.

So I keep things I actually enjoy:

• chocolate
• Greek yogurt
• fruit
• crackers or chips

7. Drinks

This is one of my easiest consistency hacks – because sometimes you just want something that feels like a treat.

So I keep:

• water obviously
• sparkling water
• zero-sugar sodas
• coffee basics

And the actual rule that keeps my grocery list so short…

I usually shop using a 2-2-2 rule:

Pick
• 2 proteins
• 2 carbs
• 2 vegetables

For example:

• chicken + salmon
• rice + potatoes
• spinach + broccoli

From that alone you can make so many different meals without planning ten recipes.

How I keep meals interesting without starting over

A lot of people worry they’ll get bored eating similar meals but the truth is you usually don’t need a completely different meal.

You just need to change one detail.

Example:
Chicken + rice + spinach

Day 1: Italian style with herbs and tomato sauce
Day 2: curry seasoning and spices
Day 3: creamy sauce with broccoli

Same base ingredients, but all of them have a totally different vibe.

If you want to try this yourself

I can only recommend you to start small and pick one meal you love, like an easy dinner.

Build your grocery list around that meal for one week.

Next week add one more repeatable meal, like a simple breakfast or first meal.

And just like that you’ve created a system.