one of those days, and lunch wars

I must make a grocery list before I go to the store. If I don't, one of two things happens, or more likely, both:
1- I will wander around the store aimlessly picking up items that I neither want nor need nor will ever eat, simply because they look interesting at the time
2- I will leave the store having forgotten very important necessities

Without a list, the trip can take hours. If I'm hungry, I get confused amongst all the pretty boxes and fresh vegetables. I pick up every item imagining what I could use it for, thinking of what could go with it, and how even though that accessory item is on the other side of the store it is now a necessity as well. I go back and forth from the dairy to the produce, from the dry goods to the baking aisle, wandering with wide eyes and an empty belly. If I'm not hungry or in a hurry, I race up and down the aisles, grabbing only by instinct, not realizing until I get home later that I missed several very important elements, and we end up eating applesauce and brussell sprouts or some other terrible combination that I somehow swept into my flying cart.

Yesterday, I diligently made a list. Another good thing about the iPhone is the note-taking feature. It makes my life easier, but I'm sure the people in line around the produce section and down the aisles are cursing me for texting while shopping, not knowing that I'm actually sorting through "juice, milk, bread, cereal..." trying to digitally scratch out the item I just picked up.

When I was finally done with my shopping yesterday, I made my way up to the self-checkout area. I prefer self-checkout. I'm a little bit of a control freak when it comes to bagging-- I use my own bags most of the time (a.k.a. when I remember them), and when you walk up to the bagger with your own bags, they almost always throw you a dirty look and then proceed to only half-fill them, insisting that you need to use some plastic as well. Since, like a lot of things in life, no one is a better bagger than me, I've moved to using the self-checkout so that I can pack my eggs with my bread and my juice with my cans rather than cramming everything on top of each other. And I use fewer bags in the process. Amazing.

As I swiped my card yesterday and waited for my receipt to print, I noticed I had forgotten to grab a twelve pack of soda. I sighed, loaded my bags, carted them to my car, and then came back in to the store. As I was headed to the line again with my box of soda, a man about my age with three things in his cart (a whole ham, 6 eggs, and milk-- interesting combination) insisted I go ahead of him. I scanned the sodas quickly and then ran my card. No good. Ran it again. Nope. Third time, it still wouldn't take it. I knew the guy behind me was starting to wish he hadn't been so nice. The checkout supervisor finally came over, and at the same snail's pace he used to walk, he slid my card delicately through the scanner. Finally it took.

I grabbed the sodas by the slit in the top of the cardboard box that passes as a handle, hefted them out in front of me, and as I hurriedly turned toward the door, I felt the cardboard rip between my thumb and forefinger and the weight in my hand released. I was left holding nothing but a piece of the box, and cokes went flying everywhere, clanking on the ground, rolling under people's feets, smacking a woman's shoe. Like a dumped out jar of marbles, they multiplied as they flew through the air.

Again, I sighed, and began chasing them down. The snail slowly bent and began helping, but he told me just to grab another box and he'd take care of it. The man who had let me go first was already scanning at another checkout counter. I grabbed the new box and ran out the door.

An hour later I was back, this time because I forgot dog food. Sometimes you just can't win for losing.

Husband and I are trying not to eat out as much at lunch. Between Sonic, the Mexican place, and the Chinese buffet, we're getting fat and spending too much money. It's just so easy and tempting, and the main alternative-- taking food to work-- means:
1- You don't get to the leave the office for a bit, which, after all, is the main purpose of lunch
2- You're stuck eating something cold and unfilling like a sandwich and chips

And a sandwich for a vegetarian consists of bread, cheese, a smear of mayo, and some lettuce and tomato if I'm lucky, which I'm usually not. By 3 pm I'm ravenous again.

So I bought a bunch of frozen meals: Amy's, Healthy Choice, Hungry Man, etc. This is probably what distracted me at the store yesterday. I took too much time trying to decide between bean burritos and chicken pot pies, and I raced through the rest of my shopping to make up for it.

Luckily my parents have a condo not too far away from where we work (they're here every other weekend to visit me and go to sporting events on campus), so we can escape there to eat these meals. I will be reviewing them in my blog this week so that:
1- I can remember what the heck we ate and whether or not we liked it
2- Because I can
3- (Yes, there's a 3) So that you lucky people will know what's good and not good in the world of frozen microwavable meals.

And so, for today...

Today I had Healthy Choice's Manicotti Formaggio Complete Meal, which comes with about 2/3 a cup of broccoli and some apple oat mixture for dessert. Despite it taking too long too cook in the microwave for it to really qualify as "fast," (five minutes, stir, then four to six more), and despite the narrow tubular manicotti's odd shape, like cheese-stuffed cigars, this part of the meal had a very filling cheesey and tomato flavor. The sauce stood on it's own, not watery like they can sometimes get, and the pasta was al dente and not gummy or flaccid. The broccoli could have used some salt, which I added, but it was steamed just right. The apple "crisp" (you can't really crisp in the microwave, but I see what they were going for) was sweet, and I always like something sweet at the end of a meal, but it wasn't anything special. Caramel would have helped. But with it all for a mere 350 calories, I feel surprisingly satiated. We've yet to see how long that feeling lasts. More on that tomorrow.

Husband indulged in a 460 calorie Hungry Man Rotisserie Chicken meal, 3 large pieces rounded out with about half a cup of mashed potatoes, half a cup of green beans, and a 2 inch square brownie. He ate all the chicken down to the bones. When I asked how it was, he shrugged and said, "tastes like chicken." The mashed potatoes he ate very quickly, but the beans he only picked at. I asked him to give me an honest opinion, and he said, "this area," circling his fork around the empty black pockets that once held chicken, potatoes, and brownie, "was good, but this area," pointing to the beans sitting in their compartment, "not so much." But he concluded that it was warmer and more filling than a sandwich, just as good as fast food but healthier, and at $3.50 a lot cheaper than what we had been eating, so all in all a good meal.

In other news, I feel like I may be coming down with something. Husband says I'm a hypochondriac, which very well may be, but my throat has been scratchy since about this time yesterday, last night I started coughing a deep chest cough, and the cough continues today. I feel a tickle and a twinge in my throat, and it's making me nervous. But surely 24 hours after noticing the first symptom I'd be sicker than I am now?