Save on Groceries!

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Found an interesting article from Women's Health on how to save on grocery shopping. Did you know that you actually end up spending more than planned when you do quick trips to the supermarket?

Be a savvy shopper and plan out your groceries. The Green Grocer can also help you schedule your produce shopping for the week, just give us a call and we'll be glad to work with you.

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6 Tricks to Cut Your (Healthy) Grocery Bill
By DAVID ZINCZENKO WITH MATT GOULDING

Cut out the empty calories and maximize the quality of your supermarket score with these six rules of savvy shopping:

Avoid Quickies
A study published by the Marketing Science Institute found that shoppers who made
"quick trips" to the store purchased an average of 54 percent more merchandise than they
planned. Instead, be thoughtful in your planning—keep a magnet-based notepad on your
fridge and make notes throughout the week about what you need. (And avoiding extra
trips will cut down on your gasoline costs as well.)

Write the Perfect Shopping List
Before you head out, organize your list of needs by grocery-store section: produce, dairy,
meat, cleaning products, cosmetics, etc. (Rewrite the list if you need to.) Then bring a
pencil and, as you add each item to your cart, tick it off from your list. No loitering, no
wandering aimlessly through the store. Try to make each visit a minute or two shorter than
the last—you'll find that the more time you save, the more money and calories you save
too!

Check Yourself Out
Maybe those creepy mechanical voices weird you out, or maybe you just like waiting in
long lines to chat with retirees. But waiting in line for a checkout person is an invitation to
caloric chaos. A study by IHL Group found that when shoppers used the self-checkout line,
impulse purchases dropped by more than 16 percent for men—and more than 32 percent
for women. (That's good news for your body as well. Eighty percent of candy and 61
percent of salty snacks are bought on impulse.)


Make Wednesday Grocery Night
According to Progressive Grocer, only 11 percent of shoppers go to the store on
Wednesdays, and only 4 percent of customers shop on any day after 9 P.M. If your store's
open late, it might be the best way to avoid the crowds—and to avoid the impulse
spending that accompanies being stuck in the checkout line.

Watch Your Weight
Okay, so one brand of crackers costs $4 and the other $4.50. But before you assume
which is cheaper, take a closer look at the net weight. You'll often find the more expensive
box contains more actual food—and as such, the food is actually cheaper. Net weight is
also a great way of making sure you're not paying for a lot of packaging, only to get home
and discover most of what's inside the box is air.


Eat Before You Shop
A 2008 Study in the Journal of Consumer Research found that consumers are likely to
spend more if their appetite is revving full throttle before making a purchase. (And it's not
just food you'll spend more on. In the study, women who were given a whiff of a chocolatescented
candle were four times as likely to want to shop for a new sweater than those who
weren't. Damn you, Auntie Anne's!)

Market Price List for March 28th to April 1st

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This week's Market Price List is up!

Click on the above image to view fullscreen. To download, right-click on the image and click Save image as. Then save file on your computer.

The Green Grocer delivers every Monday, Wednesday & Friday. Orders will be received by sms, phone or email the day before delivery, until 5pm.

Top 10 Rules for Eating Right

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While going through articles online on healthy eating, we found an old but helpful read from Oprah's website. It's such a practical list, that you realize the road towards eating right isn't as daunting as we think. Definitely worth the re-post.

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Top 10 Rules for Eating Right
By David L. Katz, MD
From the August 2009 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine

One question I'm frequently asked is "What's the secret to a healthy diet?" The answer isn't all that mysterious. You just have to keep some basic guidelines in mind, beginning with:

1. Use smaller plates.
Whether you're already trim or trying to lose weight, one of the best things you can do for your waistline and your health is to downsize your dishware. Cornell University nutrition researcher Brian Wansink, PhD, has found that switching from a 12-inch to a ten-inch plate leads people to eat 22 percent fewer calories. If you downsized only your dinner plate, you'd be eliminating more than 5,000 calories a month from your diet. It really is that simple.

2. Make half of every meal fruits or vegetables.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends five to nine servings of produce a day, but if you follow my rule, you won't have to count. At breakfast, fill your bowl halfway with cereal, then top it off with berries or sliced banana. At lunch, eat a smaller—or half—sandwich, and add two pieces of fruit. At dinner, make sure your plate is at least 50 percent salad, broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower, or whatever veggie you choose. This ensures that you get enough nutrients and automatically reduces the amount of fat and calories you consume (provided you don't go crazy with fatty dressings and toppings).

3. Don't eat on the run.
The first problem with grabbing and gulping is that it usually means fast food. And even a smallish fast food lunch (small burger, medium fries, diet soda) delivers around 800 calories—more than the average woman would want to get at dinner. When we eat on the go, our brains tend to register the food as a snack—regardless of how many calories we consume—leading us to overeat at our next meal.

4. The shorter the ingredient list, the better.
Most of the healthiest foods have only one ingredient: Think broccoli, spinach, blueberries, etc. Longer lists generally mean more sugar, more salt, more artificial flavors. More unhealthy stuff.

5. Nutritious food doesn't have to be expensive.
Some colleagues and I recently completed a study in Independence, Missouri, comparing prices between a diverse list of healthy grocery items and a list of less nutritious ones. (This was part of a program we've developed—see NutritionDetectives.com—to help kids make healthier choices about what to eat.) With rare exception, we found that the smart choices cost no more. In fact, there was a potential small savings associated with the healthy selections. And that's without considering such economical options as occasionally substituting beans or lentils for meat, or making a sandwich at home rather than spending money at a restaurant.

6. Take an extra ten minutes a day to prepare healthy meals.
By devoting a few minutes to planning for more nutritious eating, you invest in your own health and that of your family. And when I say few, I mean it: Studies from UCLA suggest that a wholesome, home-cooked dinner takes only about ten minutes longer to prepare, on average, than serving processed or ready-made food. If you make enough for leftovers, you'll save time in the long run. And don't forget: Obesity, diabetes, and heart disease all lead to doctor and hospital visits—which take a lot of time.

7. Retrain your palate.
As any 5-year-old or picky eater can attest, familiarity is a powerful driver of dietary preference. But taste buds are malleable and can be taught to appreciate new and subtler flavors. When you swap processed, high-fat, sodium-packed, and oversweetened food for healthier fare, it can take one to two weeks before your taste buds acclimate. Don't expect to love new flavors right away (and certainly don't expect your kids to). Just keep serving the new dishes, and soon neither you nor your palate will recall what all the fuss was about.

8. Stop eating before you feel full.
Slow the pace of your meals. Pay attention to what you're eating. And call it quits when you're about 80 percent full. After a pause, you'll likely find that "mostly full" is full enough. Studies indicate that simply by eating at a leisurely pace, you could drop up to 20 pounds a year.

9. Sit down to dinner with the entire family.
Whether it's just you and your spouse or a family of 12, demand that everyone treat the dinner hour as holy. Kids who eat with their parents are less likely to consume junk, less likely to overeat, and less likely to be overweight. Parents who eat with their children report greater satisfaction with family life.

And families who eat together are far less likely to be plagued by eating disorders, drug use, smoking, and alcohol abuse, according to several studies conducted by the University of Minnesota and the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. That's a remarkable benefit to something as simple as sitting down together for a family meal.

10. You really are what you eat.
You want radiant skin? Consider that your skin depends on the flow of blood for nutrients and oxygen—which, in turn, requires healthy blood vessels and a steady supply of red blood cells generated by your bone marrow.

The best way to keep your body humming is to eat a well-rounded, nutritious diet. Want to-die-for, salon-style hair? Then you need healthy hair follicles to build hair in the first place—and that, in turn, depends on having a healthy heart to pump nutrients to those follicles, and healthy lungs to give them oxygen.

As for better mental acuity—well, you get the idea: Your brain depends on the vitality of your heart, lungs, liver, kidneys (you name the organ) to be in tip-top shape. The best way to bring out your best attributes is to foster your overall health through smart eating—a diet that favors produce, grains, legumes, and lean sources of protein, such as fish and soy.

Market Price List (March 21 to 25)

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This week's Market Price List is up!

Click on the above image to view fullscreen. To download, right-click on the image and click Save image as. Then save file on your computer.

The Green Grocer delivers every Monday, Wednesday & Friday. Orders will be received by sms, phone or email the day before delivery, until 5pm.

Text us!

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We now have a cellphone number! 

(+63 908) 293-4431

SMS away :)

Chinese Kangkong Stir Fry

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Seeing as how spinach prices have slightly risen, here's an alternative that is equally delicious and very easy to prepare. Cheaper too.

Chinese Kangkong

The chinese kangkong belongs to the spinach family and is actually also called the water spinach. It looks exactly like our native kangkong, except the stems are slightly shorter and they sport roots. 

Chinese Kangkong Stir Fry


All you need:
1/2 kg chinese kangkong (properly washed, stems cut, roots removed)
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil
salt

Saute garlic in olive oil in a hot wok.  When garlic has turned golden, add kangkong into the wok and add a bit of water (2-3 tbsp). Season with salt. When kangkong leaves have turned dark brown, remove from wok and serve hot.

The chinese kangkong contains only 30 calories per serving, so eat to your heart's content! Some add a few drops of sesame oil to the dish for seasoning, but use sparingly. There are 14 grams of fat in every 1-tbsp of sesame oil. In our opinion, do without it.

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Order your chinese kangkong at The Green Grocer for only P 48 /kg.
Opt for the native kind? Save P8 at P 40 /kg.

Call or email us for your order.


View the nutritional information of chinese kangkong (or water spinach).

Market Price List of the Week - March 14 to 18 - Updated

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Hi guys!

Please note, this is a revised market price list from yesterday's post as some of the produce, like calamansi and spinach, are through the roof in price :(

Apparently, spinach supply (into Manila) is limited. As for calamansi, the citrus has actually been increasing in price the last few weeks. This week sadly, points have jumped tremendously.

Click on the above image to view fullscreen. To download, right-click on the image and click Save image as. Then save file on your computer.

The Green Grocer delivers every Monday, Wednesday & Friday. Orders will be received by phone or email the day before delivery, until 5pm.

Spinach Cucumber Shake

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We've been receiving requests for the recipe of the veggie shake we made during our three-day detox*.  Due to insistent public demand, we present to you our personal concoction:

The Green Grocer Spinach & Cucumber Shake

All you need:
2 cucumbers, peeled & chopped into manageable pieces
1/8 kg spinach, leaves only
1 stalk lettuce green ice
8 pcs. calamansi (small citrus fruit)
3 tsp. splenda (or honey, or your preferred sugar alternative)
ice
Bust out your blender for this.   

Combine all veggies into the blender and gradually add water and ice, until you reach your preferred consistency. Squeeze in calamansi and sweetener to taste. Serve chilled.

Above concoction makes a full pitcher. During your "detox", drink a full 350 to 500ml glass as a meal replacement.

*Note: The term "detox", as loosely coined, refers to days of regret after having consumed a full 450 gram steak two Saturdays in a row.

Enjoy! We guarantee it tastes way better than it looks.

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Wanna make this at home? Buy the Spinach Cucumber Shake package from The Green Grocer!

You will get:

1/2 kg Cucumber at P 20
1/4 kg Spinach at P 20
1/4 kg Lettuce Green Ice at P 50
1/2 kg Calamansi at P 37.50

Total cost = P 127.50 only for two pitcher servings.

Call or email us for your order.

View the complete nutritional information of spinach.

View the complete nutritional information of cucumber.

Get yourself in shape with Bootcamp

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We all know a good diet needs to be coupled with exercise to complete a healthy lifestyle and achieve permanent weight loss. 

Well, here's a class we strongly recommend: Bootcamp, a 60-minute whole-body workout program that combines cardiovascular and strength training exercises. The sessions are properly paced and carefully planned out, focusing on different parts of the body per set. The class is no doubt challenging, but trust us when we say you will enjoy the fruit of your hard work. 

Bootcamp master Ned Hourani supervises the class to ensure that the workout is
performed properly, avoiding incorrect body positions and ultimately, injuries.

Bootcamp classes meet:

In Makati:
Manila Polo Club
Mondays & Thursdays at 6:30am
Wednesdays at 7:30am

In Alabang:
Alabang Country Club
Mondays & Thursdays at 6:30pm

For more information on Bootcamp, contact Ned Hourani.

Market Price List of the Week - March 7 2011

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This week's market price list is up! To download, click on the download icon below (beside the Share button) and email it back to us with your order.

The Green Grocer delivers every Monday, Wednesday & Friday. Orders will be received by phone or email the day before delivery, until 5pm.