04 Oct Inside the Fridge: The Lean Green Bean

Inside the Fridge welcomes Lindsay from The Lean Green Bean! Lindsay is a Dietetic Technician, Registered and is currently in her last year of school, working toward becoming a Registered Dietitian.  She lives in Ohio with her husband and their two cats 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?
Lean Green Bean: I LOVE IT! I could spend hours in the grocery store. In fact, sometimes when I need to kill time before work, I just go into the grocery store and wander around.

ITF: What is the single most important thing on your mind when you are shopping for food?
LGB: Nutritional Value

ITF: How often do you shop?
LGB: It varies, but typically we go grocery shopping every 2-3 weeks.

ITF: How many times a week do you eat out? (based on 21 meals/week)
LGB: Maybe 2…Friday and/or Saturday night.

ITF: How do you plan your weekly meals? Create a spreadsheet of fly by the seat of your pants?
LGB: I used to be really good about making a menu for each week but I’ve been slacking lately. We’ve been making up a lot of random eats lately, but now that school is back in session I’m trying to turn my super long "things to try" list into some menus 🙂

ITF: What is the most coveted food in the fridge right now for each member of the household? Why?
LGB: For me, homemade hummus or milk for my cereal because I eat them for both for one-two meals per day. For my hubby, probably the beer for reasons that probably don’t need to be explained!

ITF: What is the oldest item in the fridge right now?
LGB: Probably the Parmesan cheese. It just seems to last forever.

ITF: Do you believe in leftovers?
LGB: Absolutely! We eat leftovers for lunch pretty much every day during the week.

ITF: What convenience product can you not live without?
LGB: Uncle Ben’s 90 sec Brown Rice and Trader Joe’s frozen naan

ITF: What brands do you swear by? Why?
LGB: Kashi because I love their company, Meijer Organics for their chickpeas because they’re low in sodium, Barilla Plus for pasta, Kraft cheese, Pepperidge Farm Whole Wheat Bread because it’s high in fiber and low in sodium.

ITF: What food/s are important when recalling food memories?
LGB: Pretty much anything I made as a child by myself, like Tuna Wiggle Casserole or cookies, or anything my mom made like Clam Spaghetti, Stuffed Shells…

ITF: How have your cooking/shopping habits changed over the last 10 years?
LGB: 10 years ago I was in high school, I ate chicken fingers for lunch, cookies and ice cream for dessert and played a million sports so didn’t think it really mattered. 6 years ago I was in college the first time, without the dining hall…I had to buy my own groceries and really started to learn how much things cost. 4 years ago my now husband and I moved into our first post-college apartment. I made meal plans, really started focusing on healthy eating and lost some of the weight I gained in college. 2 years ago I went back to school to study dietetics and continued to focus on eating foods that were lower in sodium and sugar and adding more fruits and vegetables to our diet. Last year I started a food blog to help share healthy recipes with others. 2 months ago my husband and I did a one month vegetarian challenge just to see if we could do it….and we’re two months into it now 🙂

ITF: What are your go-to food/nutrition/culinary/cooking website/s, book or cookbook?
LGB: I love the Cooking Light cookbooks and have also started adding vegetarian cookbooks to my collection. I love ripping recipes out of magazines like Cooking Light, Food & Wine, Cook’s Illustrated, Rachel Ray Magazine….I keep them organized in a 3 ring binder…but really, over the past year most of my inspiration has come from other food and healthy living blogs!

ITF: What words of wisdom or advice do you have for other folks who are doing their best every day to fill the fridge?
LGB: If you don’t have enough money to buy all organic, focus on the stuff that really matters, like the dirty dozen. Don’t feel bad about spending more money to put good food into your body. Eating healthy can be expensive, but it’s also worth it!

ITF: What are you working on these days that you’d like to tell us about?
LGB: I started a fun little thing in the blog world called Foodie Penpals. Each month you get matched up with another blogger or reader and you send them some of your favorite foods/local foods/foodie things. There’s a $15 limit, plus shipping. The package also must include something written- a card, letter, explanation of what’s in the box, a recipe… On the last day of the month everyone posts about what they received! It’s really fun to get stuff from
other parts of the country and see what other people got in their boxes.

Thank you Lindsay!

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