14 Dec Inside the Fridge: Laura Bartee

Inside the Fridge welcomes RobinsBite intern Laura Bartee. Laura is a former corporate finance analyst who left the life of excel spreadsheets to become a Registered Dietitian. Laura is graduating with her bachelors degree in nutrition in May 2012 and is currently applying for her dietetic internship. She has been working with Robin since May 2011, gaining incredible experience and loving every crazy minute and project. In her personal time she’s a blogger, obsessed with her kitchen and lives with her boyfriend and two dogs.

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

Inside the Fridge: Do you love food shopping or dread it?
Laura Bartee: I love shopping in general, so food shopping is one of the best ways to spend my time. I could spend hours in the grocery store, looking at products and reading labels. However – when time is short, I sometimes dread the weekly shop.

ITF: What is the single most important thing on your mind when you are shopping for food?
LB: Lately, it’s been time – just trying to get in and out because I’m so busy. But, I also shop based on my list and weekly meal plan. If it’s not on the list or on sale and I know we’ll use it – I don’t buy it!

ITF: What is your weekly food budget?
LB: Somehow, no matter what I do, it’s always $100 a week roughly. It’s inevitable.

ITF: How many times a week do you eat out? (based on 21 meals/week)
LB: Usually 3, sometimes 4. I eat out once during the week for lunch – one night on the weekend (date night) and at least 1 weekend lunch, sometimes 2.

ITF: How do you plan your weekly meals? Create a spreadsheet of fly by the seat of your pants?
LB: I’m very much and a planner and I always consult our schedules first. This semester, there haven’t been many nights we’re both home at the same time – so I always plan around who is going to be home/what is going on. I do a lot of make-ahead meals lately for these reasons.

Then, I look at what ingredients we have at the house and come up with meals based on that. I plan around recipes I wanted to try, cravings we had and what we are out of at the house (replenish what I always have on hand).

ITF: What is the most coveted food in the fridge right now for each member of the household? Why?
LB: For me – it’s cheese. I am obsessed. For my boyfriend – salsa and for my dogs, baby carrots. They eat them every day!

ITF: Do you believe in leftovers?
LB: Leftovers, not so much. Make ahead meals – absolutely. I’m not keen on eating food past 2-3 days after I make it and leftovers just aren’t appealing to me. But I’ll make a batch of soup on the weekend for a few days during the week. Or I’ll make 4 servings of dinner instead of 2 and we’ll have it the next day for lunch. Somehow, telling myself I made it for later consumption makes it okay in my mind.

Are they the same thing? Probably!

ITF: What convenience product can you not live without?
LB: Baby carrots, stock in a box and Fantastic World Foods instant refried bean mix.

ITF: What cooking utensil/piece of equipment/appliance do you live for?
LB: I’m obsessed with everything in my kitchen. My knives and cutting board get the most use. My crock pot and dutch oven get a ton of use as well.

ITF: When you hear the word “homemade” what is the first thing that comes to mind?
LB: My absolute love to cook and provide nourishment for others. If you come over to my house, I will literally cook you anything you want. But don’t ask me to bake, it’s not my thing!

ITF: What food/s are important when recalling food memories?
LB: I have really fond memories of eating nutritional yeast as a kid. Sounds weird, but just smelling nutritional yeast today brings a huge rush of happiness over my body! It’s one of my favorites.

ITF: What was the last meal you cooked from scratch?
LB: A crock pot stew with chicken sausage, beans and brown rice. It was full of veggies too and really good!

ITF: What was the last meal you cooked from convenience products?
LB: A cheese quesadilla on a whole wheat tortilla, the instant refried beans and baby carrots.

ITF: If one person could cook for you tonight, who would it be?
LB: I’m still dying to try Robin’s cooking!!

ITF: What words of wisdom or advice do you have for other folks who are doing their best every day to fill the fridge?
LB: If you do large shopping trips like me, take time to clean out your fridge when you get home every.single.time.  I clean out all the old food and leftovers that won’t be e
aten before I load the fresh groceries in after my weekly shopping trip. Then I never have to worry about old food and I can take a mental inventory of what we need to eat that week before it goes bad.  It keeps your fridge clean too!

Thank you Laura!

And please contact Laura if you would like to be featured on Inside the Fridge. Her email is Laura *at* robinplotkin *dot* com