05 Apr Inside the Fridge: The No Sugar, Sweet Life

Inside the Fridge welcomes Kelly from No Sugar Sweet Life. Struggling with weight for her entire adult life, Kelly finally decided life is too short to live perpetually unhappy. She recently lost 40 pounds after celebrating her daughter’s first birthday (way to go!). Her weight loss blog is the next step in the journey towards a happy healthy life… the sweet life, no sugar added. Kelly is a busy full-time mom of a 19 month old toddler, also has a full-time job as an accountant. She’s also a wife and helper to an amazing man, and now a blogger! You’ll find easy meal ideas, healthy substitutions, encouragement, and, of course, Kelly’s adorable personality shining through.  She loves hearing about how others are choosing the sweet life too, and can be reached through her blog, email, facebook, or on twitter!

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? 
Kelly: I try to do most of my big weekly grocery shopping at Sprouts, as their produce and organic selections are wonderful! I do, however, stop at Walmart every so often (GASP!! I know. I’m such a heathen.) because it is the closest store to my house.

ITF: Do you love food shopping or dread it? 
K: I love what I get when I go there- new fresh goodies to incorporate into healthy meals-but the actual ACT of food shopping is not that great.  It is always an adventure with my 19 month old daughter, trying to keep her occupied/happy/sitting whilst gathering everything on my list.  I am one of those moms who lets her child eat items yet-to-be-purchased (Ella’s Kitchen pouches, string cheese, etc.) and hands the cashier an empty wrapper to scan.

ITF: How often do you shop?
K: I was never very good at meal planning, and what I recently discovered is that I just don’t like following recipes!! Why should a whole meal be ruined because of one missing ingredient? So I am trying to just shop once a week now, loading up on all the staples – fresh fruits & veggies, cheese, lean proteins, yogurt, etc… and creating meals based on what’s on hand. I really should live in France or another locale where there are fresh markets on every corner, and you’re MEANT to shop for just the needs of that particular day.  I would thrive there!

ITF: How many do you shop for? Ages?
K: I shop for me, my veggie-hating-hubby, and my 19 month old daughter. 

ITF: What is your weekly food budget? 
K: We typically spend about $100-150/week on food.

ITF: What is the most coveted food in the fridge right now for each member of the household? Why?
K: For me, it’s definitely the grape tomatoes. MMMMMMMM. I’m Italian, and I could probably eat 1,000 of them! For my hubby, it’s probably the 2 beers. Ha! (Too many veggies in that fridge for his liking). And for Babycakes- probably the cheese and yogurt. She loves all dairy (except actual milk!).

ITF: What convenience product can you not live without? 
K: I love packaged hummus!!! It’s great on wraps, to dip bell peppers into, as a side dish…so yummy and versatile! And Babycakes loves it too.

ITF: What cooking utensil/piece of equipment/appliance do you live for? 
K: My Breville juicer.  I use it multiple times a week to juice fresh veggies and fruit. 

My favorite is Mean Green: Kale, Parsley, Cucumber, Apples, Lemon, & Spinach. I also use my immersion blender a lot (stick blender) to puree various things (instead of a big bulky food processor).

ITF: What was the last meal you cooked from scratch? 
K: Honeydew Caprese Salad. Seriously, honeydew melon has finally found its calling in life! You should totally try this recipe… TONIGHT… it’s THAT good!

ITF: What was the last meal you cooked from convenience products? 
K: Italian polenta rounds.  I’ve been trying a lot of different recipes with premade polenta logs.

ITF: What words of wisdom or advice do you have for other folks who are doing their best every day to fill the fridge?
K: I was always afraid of buying many fresh fruits and veggies because what if I didn’t use them in time and they went bad? But if you buy a variety week to week and make an effort to use them in a couple of different recipes, you won’t waste them, and your health will thank you! For example, the week I bought a honeydew melon I made 3 different things using honeydew: Honeydew Caprese Salad, a Cucumber Melon juice, and Italian Shrimp Bruschetta Pasta.

ITF: What are you working on these days that you’d like to tell us about?
K: I am working on losing another 40 pounds by the end of 2012 and getting back to my wedding weight! So far I’ve lost 7, since I started the blog. And the best part is: I am getting to share my weight loss journey, recipes, tips, and encouragement with all of my blog readers. It’s been so rewarding so far!! Choose to live the sweet life… no sugar added!

Thank you Kelly!

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ura Bartee – Laura *at* robinplotkin *dot* com