Trader Joe's Adventure!

Happy Tuesday! Glad you survived Monday, seemed like a rough day in blogland…

My Monday was actually pretty good. I got to do my bike ride and Trader Joe’s trip, plus get my next book from the library–so basically a success.

So, I’m totally guilty of not eating a balanced breakfast. Or any breakfast for that matter. Even though I am all for a morning meal to energize me through the day (or until lunch ), I tend not to get very hungry unless I am doing something, like school, work, exercise, etc. Since I was just blogging around, the tummy didn’t rumble and I didn’t feed it… I’ve also noticed that I am less hungry in the summer mornings than the fall or winter. Anyone else? Do your eating habits change seasonally?

For lunch I ate my leftover Chinese food. I pumped it up by adding in carrot chips and red bell pepper. I sauteed it all together with 1-2 T of the sauce and the last little bit of rice.

It was very carrot-y but still good food. I watched a little bit of Harry Potter 6 again because some naughty roommate of mine found it online. But as soon as the food was settled I was off on my adventure!

Trader Joes was very fun. I went with the double mission of price-checking (Christina said TJ’s was too expensive for her, so I offered to record the prices for her. I think she’ll be surprised at some deals) and buying a few snacks and basics for myself. I’ve only been to Trader Joe’s a few times because there has never been one very close to where I live. There are a few more in Minnesota, including the one I visited with Miss LilVeggiePatch back in January, but that only happened once. Needless to say, I was pretty excited about quality foods at fair prices.

When I got there I just roamed around the aisles, taking a good gander at all the stuff I could buy. I was kicking myself for coming by bike, meaning I could only buy a backpack’s worth of stuff (since I’d not be able to manage a few bags plus the handlebars. Not that skilled, yo). But then I was sooo glad I was limited in how much I’d buy, because I’m sure I could have spent waay too much money on waay too many things. The girl at the cash register and I chatted about how easy it was to pick up more than you intended!

After groceries, I wandered into the wine section to see what sort of selection was available. I was fairly impressed at the variety they had for such a small space. Seeing their several shelves of beer was cool, too, because there were a lot of different options. My favorite, though, was that it is possible to buy individual bottles of beer or to build your own six pack. I like to try all sorts of different things, but hate to buy a six pack because if I don’t end up liking what I’ve got I’m stuck with 5 more. So this is perfect for me! I bought 3 bottles at $1 each. Cool!

Here’s my loot:

• Iced tea
• Hard Granny Smith cider
• 2 kinds of wheat beer
• Nutty Chocolate granola bars
• Dried mango
• Bananas (I’m finally gonna cave and make Gena’s soft serve)
• Tomatoes
• Superfoods bar
• Larabar
• TJ’s apricot mango Greek yogurt
• TJ’s mini peanut butter cups
• TJ”s unsalted peanut butter pretzels
• Strawberries

And it was under $25. A good shopping trip, I’d say.

On my ride back, I planned to stop at the gym. The sky was starting to look dark and ominous, threatening a storm. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to gamble on taking time at the gym and then riding home on my bike with my groceries in the rain, so I just went straight home. Even so, I feel like I got a workout in. My bike ride wasn’t too long at 5.25 miles or so, but the way back was up hill and I was carrying all my (heavy!) groceries on my back. (And for the record, it didn’t rain until after I would have been back from the gym. Darn!)

At home I sampled my new snacks:

Tasty. Duh.

Allister was cleaning up like whoa in the kitchen (lord knows it needed to be done) so I hopped into action alongside him. We did a good job, and cleaned up all the mess from the weekend, which included a few boy-managed (read: never cleaned up) cooking experiments and a party. Dishes were washed and put away, surfaces wiped down, and floor scrubbed. To refresh after the scrubbing I decided to try my Newton’s Folly hard cider.

Sorry about the flash, the pic without was too blurry. Good news is that I am going to have some expert advice to pick out a new camera when I go to California (leaving in 8 days! Yay!).

The cider was okay. The flavor wasn’t too impressive, and I wished it had more of an apple-y flavor (it seemed a little …watery?) with a stronger Granny Smith bite. I did enjoy drinking it, and found it refreshing, though. I might buy this again (the price is sure right! $1!) but would be interested in trying the regular variety to see if it tastes more like apple.

Carlye, Christina, and I had plans to go out for dinner at a pub, but Carlye didn’t know if she could still make it. I decided to hold off on dinner until we knew for sure, but never really worked up a hunger. Good thing we didn’t end up going. Instead of a hearty dinner, I made up a big snack plate-style supper.

Here we have:

• Plain Greek yogurt mixed with original PB2 and agave nectar (I think I should try this with vanilla yogurt. I don’t like the yogurt “tang” with the peanut butter flavor.)
• Handful of peanut butter pretzels
• Several sliced strawberries
• Sliced plum
• 3 pieces dried mango

Even though it was really simple, the roomies ooh-ed and ah-ed when I sat down with them in the living room. (Beats Taco Bell, right?) It was pretty good, and perfectly satisfying. It didn’t stop me from enjoying a handful of mini PB cups for dessert, though. I probably should have given this post a title with “peanut butter” in the name, since I ate so much of it yesterday….

Despite our cleaning party, the kitchen was already showing signs of abuse! I couldn’t help myself and attacked the dishes (again) and the stove top (again) since the kitchen had looked so nice mere hours beforehand. And then I cleaned my eternally-messy room. I swear I spent a while doing it, but it hardly looks any better. Sigh.

I was a good girl and tried to go to bed at an earlier hour to get my sleep schedule back on track. I did fall asleep earlier, but woke up at least 4 times in the night–I woke up realizing I forgot to take my medicine, once when I was too cold, the rain (or maybe hail because it was so loud) pelting my open window made me get up, and 3 dogs started howling like mad. I wonder if there was a tornado siren/warning to get them started? Otherwise I have no clue why 3 dogs would start howling at the same-ish time at 4 in the morning. Weird.

Tuesday is my early morning (teaching Russian, so out the door before 8), so I felt it was legit to get some caffeine in me to start the day. Starbucks was having a promotion where if you bought any drink you got a pastry for free (if you are on the west coast, the promo lasts til 10:30!) so I got a dirty hippie (i.e. chai latte with a shot of espresso) and a bran muffin before braving the pouring rain. I’ll put up a picture tonight

The rain has stopped but it is still kind of gross out. What’s with the weather this summer, huh?

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