Grocery day

Today is grocery day. I went to Sprouts and also to Fry's Foods. At Sprouts, I got a few pieces of fruit (1 cantaloupe, 3 pears, 3 black plums, 3 of some other kind of plum, one stand of parsley, 1 pkg. of fresh mint, 3 Bartlett pears), 2 bulbs of fresh garlic, 1 stand of green onions, Romaine lettuce, 1 pkg. of sliced mushrooms, 2 red bell peppers and 1 green, a very small pork loin roast, 1 pkg. of ground beef (same price per lb. as what I could have gotten at Fry's, if I'd bought a bigger pkg., but, this claimed to be organic), 1 cucumber, 1 white onion, 1 sweet onion, one half-gallon of Coconut milk and 1 bottle of Agave nectar. This, along with a few other things I bought ($17.30 worth) cost just under $43.

At Fry's, I got a pkg. of pre-cut spinach, a few Roma tomatoes (for once a better price than at Sprouts, at a time when I had money to get some), 1 2-lb package of spaghetti, 5 boxes of General Mills cereal, 1 pkg. of Grits, 1 pkg. of Cream of Wheat, 1 carton Blue Bunny ice cream, 5 loaves of Orowheat 12 Grain Bread, 1 jar of crunchy peanut butter, 2 half gallons of whole milk (cheaper than buying 1 full gallon), 1 bottle of seltzer water (for when I want bubbles, so that I can avoid unnatural sweeteners), 3 small packages of tea bags (orange spice, honey vanilla chamomile, and a blend of spearmint and peppermint), 1 large can of store brand coffee, 1 jar of store brand strawberry jelly, one 8 oz . pkg. of some other kind of pasta, 10 pkgs of Ramen noodles, one 5 lb. bag of all purpose flour, and one (I think) 5 lb. pkg. of white sugar. This cost, along with one other thing purchased, just slightly over $103.

I suppose you noted the milk and ice cream. They are not for me, but, for the boys. I should say "the boys" as, technically, they are adults. Still, they are young and call me Mom, so, there you go.

I am thoroughly disgusted by how much the food purchased at Fry's ended up costing. As far as I can tell, they charged me the correct amount, though, so I only have myself to blame. If I had bought millet at Sprouts, instead of cereal at Fry's, that would have lowered the cost quite considerably. Still, the cereal will make the boys happy, and one of the boxes may even make me happy, as it is Multigrain Cheerios and I have declared it mine.

Hot cereal is lovely, but, sometimes, I do just want to get up and eat and not have to cook, right away. Hence why I bought the flour and sugar. Well, in part. I have corn meal, which I purchased last month, and I intend to make us some corn bread and spicy beans sometime soon.

Anyway, some of this stuff will last out the week, some will last a little longer, and some should last the entire month or thereabout.  So, hopefully, over the next few weeks, I shall only need to purchase a few fresh veggies or some small amount of canned goods, and that sort of thing.

Tonight, I made a very good spaghetti, and, only enough for one nice sized bowl each. It had onion, yellow squash (left over from a different month, actually), mushroom, Roma tomato, red bell pepper, a little white vinegar, some alleged basil (probably actually oregano, as my son mixed the two together and, I believe, put the oregano on top), sea salt, fresh garlic and a little pre-minced garlic tomato paste and fresh spinach. Much less spice than I usually add in, but, it tasted wonderful. Fresh is a taste I can get used to.

That's something you may need to know, for your own sake. It's like, the first time I tasted a butter cookie that had actually been made with butter. I grew up eating margarine, so, the taste of butter worried me. It tasted just all wrong, and, yet, somehow, compelling. I wrinkled up my face and I am sure mixed emotions ran rampant across it. My sister, seeing this, told me she had the same reaction and that she thinks they used real butter and that's how it is supposed to taste. Turns out, she was right! I got used to it, and, I learned to love butter, so much so that, as an adult, I cut out all margarine and related items from my life and learned to use less butter than I would have used of margarine, and had a lovely time of it, until I had to give up butter, too.

My point is, though, that "fresh" really is a taste. If you are not used to it, it is weird and somehow horrible -obscene upon the tongue. Once used to it, it is a delight and you will not wish to settle for else.

For exercise, I did a bunch of grocery shopping, which was well more than 10 minutes; plus, I walked to the Circle K and back, this morning, which is further than Walgreen's, so, again, more than 10 minutes. Aside from that, I did a bit of cleaning up around the house. My feet are sore! My body is sore. I am well fed on spaghetti, lightly salted (one of my 1/2 tsp. treatments being taken) and feeling a bit satisfied.

Oh, and one big bottle of lemon juice and one small bottle of lime juice. At Fry's, I mean! I am neither of those things!