Trim Healthy Mama Food Shortcuts

If you are wanting to do the THM plan and it be pretty simple without having to make everything from scratch, here are some finds from Walmart that you can buy to help you stay on plan!! I am a mama on a one-income, pastoral budget so all these items are pretty affordable! These are all the ones I use personally. Also, this is not a paid promotional post, just my personal opinion! Costco vs. Sams: Have you thought about getting a Costco or Sams membership? Recently we just did because we thought it would be great to save money by buying in bulk once a month by taking a trip to Costco. I did my research, and Costco has so many on-plan (keto, organic, etc) healthy food options as opposed to Sams. And the yearly membership fee pays for itself within the one shopping trip. I bought a whole bunch of items then priced each item I could buy normally at Walmart per ounce, and found I was saving $5 each item by buying it in bulk at Costco. I highly recommend!

Also, be aware as you are looking at items in the store to ALWAYS check the ingredients and serving sizes, which will help determine if what you are getting is on plan. Items (as you will read further in this blog post) can be super tricky and make you think something is on plan until you take the time to look at the actual ingredients and serving size it pertains to. Even something as simple as gummy Vitamins can be chock full of sugar when that may be something you would never think to look at the ingredients for. One daily serving of your vitamin could be giving you up to 8 grams of sugar!!!! Time to switch if that is the case! The THM Food Analyzer App will also be your best friend in figuring out what individual ingredients are on plan and how.

***Word of encouragement for you: Do not get overwhelmed when thinking of all the changes to your health you are having to make!! This is a steady and slow process! It took me 4 years to officially make all the changes I needed to for our health. Concentrate on swapping out one thing at a time as you run out of the food items in your home with an on-plan, healthy food item! Simple swaps is what will get you to eventually where your whole lifestyle is centered around the health you desire! YOU CAN DO THIS!

To learn more about the plan and the resources they have to offer, visit my personal Trim Healthy Mama weight loss testimony here and my Trim Healthy Mama Resource page here! Also check out my favorite easy THM meals to make! 

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BREAD:

This Pepperidge Farm whole, sprouted grain bread is my favorite, affordable sprouted grain bread our Walmart carries. Ezekiel bread is organic and more healthy (which is located in the Healthy Food freezer section), but for the price, this Pepperidge Farm bread is my favorite option. Good with any E meals or sandwiches. I normally eat one slice at a time while cutting or folding it into a sandwich.

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Joseph’s Pita bread or Lavash Bread (my personal favorite of the 2) for Fuel Pull (FP) sandwiches, wraps, pizza crusts or crackers. I personally tear the lavash bread in half when I am making sandwiches or wraps. You can also use Mission Low Carb Tortillas.

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Lentil Pasta 🍝:

Making homemade Mac & Cheese for tonight (just 3 ingredients: lentil pasta, cheddar cheese, and a jar of alfredo sauce makes this a Crossover)! I mention this recipe in my favorite THM easy meals! Since the pasta is made out of 100% lentil flour, it is high in protein and gentle on your blood sugar! The family loves it! 😋

There are other styles of lentil pasta in the pasta aisle at Walmart! Spaghetti, spiral, and penne!

I’m going to try the spaghetti lentil pasta as a “Ramen” by adding it to this Ramen broth I also found at Walmart in the Asian food aisle.

Our family never feels like we are missing out on real pasta! Just boil your pasta till it’s very tender, or make is as usual then have it sit for an hour covered, or pre-soak your noodles before boiling and your family will grow to love it too!💕

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Veggies:

These zucchini spirals and cauliflower riced veggies from Green Giant in the frozen food aisle (where you find frozen veggies at) are perfect for any meal that you want to make for S, E, and FP meals!

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At your frozen section at Walmart, you can find two different brands of pepper and onion blends that are already chopped up for you! This makes it extremely easy to throw these into your yummy, cheesy egg omelettes for breakfast, meatloaf, casseroles, burritos or fajitas, or into soups or anything else you can think of.  Serene and Pearl mention this in a lot of their recipes as well. One of the brands calls it Seasoning Blend.  I am so grateful for these bags because it adds so much flavor and veggies to your food and you did not have to do any prep work.

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CONDIMENTS & SIDES:

 

The Laughing Cow cheese is perfect for spreading on E and FP style sandwiches or wraps, mixing into an E and FP style salad or casserole, or any other E and FP meal you make!

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Smuckers all natural peanut butter or even the organic all natural peanut butter is the best way to go for S meals! For jelly, use the Polaner All Fruit spreadable fruit jelly or Smucker’s Simply Fruit which is sweetened only with fruit juice and natural fruit pectin for E meals or any Simply Fruit jelly brand. Combined together with sprouted bread makes a Crossover meal (maintenance meal).

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G Hughes smokehouse sugar free barbecue sauce, Skinny Girl dressings & Walden Farms calorie free dressings use a little bit of artificial sweeteners in both of these but it is one of the last few ingredients, so there is not much. They both work for any style meal. Almost any other dressing that does not have added sugar to it like ranch is good for S style meals. I check the back of the bottles to look for a dressing that has hardly any preservatives. Primal Kitchen dressings, ketchup & mayos are great completely on plan dressings and condiments.

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Great value sugar-free syrup also uses artificial sweeteners but even Pearl from THM uses it! Can use for any style meal.

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MEALS:

Light Progresso soups (that are broth-based and not cream-based) are perfect for any E or FP meal!

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For healthy already-made pasta options (E meal if you eat just one serving size and not the whole bag), these Birds Eye Veggie Made Vegetable Pastas are made 100% from veggies and real cheese or marinara sauce! They are kept in the frozen vegetable aisle at Walmart!! They make several different kinds of these pasta meals and they are all great!

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Happi Foodi Bowls (Frozen)

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Pizza is one of my favorite things to eat!!! Scraping the toppings off of pizza and eating just that is yummy, but I love me some crust– thin crust especially!!! Cauliflower crust actually taste just like thin crust and is an easy way to make pizza!!! Buy this Caulipower brand crust from the freezer section at Walmart to make your own pizzas! You get 2 crusts in a box. If you want some already premade, for the same price you can buy the premade pizzas but only get one pizza. I find it just as easy and way cheaper to get the box of just the 2 pizza crusts, spread some pizza sauce on it, sprinkle garlic salt, shred some cheese on top then bake it! You can add whatever other toppings you desire! So easy and good!

***UPDATE: The THM journey is just that, a life-long journey. This means there will be mistakes made, but the point is to turn them around and learn from them! I was originally told by someone who was doing Keto that this particular brand of cauliflower crust was Keto friendly (which in turn meant it would be S friendly for THM). I took them at their word without ever looking at the ingredients or nutritional facts. I learned a good lesson from this recently when someone pointed out to me that the serving size was for ⅓ of the pizza crust (which I always ate the whole crust in one setting), as well as the flour wasn’t just cauliflower and cheese, but full of Brown Rice flour and White Rice flour (which neither are on plan because of the spike of insulin that happens from eating the flour in such concentrated forms). LESSON LEARNED: ALWAYS CHECK YOUR INGREDIENTS & SERVING SIZES!!! This crust is NOT on plan! Unfortunately there is not a cauliflower crust at our Walmart that I am aware of that is on plan as of right now. But next time, I will make my pizza with Joseph’s Lavash Bread on my pizza pan to get it nice and crispy. I heard this works well for most people. ***There is now a frozen pizza you can buy that is on plan, Quest Pizza in the freezer section.

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DRINKS:

For those of you who are obsessed with sodas or just don’t like drinking plain water, Ozarka Sparkling Water (made from spring water which is the cleanest water), Bubly (my favorite sparking water brand) because or any other sparkling water in lime or lemon flavor with a “donk” (1/32 of a teaspoon) of stevia added to it sure makes a nice version of sprite! Our family has grown to love many different flavors of sparkling water. We don’t even sweeten it now and it completely quenches the thirst of wanting a soda! The Bubly cherry flavor reminds us of Dr Pepper. Our personal favorite is Ozarka Sparkling Pomegranate Lemonade!

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Any of the Bai Drinks & Vitamin Water Zero drinks are amazing!!

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So this is not at Walmart, but it’s worth mentioning. I LOVE THESE Better Stevia flavored drops in my coffee with my frothed heavy whipping cream!!!! They are on amazon for $7 each but there are 203 servings in each bottle and you can use up to 8 drops for each serving. I only used 6 and it was perfect for me— so it will last me longer than 203 servings each bottle!!! Worth it! Tastes like Peppermint Mocha. The Cinnamon Vanilla one is also very good. I am going to give the other flavors they have a try!

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Stur drops located at Walmart are soooooo good to add to your water or sparkling water! They are sweetened with on-plan sweeteners and all natural! They taste amazing and are inexpensive.

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Do your kids love Capri Sun? I found this Hapi Water at our local Walmart a few months ago right next to the Capri Sun, and it is an all natural organic water that taste just like Capri Sun! It is over $2 for a box of 8 pouches, but when you save it for special times or let your child only drink one a day, it can last for a little while.

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***For those who have a hard time drinking plain water, not only is the sparkling water an option for you, but adding fruit to your glass of water and letting it infuse in your water all day long as you keep refilling it with water is one of the healthiest and easiest ways to flavor your water!! You can also add a splash of lemon juice to your water, but be aware that continued use of that overtime will weaken the enamel on your teeth. Anybody can change your taste buds overtime to love water! It’s a matter of trying it!
Other drink ideas are: Iced tea sweetened with stevia or coffee with frothed heavy whipping cream (S-fat mode) and Stevia/Erythritol blend are other options you can do in a healthy way! Herbal hot teas with a teaspoon of raw, local honey is great to help with allergies (or you can just sweeten it with stevia as well). I’ve also made ice water with half a teaspoon of baobab powder (which you can buy on THM’s website), and it taste so good like some sort of fruity, tangy juice! Baobab powder has the highest source of antioxidants you can get anywhere! It also boosts your vitamin C! This is great for an immunity and weight loss boost!

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For those of you who want to use nut milk in your recipes without having to buy it… You can make a pint of almond milk for about 2 cents using this recipe! I love it because I always have almonds in my pantry (the sea salt roasted kind for snacking) and I can throw it in my blender with some water and strain it out and have instant almond milk!!! Give it a try!!

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SNACKS & DESSERTS:

 

Oikos Triple Zero Blended Greek yogurt in any flavor is absolutely wonderful tasting and stevia-sweetened. It is perfect for any S, E, and FP meal, dessert, or snack, and has 15 grams of protein at only $1 each!

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85%-90% Cocoa bars (Lindt is really good) for a good, quick chocolate bar you can buy that keeps you on plan with S meals. THM has amazing stevia-sweetened chocolate bars that are so pure available on their website, but these are good for a grocery store find!

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Anything “sugar-free” at the store that isn’t made with just Stevia or Erythritol or Xylitol, is more in likely made out of some sort of artificial sweetener (like diet sodas or sugar free desserts) that is bad for your health (linked to cancer) and can overtime start spiking your blood sugar just like sugar does.  If they use a sugar alcohol in it, just be aware that if you eat too many it may cause some stomach issues. Maltitol sugar alcohols have a Glycemic Index of 36 which is not that great and will spike your blood sugar over time. Moderation is key! You really want to keep artificial sweeteners to a minimum as much as you can!

That being said, these Lily’s chocolate chips work great for any THM S dessert recipes you want to try! THM also has amazing, pure stevia-sweetened chocolate chips that you can buy as well, but if you need something quick from Walmart, these are perfect! They have all kinds of different flavors!

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Lily’s now has 2 different kind of candy bars in the candy aisle at Walmart, as well as peanut butter chocolate cups!

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I also found these ZolliPops on-plan suckers in the candy aisle (for my kiddos cause they are obsessed with suckers!) They have been a hit!

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For meal bars and candy options (S) that are on plan, try the Slim Fast Keto collection located in the Pharmacy aisles of Walmart! They taste good and help with quick chocolate fixes you need!

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One of our favorite snacks is POPCORN! We bought this silicone microwavable popcorn bowl and pour our kernels into the bottom, put butter and salt all over the top of the kernels and then microwave it. You can find any similar microwavable popcorn bowl on Amazon here. You can keep this in E-carb mode if you only use a teaspoon of butter on the kernels (just 1 teaspoon of any fat in a carb meal will keep you safely in weight loss mode!)! Get creative and flavor your popcorn anyway you like! If you are craving a sweet popcorn, you can sprinkle cinnamon and stevia over your popcorn kernels before microwaving it!

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For an S style chip, you can get Whisps and Parm Crisps which are made 100% from cheese (the non-flavored ones). For an E style chip, get the Baked Organic Blue Corn chips! ***Side note: in this picture below, I show regular organic blue corn chips instead of baked, because at the time I did not notice they weren’t baked. Regular corn chips are fried in an oil that usually isn’t the best… even Sunflower oil. To stay on plan, we need to find either a baked corn chip (E–carb meal) or a fried corn chip in coconut or palm oil (which would be for a Crossover–maintenance meal).

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Quest Protein Chips & Great Value Keto Chocolate Trail Mix are great snacks on plan too! The chips are high in protein and taste similar to Ranch Doritos, and the trail mix does have sugar in the chocolate, but its the max amount allowed on plan in one setting.

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For an E style chip, you can also get these Popchips! They are super yummy and more natural ingredients. They are not perfectly on plan, but I found I was able to lose weight easily even having a small handful of these everyday with my E–carb lunch. Everyone’s body reacts differently, so be aware if you have these and use them sparingly. UPDATE: Not only does it include white rice flour, they also include Maltodextrin in the spices, and when I researched what Maltodextrin does (which is a derivative of corn), it spikes your blood sugar almost just as much as sugar!!! I was shocked. Keep an eye out on what you buy that has that ingredient in it. Since I have looked further into it, I do not recommend Popchips on plan.

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Cookies & Brownies & Pancakes:

Quest has Protein Chocolate Chip Cookies that taste pretty good! Duncan Hines now has Keto Cake in a cup mixes that you can microwave in 60 seconds. Birch Benders has a good Keto pancake mix that just needs water as well as individual pancake, cookie, and brownie in a cup mixes.

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Ice Cream:

Rebel ice cream in ANY flavor is amazing and completely on plan!

If you need a dairy free version, So Delicious No-Sugar Added Butter Pecan made from coconut milk is really good.

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I will continue to add to this blog post as I find products on our Walmart shelves that I start to use regularly! God Bless!