Since my girlfriends weren't going bowling, I decided to stay home and meal plan for my grocery trip. I sometimes manage a trip to the grocery store during the week after work but it's exhausting and I don't have the energy to cook dinner when I get home, so I usually just do the quick-ish emergency trip when we're out of meat or milk. I made some waffles for breakfast. I'm still struggling with my waffle iron to figure out when the waffles are done, how much batter to put on, and how to get the top as beautiful as the bottom. The first couple were pretty good; I put the third one, which was a little burnt on the bottom, in the fridge for another time (and then Mick ate it for lunch when he got home while I had some leftovers), and threw away the last one which was way too burnt to salvage. I cleaned up the kitchen and started the dishwasher, knowing what I was expecting throughout the day.
After lunch, I headed out with a cooler and some ice packs in the back of the car. I filled up with gas at Sam's, then headed in. There weren't any carts so I knew it would be a quick trip, but I had "saran wrap" on my list. I couldn't find any, so I did a quick walk through and picked up Simply orange juice and Wholly Guacamole individual packets for me, and pizza rolls and sour cream for him. I left about 45 minutes after I left my house; the lack of carts definitely works more to my advantage than Sam's.
Next I went to Sprouts, where I found a sale on the vitamin and personal products area. I've been an Oil of Olay girl for a long time, and have tried a couple other moisturizers, but have wanted to replace my skin care products. I checked packages for soy and wheat ingredients, and finally got on my phone to check online about the gluten-free status of a couple. The thing I don't get is that the choices for shampoos and conditioners is endless, but there are almost no hair styling products, and I found exactly two that didn't have soy (the brand had soy in all the rest of their products). Also, why is there an endless supply of lipgloss but almost no other makeup? Does being a health nut mean not wearing eyeshadow or mascara?! I guess it's just something that I have to buy elsewhere, but I don't know where. I ended up getting several moisturizers and facial cleansers and a toner.
I have tried five or six deodorants in the past couple years. So far, I'm not impressed with any of them, so I picked up another one to try. I ended up spending just over $100 in this section, so I got 10% off in addition to the 25% sale.
At this point, I realized that I had spent quite a bit of time reading labels and needed to get moving, so I headed to the food. This is always an adventure! I guess one of the hardest parts is reading a label and realizing that I can probably make it myself, and then debating about whether I will make it myself. There was a panang simmer sauce, and I love panang, but why can't I just make the sauce myself instead of buying the bottle? But will I make the sauce, that is the question. For example, I can make marinara sauce, but I know that I won't, and I use it alot for a last minute meal. I was using it with rice pasta, but found that I kind of like this spicy sausage, garbanzo bean, veggies and sauce mixture instead. I think that once I make something, I can see how easy or hard it is and make a better decision, but until I have time to make the recipe, I am reluctant to get into making something complicated when I'm already hungry and tired.
Among the things I picked up were the Muir Glen organic tomatoes with chipotle peppers (4/$5, so I got 4 cans) because I love these in whatever quick Mexican meat mixture I'm making with beans to eat with some guacamole. I got some produce and chicken, mostly organic, to balance out all the not-organic I knew I would get later at Fresh & Easy.
I got a few new things to try including some cranberry juices (can you say vodka?), some pinapple coconut juice (can you say rum?), some coconut milk chocolate yogurt (and some plain that was on sale that I can freeze for smoothies), and some Applegate Farms turkey bacon (mmm, bacon).
Once I was done giving the cashier my arm and my leg, I was ready to go. I realized as I was leaving that I would have to go to F&E because I forgot Mick's white bread, among other things I could pick up there.
At F&E, I picked up more produce, because you can never have enough potatoes and sweet potatoes and avocados, and I forgot to get garlic earlier... I have enough "milk" but I did get some of their salsa (Mick loves the pineapple chipotle), and then found tomatillos on the clearance rack--score! The lady giving out samples saw me looking at the Jenny-O turkey breasts and she highly recommended the sundried tomato one but I wasn't comfortable with the length of the ingredient list, even if it did say "no gluten" on the package, so I got the one that had less ingredients, as well as the g/f corn tortillas they have. I got a big tray of chicken thighs (more on that later) and some turkey cutlets for a recipe I had seen earlier.
I finally made it home and Mick's parents were already there, as I expected, watching the Coyotes game. My FIL helped me bring in the groceries and then went to watch the game and I worked on putting everything away. They brought steaks to grill during the intermission and I had leftover ribs. We used my microwave potato bag for the sweet potatoes they brought to share, and they really liked how the potatoes turned out. I did get to watch most of the game after that.
When the game was over, they left, and I cleaned up the kitchen so I could start the next mess. I had decided to make a Tomatillo Chicken Soup from my favorite cookbook (currently) for my office Soup Throwdown. So I chopped and cooked and made a huge mess and wore myself out. Once the soup had been set to simmer for two hours, I took a break with some strawberries and Justin's Chocolate Peanut Butter. Oh, so yum. When the soup was "done" I tasted it and it was s.p.i.c.y. I added some cilantro from my garden (who makes a tomatillo recipe without cilantro?), unsweetened almond milk and hominy with little impact. I almost instantly regretted adding the hominy since not everyone likes hominy. I wasn't sure what else to do, so I let it cool a little, put it in the fridge, and asked for help.
Update: My friend K (with English Setters and a garden) suggested corn and honey, so I added 2 cups of frozen sweet corn and some agave syrup (a little easier than my raw honey). It did help, and I won the Throwdown!
Above all, you’ve got to love yourself enough to give your health priority. (read online)
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