A Peek Inside My Refrigerator: 8 Items I Always Have

I lu-huv Lauren Conrad's blog and always look forward to reading her new posts. Earlier this week she shared a glimpse into her refrigerator, and I thought to myself, "what a great idea!" She is always talking about nutrition, sharing recipes, and how to stay healthy. Of course, a lot of that starts with what you put in your body.

You can learn a lot about someone by looking into his or her fridge, I've found. I wonder what you'll learn about me...Probably that I'm a creature of habit.

I tend to purchase the same things over and over again. Therefore, I have several items in my fridge and freezer that you can always find. These go-to groceries help us 1) not starve, and 2) maintain a healthier diet.

1. Eggs

How do you pronounce this word? I pronounce it as "a-ggs". No idea why or how I picked that up when I was a kid, but that's what I call them. Of course, J loves to make fun of me for it. Oh well... Anyways, I always have these hard-shelled beauties in my fridge for a variety of reason. Most mornings my breakfast consists of eggs- either scrambled, fried or an omelet. Therefore, I go through them like mad. They are a great source of protein and low-calorie.

The second reason I keep eggs on hand is for baking and cooking purposes. They are staple ingredient for so many dishes, it's always important to keep some in the fridge.

2. Milk

Like eggs, I always keep milk on hand because it can be used in a variety of different recipes as an ingredient and even as a substitute for a few other ingredients. I LOVE mashed potatoes (really, love doesn't do my feelings towards mashed potatoes justice) and always have a bag of frozen potatoes in my freezer to heat up as a side dish. All that you need to make them with is butter and milk. Having a bag of frozen mashed potatoes in my freezer without milk to make them with would be a crime in my household.

J and I also love baking cookies and nothing washes them down better than a good ol' glass of milk. It's true!

3. Butter

You're probably picking up on the dairy pattern here. Like I mentioned with the milk, my mashed potatoes require butter so I always make sure and have some butter in my fridge. I rarely use butter in meals, but when they do call for it, I cut down the amount to save on calories and cholesterol.

4. Pesto

Being that J and I are both Italian we eat an outrageous amount of pasta. J's family, however, hails from the northern part of Italia, so pesto is a big part of his life. I've never attempted to make pesto before, although I heard it's rather easy. Instead, I just buy it. We really enjoy Buitoni's Reduced Fat Pesto with Basil. More often than not there is a coupon for it, too, like "buy 1 pesto, get 1 free, or "buy a pesto and get a package of Buitoni pasta for free". Win win!

5. Beer

While J is a liquor man, I am a wine gal. I personally don't like the taste of hard liquor, but we do both enjoy the taste of Heineken Light! Especially with how hot the Texas summers can get, J and I enjoy poppin' a cold one and sitting on the patio after he gets home from work just to unwind and talk about our day.

When I studied abroad in Oxford, England 6 years ago, my sis and friend took a trip to Amsterdam one weekend. We visited the Heineken beer factory, and ever since then, I've been a Heineken advocate. To this day, Heineken at their factory was the best beer I've ever had in my life!

6. Zucchini

Zucchini is one of our favorite veggies and I always try to incorporate it somehow in the meals I make. I buy several at a time since we use a lot. Here are few recipes I make that zucchini compliments well: Pasta Primavera & Slow Cooker Asian Pork Tenderloin.

7. Frozen Chicken

I ALWAYS have frozen chicken in our freezer. ALWAYS. We eat chicken on a consistent basis and I've found that buying it fresh is a lot more expensive purely because we would be buying it all the time. I buy a 5lb bag of frozen chicken breast and defrost two each time I need it. I want to point out that a few of my family members prefer to buy the fresh chicken, which is totally fine. However, frozen chicken still has the same nutritional value as fresh chicken.

8. Frozen Veggies

Like frozen chicken, we go through frozen veggies fast! We have veggies in every meal we make. I buy the massive bags of frozen broccoli, peas, and corn so that we always have vegetables for our dishes. Frozen veggies retain all nutritional value, as well, because they are flash frozen, so you aren't sacrificing any nutrients if you decide to buy frozen.