Steaming cup of hot water. Empty bowl of miso soup. How exciting is my life?
Yesterday I put on full body workout gear including sneakers (not fashion sneakers (so you know I really meant business)) but went to two supermarkets and Target instead. I bought food at Trader Joe’s and more food at Whole Foods – normal – and the second I walked past the large red Target balls that switch was flicked in my brain. Is it something in the air? I walked in for diaper pail bags and toothpaste and came out with a full cart including, and this is true, 16 sets of tiny ceramic creamer + sugar sets. Oh – it’ll be so cute for the kids to pour their own milk in the morning – give them a sense of accomplishment, etc. And then when they have friends over it’ll be cute to also give THEM a little jug from which to pour the milk for their cereal or the syrup for their waffle or whatever. 16 sets.
When I got home the baby was yelling in his crib. He wasn’t crying or shrieking, simply yelling our nanny’s name over and over. She told me he had just gone into his crib and was definitely tired after a long morning of playing with the sink, asking google to play youtube videos and climbing on any surface, preferably wobbly, with direct access to sharp objects or permanent markers. So I decided the gym was not in the cards, changed into my Mou boots, strapped the baby in the car and prepared myself for an hour and a half drive around scenic suburbia. I was halfway to the drive-thru Panera when I realized something – that morning I seriously and knowingly took a second cup of sample coffee from Trader Joe’s. True. And as if that admission wasn’t lame enough – I felt a rush of exhilaration doing it. I looked in the far and hidden corners of the ceiling and behind the various fruit stands for cameras or a team member who might have noticed but it seems I got away with it.
I am not a thrill-seeking person by nature. I don’t like roller coasters (I was terrified on the Dumbo ride. Last year. When I was 32.) You would never see me near a bungee jump or sky dive. I don’t like airplanes or driving over bridges. I won’t touch skis. I don’t do drugs (except for coffee. So much coffee.) I have had a few moments of rebellion in my life but they were fleeting – spasms of defiance more than anything. Studying abroad in Rome I ate ham. I buy things at Bed and Bath without a coupon. These are my kinds of rebellions. And on an arctic Tuesday morning in January I felt I had really outdone myself when I poured that second demo cup.
On an unrelated note – have you ever found yourself reading a book out loud (in my case to my children) when suddenly you realize that you had read pages and pages without paying the slightest bit of attention? Tonight I made it almost until the 4th minute of a 5 minute Minnie story when I realized that I had been having an entirely separate and distinct internal discussion. I have been trying to fine-tune an idea for a business that has been brewing in my brain for years. Today the lightbulb went off at exactly 9:47am. I know this because at 9:48 I was calling my husband to tell him all about it. All day I have been completely distracted by this idea but at no point was I able to sit down and really give it my full attention. Finally by 6pm, without having given my brain the opporutnity to process my thoughts, I found myself reading the words of a story to my children but not paying attention to a single one. What part of my brain allowed me to do that? Was it my familiarity with the words of the story that allowed me to see and read a Minnie story while simultaneously asking and answering questions in my head about something so completley different?
And another thing. Henry told me he’d like me to have a baby in my belly. Why? I asked. Because I like that.
And lastly, in more unrelated news, I started a new subscription box the first of which has not arrived yet but WAIT til you see what it is. Hint: it’s levio-sa.
I like to think of myself as an easy-going kind of gal. I am accepting of all kinds of people. I tolerate all sorts of personality quirks and odd behaviors. But there is one thing I cannot tolerate:
What’s happening here?This looks like a good place to leave my cartThe cart return right there on the other side of where I’m standing is SO far awayNope.
I’m especially intrigued by this last one. I just saw this in the Target parking lot today. Either the person had walked all the way over to the cart return but didn’t finish the job or was so lazy they couldn’t bring themselves to walk around and stick the cart in one of the two lanes.
I see this everywhere in every town at every establishment. Anywhere where there are carts and parking lots. Targets, Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Bed and Bath, Costco, Home Goods, to name but a few. And I understand there are some very compelling reasons not to bring your cart back to a cart return spot. Possibly it’s raining. Perhaps you have a child with you or multiple children. Maybe you are very old. I understand the desire – really. But leaving your cart in the middle of a parking lot is not okay. Sticking it between two spaces is not nice. Propping it up on the curb so that half of the cart sticks into a spot is lame. Not walking the extra two steps to put it back into the actual cart return and not just next to the cart return is lazy.
In my world of pet peeves this ranks up there with spitting in public, and coughing into your hand – things I consider to be especially egregious because instead of being a mild annoyance these are things that impact the general public. Someone won’t be able to park because your cart is in the way or your cart will be blown into someone’s car. Someone’s dog or stroller or shoe will step in your phlegm. Someone’s hand will touch the doorknob that your germy hand has touched. These things are not right. These things are bad. Please don’t do them.
Monday is marketing day. It’s one of my all-time favorite days. I love roaming the aisles. I love looking at the clever packaging. I love getting my tiny sample of decaf coffee and whatever food is on offer at Trader Joe’s (and by the way, I always buy whatever it is they are sampling. It doesn’t matter what it is. Fondue and a loaf of french bread? Yes please. Apple with caramel sauce? Must have it. Gluten free raisin bread with Kerrygold butter? Obviously). I love going to Whole Foods for the sole purpose of getting waffles, sausage and deli meat (which you’ll see, is never all I leave with).
Feeding a family of 6 including 4 picky children is no easy feat. If my kids could have mac and cheese or pastasauceandmeatballs for every meal they would be thrilled but, sadly for them, I won’t allow it. I have seen other kids eat at playdates and birthday parties so I know mine aren’t the worst eaters out there but I know they’re not the best either. At this point I’ve settled for them being mildly okay with what I serve them. I don’t expect them to be happy and I don’t make anything if I think they’ll be miserable. I just expect a reasonable amount of groaning and a reasonable amount of praise. That’s all.
The trouble is I have 4 children whose eating habits are somehow all completely different from one another. The eldest – the girl – loves all fruit, all grains, most vegetables, some proteins and all candy or anything sweet. Number 2 – eldest of the boys – loves most proteins, most grains, a handful of fruits and vegetables and a few sweet things here and there. The middle boy eats almost nothing. The only thing he 100% consistently eats is mac and cheese but only the Trader Joe’s yellow box variety, cereal bars from Trader Joe’s and kefir pouches I buy at Whole Foods. He will usually eat bread, crackers, rice, pasta, and cereal. He will not eat proteins unless bribed and fruits and veggies? Even with the promise of something great like 2 cookies for just one tiny bite he will not put a fruit or vegetable near his mouth. On recommendation from the doctor we give him Pediasure at night to supplement his calories. Now, that being said, he has had some surprising likes – brie to go with his crackers and quiche. But those were fleeting and now we’re back to normal. As for the 4th child, he’s merely 9 months old and already eats everything. The kid is a vacuum.
My next consideration when it comes to food is my husband who thankfully seems to enjoy everything I make. I don’t know if it’s just the fact that he’s Canadian and too polite to tell me otherwise, but the man never has a negative word to say about my cooking. (How lucky am I?)
So over the weekend we made a Costco run and bought a bunch of big staples. I thought I was going to the market today just to fill in what was missing. As you will see, things didn’t exactly go as planned. I’ll note here that it would be impossible to go to only one store for all the things we need. Trader Joe’s is fabulous for staples, certain produce, proteins, cheese, dairy, eggs, frozen food, flowers, and they are so clever with their packaging it drives me crazy. Who can pass up pasta labeled “Trader Giotto’s?”
I would never buy yogurt at Whole Foods when I could buy it at Trader Joe’s. The prices are just so much better. But Whole Foods has certain things that Trader Joe’s lacks. For one, the produce just looks better and often lasts longer. There was a period of time last year that no matter when I got mangoes at Trader Joe’s, no matter how long or short a time I left them on the counter, they were rotten when I opened them up. Their produce has gotten better than it used to be but some things still look a bit sad. Whole Foods on the other hand has glistening and colorful produce that just begs you to take it home. They’ve really mastered the spritzing that makes everything shine.
The second thing that Whole Foods has is the meat counter. I don’t always need the variety they have but if I feel like cooking lamb that week I know I can get it at Whole Foods. Third, Whole Foods has a deli counter. I don’t like to get the pre-packaged deli meats and cheeses. I’d much rather have those sliced at the counter. Maybe I’m crazy – it’s all processed meat anyway. But I just like it better “fresh.” Fourth and most importantly I have to go to Whole Foods every week no matter what, even if I could suck it up and eat all my produce and pre-packaged turkey from Trader Joe’s, because my kids always request waffles and sausage for breakfast and refuse to eat any other sausage but the Applegate Farms chicken and maple sausage. So there you go. If Trader Joe’s would just sell Applegate Farms or at least some identical but differently named item, I would save a trip to Whole Foods AND about $100 every week. Let’s be serious I cannot leave Whole Foods without spending $100 and usually more no matter how much I’ve already spent at Trader Joe’s. Last week I was feeling very crunched for time and also super lazy so I did my whole shopping trip at Whole Foods. Well let me tell you I spent more than double what I would have normally spent and I didn’t even get my samples. Lesson learned.
In any case my trip to Trader Joe’s yielded the following:
Trader Joe’s cold and frozen foods
In bag number one I have:
2 containers of large white eggs
French Brie (The kind that the boy eats when he eats brie – here’s hoping!)
Feta
Whipped Cream Cheese
2 Mangoes
Bag of organic kiwis
Container of blueberries
Container of red grapes
Bag of baby tomatoes
Nova Salmon pieces
Dr Praeger’s veggie burger (new thing I’m trying – hoping to find a third item that all the kids will eat)
Bean and Cheese burrito (for those moments I’m starving and everything else in the house looks awful, these usually do the trick)
Butternut squash zig-zags (hoping to roast and trick the kids into thinking they’re eating french fries)
Two salad kits (I need ease when it comes to salad. I’m really hoping this pre-packaged kit is the answer to my prayer)
Bag of spinach (I find without much effort I can throw a few leaves of spinach onto every meal and feel like I’m doing something good.)
Container of basil (to go with the massive container of mozzarella balls we got at Costco)
Daisies (the flowers at TJs are the best and my son likes to have flowers in the house)
Bacon (in my family growing up pork was off limits but bacon – totally fine.)
Moving right along:
Trader Joe’s dry foods
Creamy almond butter AND creamy cashew butter (the doctor told me the baby should try all the nut butters at this point to check for allergies. I probably could have ground up nuts myself but I didn’t think of that until just this moment…)
Mini bagels (bagel day on Wednesday and I wouldn’t dream of sending the kids to school with something different than what their friends will be eating)
Kalamata Extra Virgin Olive Oil (okay this was the most expensive OO they sell (14.99. The one I usually get is 7.99 but I loved this bottle and decided to do an experiment to see if anyone can taste a difference. I still have a little left of the old bottle. Also look below at the display of olive oil. Are you kidding?)
Olive oil display. Looks alone I should have gone for the Tunisian stuff (top right) but I just had to know what the most expensive olive oil sold at TJs tasted like
2 boxes of mac and cheese (the only brand the kids will eat)
Raw hazelnuts (I’ve found when I put these in my mouth at the same time as chocolate I can almost convince myself I’m tasting nutella)
Grilled marinated artichoke halves (a lot of marinated artichokes smell and taste like high school dissections. These taste really good.)
Organic chicken stock (my favorite of the many I’ve tried. I can actually drink this plain with nothing added and be happy)
Blueberry snack bars
Peanut butter sandwich crackers
5 meat sticks
21 seasoning salute (For some reason I am desperately attracted to the spices at Trader Joe’s. Last week I bought two containers of Dukkah (I’d never tried it before and still haven’t but it looked so great and the label said “get it before it’s gone!” and so I bought 2!) I cannot go into that store without buy some random spice.)
I forgot to include these things in the other dry foods picture:
Forgotten items
Decaf coffee
Mochi rice nuggets (ever since going to a friend’s house for Korean New Year and eating Mochi I’m a little obsessed and these sounded too good to pass up)
So as I mentioned before, I went to Whole Foods with three things in mind: waffles, sausage, and deli meat. Here’s what I walked out with:
Whole Foods cold and frozen foods
and
Sushi for lunch for me and the hubs and Psychology Today
So in picture one we have:
Waffles + sausage (phew! how many times have I gone somewhere needing something and walked out with 15 other things but not the thing I needed?)
Frozen peas and frozen sweet potatoes (to mash up for the baby)
4 strawberry yogurts (already found out that my son wants a different strawberry yogurt not that one)
Plainville Farms smoked turkey
Genoa salami
Prepared cauliflower
Frozen cut okra (apparently okra is the best thing in the world. It has superpowers. You could probably subsist on Okra alone if you wanted. That being said I just cannot get past the texture. So I buy it frozen and throw it into smoothies. All the benefits, none of the slime!)
And finally in my last bag:
Sushi (for lunch today)
Psychology Today (like the spices at Trader Joe’s, I find it difficult to pass a magazine rack without buying one. They make them look so appealing now. I currently have 3 unread magazines that I don’t subscribe too – I just saw them and had to have them. When will I learn that I don’t have free time and when I do I’d rather spend it signing up for more monthly subscription boxes?)
I saw this as I was leaving:
Mingle Magazine. I’ve never seen it before and would have bought it but I had already paid…
If you’re wondering where the meat is – you’re right. I didn’t get it at either place because we got some steak at Costco (for the 70 degree day coming up) and I plan on going to a couple of local places for speciality things as needed.
What do you think of my loot? What am I missing? I’m always willing to try new things. What’s in your grocery bags this week?
Mama Mader at Home 