23 Nov Inside the Fridge: Jenna Anderson

Inside the Fridge welcomes Jenna Anderson. Jenna is both a wife and stay at home mom to an adorable 18 month old. Recently, she has emphasized healthier eating in her household – focusing on buying locally and seasonally grown foods. She is a self-taught photographer and shares her life at her blog, That Wife.

Below we ask her questions about her grocery shopping and food habits – with actual pictures from her fridge!

Inside the Fridge: Where do you shop for food?
Jenna Anderson: Green City Market, the biggest farmer’s market in Chicago (which happily runs year round!), supplemented with 2-3 trips to Treasure Island grocery store per month. Most of the time that’s because the baby consumed all the milk faster than I thought. 🙂 I also visit Costco about 4 times a year.

ITF: Do you love food shopping or dread it?
JA: If it’s the farmer’s market, I absolutely adore it. Something about being in the fresh air and working with the people who produced the food directly really invigorates me. And I do like visiting Costco and eating the samples.

ITF: What is the single most important thing on your mind when you are shopping for food?
JA: Seasonal/local/organic. Those three compete for my attention whenever I’m making decisions about which food to purchase.

ITF: How often do you shop?
JA: Once a week at the farmer’s market, about once every other week at a regular grocery store like Treasure Island here in Chicago.

ITF: How many do you shop for? Ages? 
JA: Husband (30), me (26), baby (18 months).

ITF: How many times a week do you eat out? (based on 21 meals/week)
JA: 0. Unless we are traveling, we eat out as a couple 2-3 times per year at very nice places. Otherwise we always eat at home (sometimes the husband eats at school because he didn’t pack a lunch, but that comes out of his own area of the budget).

ITF: How do you plan your weekly meals? Create a spreadsheet of fly by the seat of your pants? 
JA: I try to cook in season. Menu planning hasn’t really worked for me, in part because it’s difficult to find recipes that rely entirely on seasonal/local ingredients. I’ve attached a picture of the white board I use to help me plan means. As I’m unloading groceries I write down all of the produce in a list down the side, on the right side I brainstorm possible meals, as well as listing any leftovers we have. I often add stars to the produce items that will spoil fastest. Throughout the week I look at the list and figure out what I want to knock out next. Most of our meals are quite simple, roasted vegetables and some kind of starch/grain.

ITF: What is the most coveted food in the fridge right now for each member of the household? Why?
JA: Husband, sardines. He grew up in Poland, and so is more accustomed to the taste. Wife, cheese. It’s kind of embarrassing how much cheese I consume each week.  Baby, milk.

ITF: Do you believe in leftovers?
JA: Yes! I cook everything in very large portions and rely on leftovers whenever possible. Sometimes leftovers can be painful, when I try to invent something and it doesn’t go so well. We spend so much on food though, that whenever this happens we force ourselves to finish it.

ITF: What cooking utensil/piece of equipment/appliance do you live for?
JA: My cheese graters. I have 4 (!), and at least one of them is always dirty. 🙂 Second favorite item is my oven, because I can make vegetable chips (kale chips, eggplant chips, summer squash chips, zucchini chips).

ITF: When you hear the word “homemade” what is the first thing that comes to mind?
JA: My desire to have a son who says "Nothing beats my mom’s home cooking".

ITF: How have your cooking/shopping habits changed over the last 10 years?
JA: Within the past two years we’ve completely overhauled our eating, and therefore my food shopping. I depend on the farmer’s market, we eat mostly-vegetarian, and I’m cooking almost everything from scratch (and loving it).

ITF: What are your go-to food/nutrition/culinary/cooking website/s, book or cookbook?
JA: Pinterest. Something about browsing visually is so appealing to me. I started a board for women to share recipes they used and loved, and that has become a fantastic resource.

ITF: What was the last meal you cooked from scratch?
JA: Butternut squash spaghetti. I roasted the butternut squash until tender, then combined tomato paste with whole roasted tomatoes from a can. Stirred some ground beef in to make a sauce, put the squash on the butternut squash "noodles" and topped that with some goat cheese. I’m not usually a spaghetti fan, but we all licked our plates clean after that meal.

ITF: What words of wisdom or advice do you have for other folks who are doing their best every day to fill the fridge?
JA: We put a TV in our kitchen, and now I watch shows like The Mentalist and Project Runway while I’m cooking. This helps me look forward to spending time preparing food for my family (and cleaning it up again).

ITF: What are you working on these days that you’d like to tell us about?
JA: As always, sharing snippets of my personal life and views at www.thatwifeblog.com

Thank you Jenna!

If you would like to be featured on Inside the Fridge, please email RobinsBite Intern Laura Bartee – Laura *at* robinplotkin *dot* com