Grocery Shopping: An Un-Mastered Art

I'm a terrible grocery shopper. I'm seriously the worst. I come home with the most random assortment of things that I'm sure no one could make anything out of. Today at Trader Joes I bought a package of strawberries, baking soda, butter, 2 cans of black beans, sour cream, salad mix and 1 avocado.

I also constantly buy the same things every time and come home to realize I already have an unopened or half used package of it at home. I currently have 3 packs of tortillas, 2 are unopened. I also have 4 bags of frozen peas in my freezer; 3 of which are already opened. The crazy thing is, I NEVER use peas for anything. Once in a blue moon I'll make a toss salad and throw some peas in it. And on most occasions I usually end up opting out of including the peas since Mike doesn't like them very much (and neither do I honestly). Other things I routinely buy at the store that I usually already have at home: packages of shredded cheese, bread, eggs, frozen "chicken poppers"

I guess something just comes over me at the grocery store when it comes to these items and I think it'd be the end of the world to run out of shredded cheese. You may be thinking "Kelsey, don't you take inventory? Don't you make a list before going to the grocery store?" And the answer is yes I do, sort of. But then I'm in the store and see these things and forget if I need them or not. Or I see things and think "Oh that looks good, but I'll never actually use it" and pass it by. My list just isn't a very good one I guess.

Now that I'm on maternity leave and "between jobs" the plan is to start cooking and freezing meals for after baby and after my mom leaves so that we'll have prepared meals ready to eat without much effort. My friends with babies say that you get REALLY hungry breastfeeding and you're too exhausted to cook.

I've never done this before so I'm curious to see how this pans out. I've asked friends and family members and scoured the web (Pinterest) for recipes. So far, here is what's on the freezer menu: 10 spinach/chicken quesadillas to use up all those dang tortillas and bags of shredded cheese.  Next I'll make a couple of pasta/hamburger meals and then maybe some enchiladas or chilli? Today I'm making banana bread for a party at Mike's work tomorrow and I'm making an extra loaf to freeze for later/....eat right now (it smells amazing!)

I'm hoping to get better at managing my pantry and fridge supply so that I have ingredients on hand when I need to whip something up. I think part of the problem with my lack of cooking (besides the fact that I don't really enjoy it) is that I'm not a good grocery shopper...which may be why I don't like cooking. It's a vicious cycle.  What works for you? Do you have a certain method or iPhone app you use to keep inventory of your cupboards? Or, do you just use your brain and look in your fridge and function successfully?