Saturday, November 17, 2012

Grocery-Getters

I'm married to someone who loves shopping, including grocery shopping. For years I thought I only liked grocery shopping alone. That's because I had never been grocery shopping with an adult who loved doing it as much as I do. I get so much satisfaction from going to the store with a goal, meeting (and often exceeding!) the goal, and then coming home to see that my family has food to keep us going for a while. So my spouse and I spent a couple of hours today filling up the grocery cart and goofing off.

We have quite a few "back of pantry" mixes that look interesting in the store but we usually don't eat them until the rest of the pantry is empty except for olive oil, honey, and powdered drink mixes. But today we found a rice mix that we are going to put front and center. It's Nueva Cocina's coconut raisin rice mix and looks fabulous. For a long time, we would drive to Whole Foods in Mountain Brook to buy a lot of our specialty items (our household has some special dietary needs and the variety in a place like Whole foods, EarthFare, and the locally-owned Organic Harvest is much broader than in a Publix or Winn-Dixie). When EarthFare opened just a few miles from home, we decided to try shopping there since it's closer. I couldn't be happier with the friendly staff and the selection in the store. While I always had good experiences with Whole Foods, and do go back now and then when I'm nearby, I'm so grateful that a store that meets our needs is so close.

Canned vegetables seem to be another "staple" that live in the pantry. We like having them on hand just in case, but really prefer fresh or frozen to canned. Other things I found in the pantry today included Booberry and Count Chocula cereals that are only half-eaten (and most likely shoved to the back because they taste awful!) and a peanut butter brownie mix I'd forgotten we had. Looks like we'll have brownies when the kids get back from their dad's after Thanksgiving!

Do you like to shop for groceries alone or with a friend or spouse? What's your favorite "guilt" item when you're shopping for food? (I bought fudge-covered Ritz crackers today!) What is the thing that seems to sit in your pantry or freezer FOREVER? I'd love to know!

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