#1: Shredded Rotisserie Chicken
Rotisserie chicken feels like old news but it's my favorite thing to buy at the grocery store. At GIANT you can get a whole, decent-sized chicken for $4.99. Every Sunday we buy one and I take all the meat off and store it in an airtight container. It's mostly me who eats it (in this bowl that Dani mentioned or another rice bowl), but I also give it to Bodhi for lunch almost daily. For dinner I'll use it in quesadillas, tacos or paninis, or occasionally we'll just eat it plain with Stovetop Stuffing and it's like the easiest, cheapest and fastest meal imaginable.
#2: Kerrygold Salted + Unsalted Butter
It used to annoy me when I heard people on the Food Network say things like "use good butter." Until buying imported butter made from milk from grass-fed cows became a part of my job. And then I was totally and completely converted. This butter will definitely cost you a bit more than you're used to paying, but there is nothing like it; even my husband comments on it. Bodhi and I both love toast with butter, so we use it for that, but Robert also uses it for his breakfast sandwiches on the weekend, I'll stir a little into finished pasta or rice dishes and I use the unsalted exclusively for baking cakes and making frosting. It just makes everything better.
Hello, I love boxes of any kind.
#3: GIANT Brand Frozen Shrimp (Peeled, Deveined, Tail-Off)
I love having frozen shrimp on-hand because if you forgot to thaw something for dinner -- who cares! You can put it under hot, running tap water for two minutes and you're good to go. There are a lot of different variations of frozen shrimp, but I'll pay a little extra for peeled, deveined, tail-off because I don't have to mess with it too much. I will cop to the fact that this is farm-raised shrimp so if that's an issue for you,* you'll have to search for a different brand. Our favorite shrimp dish is this Garlic Butter Shrimp with Rice which is shrimp cooked in butter; Kerrygold if you're smart. :]
#4: Nature's Promise 90-Second Basmati Rice
Cooking rice brings me absolutely no joy; in fact, I really suck at it. So I pretty much exclusively buy "minute" rice and my favorite brand and type is Nature's Promise* Basmati. Anytime that a dish calls for cooked rice, I use this. I always have a few bags of this (or a different variety; brown or Spanish are popular ones) in my pantry and we'll often just eat it as a side to a protein or tacos.
#5: Delallo Basil Pesto
Like the Kerrygold Butter, this is going to set you back a little; the retail of the roughly six ounce jar is in the seven dollar range at my store. That said, a little of this goes a long way and it's really worth it. The Delallo recipe includes cashews whereas most prepared pesto only includes pine nuts, and I think that's what makes it a little mellower and sweeter than some of the other ones out there on the market. Anyway, I always have this in my frig and we use it on baked salmon, alone as a pasta sauce (or stirred into any inexpensive red sauce -- it totally ups the flavor), on bread and in side-dish tomato salads.
#6: Chobani Plain Greek Yogurt
I use plain Greek yogurt in the place of sour cream and sometimes mayonnaise. For example, I never use sour cream on tacos or chili and if I'm making chicken or egg salad, I'll swap most of the mayo for plain Greek. It's healthier, has way more protein, and I actually like the flavor a lot better at this point. There are a ton of varieties but I like this one by Chobani because it's in a convenient squeeze pack; if I use a regular cup I inevitably end up wasting some of it.
#7: Organicville Instant Miso
I never knew that miso even existed until I bought the Simple Suppers cookbook. I started using it for miso salmon and miso soup and then I used it in a dressing for this rice bowl and suddenly I have to have it at all times. I like this version better than the actual paste because it's already a little watered down and thus requires less prep time. This can occasionally be difficult to locate in a conventional grocery store but it's usually in an organic or international section.
#8: Cheese of any Variety
I keep a few varieties of cheese on-hand at all times. Typically this includes some shredded dairy cheese and a few varieties of specialty cheese, usually crumbled feta and a wedge of Parm or Romano. I limit myself in the amount of cheese that I consume to about an ounce per day (if that) but having these in the refrigerator can instantly enhance salads, any Mexican cuisine, and pasta dishes. I don't usually splurge on cheese but this week I noticed our store had put out their holiday cheeses and this blue cheese is very near and dear to me so I went for it.
*It is increasingly freaking me out but so far I'm still eating it.
*Nature's Promise is a store band product so you'll only find this at GIANT/MARTINS (in this area).
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