It’s likely that more than half of your grocery budget goes to foods that come in a bag, box, or can. But scan a typical ingredients panel and you’ll see that what you’re really paying for is a lot of added fat, sodium, and chemical preservatives. To help you get more nutritional bang for your buck, our team of pros did a supermarket sweep for the buys that are as beneficial for you as they are for your wallet.

We’ve all been there. The winter blues set in and we reach for the nearest plate of holiday cookies, packing on the pounds. Then spring arrives and we get back outside, start exercising, and slim down for summer. But what if we could control our appetite, maintain a flat belly, and boost energy year-round? The answer lies in a simple letter: D.

Cutting-edge research has shown that vitamin D is a powerful weight-loss ingredient—but sunlight, which produces D naturally, is harmful to our skin and hard to come by (hello, office hours!). Now, for the first time, this breakthrough eating plan optimizes D-levels, helps you feel full, and actually triggers your fat cells to burn fat—not store it. By fueling your body with D-rich nutrients, you can supercharge your fat-burning state and speed up weight loss by 70 percent!

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Our friends over at genConnect are in Aspen this weekend (lucky ducks!) for the Food & Wine Classic (even luckier!) and they caught up with Michael Chiarello, the Emmy Award-winning host of “Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello" on the Food Network.

Apart from entertaining on TV and in the kitchen, Chiarello is also an organic wine farmer. Want to know what makes organic wines so great? Just pour yourself a glass of wine and hit play!

Americans have been cooking with wine ever since Julia Child brought the finer points of French cooking to our shores 50 years ago. But now a humbler libation is making its star turn: beer. “Cooking with beer is a hot culinary trend,” says Rebecca Newell, executive chef at The Beehive, an eclectic comfort-food restaurant in Boston. “The microbrew boom of the 1990s made people aware of the true craftsmanship with which beer can be made, and now they’re experimenting with beer in the kitchen as well as at the bar.”

The right beer can deepen the flavors of both sweet and savory dishes, which is why Newell switched from cooking mussels in white wine to exclusively in lager. (And unlike at the bar, there’s no need to worry about ingesting too much—most of the alcohol burns off during cooking, even as the flavors intensify.)

What’s Brewing?

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Think that’s clean water coming out of your faucet? Think again. New studies have found a host of nasties in tap water, like chlorine, lead, bacteria, hormones, and drug by-products.

Want to drink easy–without tossing heaps of water bottles? Lucky you, we are giving away ten Hydros Bottles, which turn ordinary tap water into fresh, great tasting water. BPA- and phthalates-free, the bottles take only 20 seconds and their filters work for up to 150 fills. After that, replace the filter and you’re on your way.

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Sure it’s great to eat fresh, but you don’t always have the time to cook. So stock your kitchen with these packaged foods for when you’re in a pinch!

The best part? You can print the entire list to take with you to the supermarket. Learn more about the list or get the printable version now.