The Plan – A New Twist on Grocery Shopping

My husband and I have always loved cooking, and The Plan recipes looked like they could be fun.  The day before we started the three-day cleanse, we went shopping.  Serious shopping.  Our list included items we had never consumed in our lives, many of which we did not expect to find in our regular grocery store.

Our regular staples – bread, milk, eggs, beer, bananas – not on the list.  We test bread on day 8, eggs on day 10.  Not sure when we’ll finally test bananas and beer. 

Dairy is out until it’s tested (day 14) so we bought Vanilla-flavored coconut milk for our flax-seed granola breakfasts.  We didn’t find flax-seed granola in either my regular grocery store or in the Whole Foods Market, so we made our own using whole flax seeds (found on the baking aisle but not in the health foods section) and the recipe in The Plan.

We also needed a can of coconut milk for the Spicy Coco Sauce, a recipe that apparently is quite popular with The Plan followers.  The author is quoted to say “I’ve had clients say it’s so good that they would eat kitty litter if it had Spicy Coco Sauce on it.”  I looked in the baking aisle next to the other varieties of canned milk.  Not there.  I found with the oriental foods.

Years ago, an Asian restaurant in the area had a billboard stating “Shiitake happens,” so I knew this variety of mushroom existed.  I bought them for the first time.  Apparently they are less reactive than the regular variety.  Who knew? 

I knew that kale was leafy and green, but had never actually looked at it, much less purchased it.  Bought two bunches of lacinato kale (also known as Tuscan kale) at my regular grocery store.  Should have bought the kale at Whole Foods – they apparently sell a lot more kale because they had more than one variety and it seemed to be fresher.  Lesson learned.   I did buy rye crackers (rye is less reactive than wheat), raw sunflower seeds, raw almonds, and raw pumpkin seeds at Whole Foods.  The seeds (including the flax seeds) are the major protein source for the first two days.

Who would have thought that I would buy three heads of broccoli for a week’s worth of meals and then go back to buy two more?  Same with zucchini – I bought four and needed three more.

My refrigerator looks like the produce section in a small grocery store.