This LA Home Cook Puts Organic, Plant-Based Food at the Top of Her Grocery Budget — Here's What She Buys

Kristel de Groot co-founded the superfood supplement brand Your Super with her husband Michael, a cancer survivor. Both are athletes, previously playing tennis at the professional level. The pair live in the wooded, seaside Topanga area of Los Angeles.

When it comes to groceries, the couple's priorities are high-quality, plant-based, and organic food above cost savings.

"Honestly, I don't have a strict budget," she admits, estimating they spend about $300 to $400 weekly on groceries. "Food is probably one of our bigger expenses. Healthy, organic, high-quality food is more important to me than buying new clothes or having the newest iPhone — we are what we eat so I don't believe saving money on healthy food should be the goal."

Here's how they spend their grocery dollars on what matters to them.

Shopping Local and Artisanal

De Groot prefers to buy the majority of her groceries at local farmers' markets on Sundays. Then, she'll shop at Whole Foods to fill in additional items as needed throughout the week.

The most expensive things on her grocery list include sprouted nuts, fresh cold-pressed juices, and fresh coconut milk made from young coconut meat at the farmers' market.

"Some of these handmade products are expensive but taste so delicious, so that's where I tend to splurge," she says. "Sprouted soaked nuts are great as the bitterness is taken out and are super crunchy and they are easier to digest."

Organic and Plant-Based

De Groot explains that buying organic is essential in her household, as is buying exclusively plant-based foods. "These foods contain fewer pesticides, fewer additives and preservatives, and no GMO ingredients," she says.

She cites richer antioxidant levels, as well as lower concentrations of pesticides and the toxic heavy metal cadmium. "Organic food is better for the planet as [growers] don't use artificial fertilizers, which creates healthier soils to store more carbon," she says.

But organic and plant-based doesn't mean austere or flavorless. "I love to splurge on delicious, organic vegan chocolate," she says.

She also notes that strategic plant-based eating can actually result in a cost savings compared with buying meat, dairy, and cheese, which can all be expensive items.

"Try to cook your own food mostly from fresh plant-based, whole-food ingredients," she says. "Pay attention to what foods are in season as that helps save on grocery bills. For the most part, the more packaged plant-based foods tend to be more expensive — not to mention eating out or picking up food."

Budget-Friendly Staples

While De Groot has a generous budget that covers boutique and specialty items, her grocery dollars also go toward some affordable staples that go far in her household, such as potatoes and tahini.

"Potatoes are great in the oven when roasted with tahini, pepper, and salt on top, boiled, and cooled down — they really are so versatile," she explains. "I love them in salads and I love adding them to soups to make them creamy — like broccoli potato ginger soup — or adding boiled potatoes to a quick veggie stir-fry."

In defense of the affordable staple, she adds, "Let's not fear potatoes! I feel they got such a bad rep over the years, but I find them so grounding, filling, and they really make me feel good."

Another hardworking ingredient in De Groot's home is tahini. She uses it for dressings, mixed with apple cider vinegar, mustard, pepper, and salt, thinned with water. "It's so good!" she says. "I also love dates filled with tahini, or tahini drizzled over dinner, whether it's roasted veggies, pasta, adding to a stirfry to increase creaminess — it makes everything taste better."

Intuitive Eating

De Groot doesn't shop or cook according to a rigid meal plan. Rather, "I cook and eat what I feel like," according to an "intuitive eating" approach, she says. "I am more of a free-flow kind of person. Some days I eat more and others less; it's nothing to stress about."

For breakfast, she'll typically whip up a superfood smoothie. Her go-to green smoothie is a combination of banana, frozen mango, frozen spinach, super green powder, and water. She alternates this with a berry smoothie, made with frozen blueberries, banana, frozen cauliflower, almond butter, and water.

She also loves making a big batch of rice or potatoes, which she uses in several lunch salads or dinners throughout the week, "as it cuts down on time significantly," she says. For lunch, she might have a salad with fresh veggies, avocado, tahini dressing, and some regular or sweet potatoes.

"A go-to meal for dinner is using that rice that was previously prepared and adding zucchini, broccoli, kale, frozen green peas, onion, garlic powder all together in a stir fry with a drizzle of tahini," she says.

She also enjoys using leftover veggies in creative ways to make them new again — like blending them with hot water or some coconut milk and spices to make a soup for lunch the next day. "Basically using them to create a new meal," she says. "Be creative, try things out. That's what it is all about in the kitchen!"

Kristel de Groot sample grocery list:

Vegetables:
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Broccoli
Avocado
Mushrooms
Ginger root
Turmeric root
Yellow pepper
Kale
Romaine lettuce
Cauliflower
Onion/spring onion
Garlic
Zucchini
Cilantro
Sprouts
Butternut squash
Carrots
Potatoes
Pumpkin
Leek

Fruits:
Apples
Bananas
Berries
Lemons
Limes
Oranges
Berries
Passion fruit

Frozen:
Spinach
Green peas
Berries (mixed raspberries, blueberries, strawberries)
Mango
Edamame

Dry:
Your Super mixes
Corn tortillas
Quick oats
Raisins
Brown rice
Gluten-free pasta
Buckwheat/rice noodles

Toppings and condiments:
Dates
Cashews
Walnuts
Roasted pistachios
Pumpkin seeds
Almond butter
Tahini
Vinegar apple
Tamari sauce
Mustard
Coconut oil
Sriracha sauce

Canned and jarred:
Coconut milk
Chickpeas
Kidney beans
White Beans
Jackfruit
Black beans
Palm heart
Tomato paste
Capers
Olives

Spices:
Chili mix
Italian herbs
Curry powder
Garlic powder
Salt
Pepper
Nutritional yeast
Cinnamon

Other:
Oat milk
Firm tofu
Tempeh