friday five

having a blogging brain freeze, so i'll blog about something that i did recently, which is i went the grocery store BY MYSELF wednesday night, so here is a top five list of where i spent my time... READING LABELS!  no kidding, i spent nearly 2 hours in lowes foods reading labels.  i came home with a cart of food and most of it was my normal stuff - i guess i was reading the labels of new/different things to see if "we could eat it" - most things did not make the cut.  either there were preservatives or colors or, frankly, too many non-food ingredients.  i seek simple!  (and, just for the record, i usually just shop the "outside isle" of the market - last night i ventured inwards.  i bought some things, but not too much.  most of it was things that i carry around for the kids, snacks, quick pack meals, pasta, flour, etc.)

1. flour  -  we rarely eat flour - i rarely cook with it.  i don't want fancy stuff, i want whole wheat.  my whole wheat flour doughs, though, never rise.  found gluten for it.  yay, hopefully i'll stop having non-rising crusts now (and maybe i can make bread!)
2.  cereal - bought none of it.  learned to be wary of "natural" vs "organic".  in particular, annie's has a "natural" brand and an "organic" brand.  they are different.  i want organic, not natural.  (organic IS natural, but also organic.)  guess i'll have to keep going to whole foods for the cereal - it is the only place i can find a kid-type cereal my kids like.
3. mac&cheese - in the box.  again, "natural" vs "organic".  turns out, the "organic" part is just the noodles, not the cheese - why can't they make cheese from "organic" cows? (like the ones they get the organic milk from?"  seems simple enough.
4. noodles - i'm not why i took so long here, but i was desperately searching for a noodle that looked like the kind you get in the mac&cheese boxes.  finally found one but it wasn't organic.  called mini-ziti.  kendal will only eat it if it looks like it is out of a box.  i prefer to make it myself and not out of a box, obviously.  i bought the non-organic noodles figuring that i'd give it a try and then if he'd eat it, i'd seek out a mini-ziti of the organic variety.
5. whole grains:  lowes foods doesn't have a huge selection of organic grains.  my concern with the non-organic ones is that they are laden with pesticide residue OR they are genetically modified.  i ended up buying a box of quinoa and a box of non-organic, but natural, couscous.  i'm excited to try the quinoa.

so here 5 other things i bought that i don't usually buy:
1. a quarter of a water melon (already sliced).  it was kinda pricy but i've been craving one.  i can't wait until they are ripe.
2. snow peas out of the bulk organic section.  dad planted some but something is eating them as fast as they grow.
3. about 6 bags of beans, dried, to cook.  all organic except for black beans.
4. 2 bottles of metro water - peppermint and spearmint.  i tried the spearmint/lemon flavor last saturday and LOVED IT.
5. annie's organic version of "hamburger helper" and "tuna helper" and "chicken helper" - they were all three on closeout special.  kendal loves that sort of thing (so long as i run the meat through the food processor first so he can't detect it).