Snow Weekend

Sorry for not posting yesterday-- this snow has got me in slow motion! I really do believe that the weather can make us do crazy things such as watching four episodes of "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" in a row (not that there's anything wrong with that!), or spending 30 minutes on your eye makeup without having anywhere to go. The snow in D.C. right now is surely beautiful but definitely debilitating. I am SO lucky to have gone food shopping earlier in the week so that at least I wouldn't be trapped inside without anything to eat. Now that would have been a true "snowpocalypse."

Grocery shopping is tricky. Some people hate it, some people don't know how to do it and some people have it down to such a science that not even the most intriguing coupon in the world could get them to purchase 10 cans of stewed tomatoes. I'm not really sure where I fall in these categories, but I am certainly not the former. My freshman year at AU I took a college writing seminar called "Eating in America." We read works by Michael Pollan and Marion Nestle and even had a "Super-Marketing" assignment where we had to root out the schemes in our local supermarket. I'm the type of person who likes to make lists, so I usually do make a food shopping list but I rarely ever follow it. Knowing the things that I do about how a supermarket is formatted and designed, you'd think I would avoid all of the pictures of grass-fed cows and happy farmers and just get in and out of the damn store and be done with it. Wrong-o.

Shopping for food is my favorite sort of shopping. In a way, I want to let myself be distracted by all of the marketing so that I can learn more about how to do it effectively (or judge whether or not I think it has been done effectively) and so that I can learn more about food. That's right, there is more inside of a supermarket than just apples, milk, cereal, bread, cold cuts and frozen vegetables. There is A LOT of information inside of a supermarket and you should take the time to suck it in. I'm not saying you need to spend hours going food shopping, but if you could set aside an extra hour one day to slowly walk through the aisles of your favorite supermarket, I bet you would be surprised to find out how much variety there is. The more new things you discover, the more creative you can be inside of the kitchen. This week I challenge you to discover one new food item in the supermarket and use it in a recipe. I will do the same and let you know how it goes!

I very sneakily took some candid shots of my food while it was going down the belt on Wednesday:







I bought a pack of frozen cherries and an avocado for my Green Monsters; Gardenburger Veggie Medley veggie burgers, pita, provolone cheese and a red pepper for lunches; Whole Soy & Co. vanilla and raspberry-flavored yogurt, Fage 0% Total Greek yogurt (great for smoothies and a creamy snack-- maybe add some granola?); blueberries and milk to go with my Honey and Nut Morning O's; strawberry's and confectioner's sugar to make icing for that chocolate cake in a box (hey, you can't always make things from scratch!); Yukon Gold potatoes for mashing and broccoli for steaming and then sauteing in a pan (with garlic); popcorn for snacking and a few other goodies here and there.

I had planned on going food shopping again today so that I could make some Super Bowl-ish foods, but the snow just wouldn't have it. Since I have nothing football-related to make, I will try to have something (sort of) football-related to write about tomorrow.

With health,

Melissa