how many months worth of groceries??

Most of my groceries come from the local market - fresh fruits, veggies, meat, dry goods. But not everything that my western-cooking heart desires is available at an open-air market! So, it's in to town that I go.... to one of the "western-ish" grocery stores. I try to limit my in-town trips, since it requires lots of time and money to get there, and also because I just like to simplify life :)

My last trip was two months ago, and I am now convinced I can go at least three months between trips - that's my goal for the spring semester! But with the holidays and lots of visitors right around the corner, I was due for a BIG shopping trip and decided today was the day.

The girls don't join me for these trips, but they do love to check out all the loot when I get home. Then, they help me stock the pantry with all our goods.

Lydia woke up first from her afternoon nap, and she made a beeline for the stuff, which I had left sitting inside the front door for the three of us to unload together. She sat down right beside the biggest bag, and started to pull out goodies. (Stores here do not provide plastic shopping bags, so shoppers bring their own bags, and bag their own stuff. I use this great big bag from Ikea along with some other sturdy shopping bags.)


Then she decided she wanted to get a better look at the goods.....

...and headed off to find another vantage point....


.... was momentarily distracted by the challenge of emptying my purse, which I had left lying beside the bags.....

.... and then headed back to the pile.


Julianna is my best "bag-unpacker". She faithfully empties each bag, exclaims over the purchase, and then brings it to the pantry for me to stock. We now possess 9 jars of peanut butter (6 crunchy - for eating, and 3 creamy - for baking). Other goodies? 4 cans of Duncan Hines cake icing, Digestives for making graham cracker pie crust, a large jar of mayo, bbq sauce, canned creamed corn, Ritz crackers, lots of sizes and shapes of pasta and even two cans of refried beans!

I was disappointed to leave without lasagna noodles (again! they have been impossible to find for almost the entire fall), boxed heat treated whipping cream (for making sour cream and whipped topping) and pepperoni. Oh well.

After the bags were emptied, the girls got in the biggest bag and pretended they were "sailing home in their boat". [Notice that Lydia is holding a half-eaten jar of peanut butter - she's a better at emptying the pantry than loading, so it's a race against time for Julianna and me as we try to get everything put away while Lydia takes advantage of the open pantry doors to search for interesting stuff!]