Tag: grocery

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No More Box Cake Mixes

The grocery store had box cake mixes on sale for $1.50 per box and then matching frosting on ale for $1.50, too. So add in the cost of a couple of eggs and some oil, the electricity used for a hand mixer and the oven to bake the cake, and you can make a cake for under $5 – that’s a pretty good price. You cannot buy a bakery cake for under $10 these days, so making it yourself does save some money – plus you know exactly what is in the cake. I know that I use real butter – not margarine, shortening or lard. I know that I use real eggs and real vanilla extract – not powdered, dry or imitation anything.

But now that I have seen a recipe for making a yellow cake from scratch, I wonder why I have been using a box mix to bake cakes? I can use regular flour and some baking soda and have just as good a cake as what comes out of a box. It just means I have to measure out a few more items. Big deal! I have decoded to make the next cake from scratch and not buy any more box mixes. And I am going to experiment with the amounts to make just one cake layer instead of the traditional 2 layers, or just 6 cupcakes instead of a whole dozen.

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My Favorite Snack Craving

Everyone has a “go to” snack. Its the food – even if junk food – that you grab when you are just a bit hungry and don’t feel like cooking a whole meal. You want something to munch on while watching TV or working on the computer, or you’ve already had dinner and you just want something crunchy or salty or sweet to put a smile on your face before going to bed.

My favorite snack is a scoop of hummus with some dried pita chips with sea salt. The hummus has some mild spices and a scattering of pine nuts. I buy the big plastic container of hummus for only about $5 at Sam’s Club and a huge bag of dried pita chips with sea salt for only about $4, also at Sam’s. If I buy the same things at the local grocery store I end up paying the same money but getting containers with only about half of the servings. So it makes more sense to go to Sam’s and stock up.

If I don’t want hummus, I usually crave something sweet, like a cookie or a slice of pie. Lately I have been craving cakes, but I think I will try cake pops instead of a full size cake. I like the smaller serving size of a cake pop and I don’t need as much self control on portion size if I just grab a cake pop and don’t allow myself a second.

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New Converts Can Be So Annoying

This girl who used to work with me keeps popping up around town. I have seen her at a couple of restaurants, at the YMCA, and in the grocery store. I always make an effort to go up to her and say hello, ask how she is doing, etc. But she is a new convert and last night, when I saw her at the grocery store, she started preaching a bunch of stuff about being saved and told me that I am going to Hell. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to get into a deep religious discussion in the produce section of my grocery store.

I think the annoying part was her judgment of me and attempt to convert me along with her. She asked me the most bizarre question and since I didn’t giver her the answer she wanted, she started attacking my personal beliefs. I had to raise my voice and tell her to back off – in the middle of the grocery store! Good grief!

Oh, her question to me was, “How do you know that you are going to Heaven?” and it wasn’t really about her caring about me so much as an attack on my beliefs. That really pissed me off. If you want to talk about religion with me, invite me over to your place some night and we can share a glass of wine and talk about it in a constructive conversation. Don’t ambush me in the grocery store and tell me that I’m going to Hell.

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Hot Yoga Pants

photo yoga pants
My girlfriend Natasha is a yoga instructor and very enthusiastic about her yoga classes. She keeps inviting me to come, but I have never really been a fan. I don’t like to exercise and this does not look like something I would enjoy doing.

However, these yoga pants are really hot and I would be fine with buying them to wear around the house. I even see girls at the Food Lion wearing yoga pants while they shop. I guess if you are well toned and not fat, you can get away with wearing pants like this out in public.

I’m not fat, but I think yoga pants don’t look good on a lot of people and unfortunately some people don’t seen to realize that fact. When I see a fat girl walking around in leggings or yoga pants, it makes me want to go up to her and slap some sense into her. Seriously!

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Adventures with Food

This week I decided to get out of my rut and give in to my wild side at the grocery store. I took my regular list to Kroger yesterday but made a point of going down all the aisles – every single one, and to buy some new things to try in the kitchen.

I started with the deli and bought some hummus and pita bread. I have never had store bought hummus but have eaten it at restaurants. So at least I know what good hummus is supposed to taste like and I’ll see if this brand is any good.

I looked at the meat counter and the prices for beef are crazy high. Instead of buying a strip steak like I usually do, I decided to try some lamp chops. They were on sale for about half price, and I decided that if I didn’t like them then the dogs would get a nice treat and I would not be out much money, thanks to the sale price. Turns out that on the grill they tasted just as good as the strip steaks I’ve been buying.

In the dairy aisle, I bought a quart container of buttermilk. I have no idea what to do with it, but I know that every once in a while I come across a recipe that calls for buttermilk and I never have any on hand so I skip over that recipe and find something else. Well, now I have it on hand and I will be looking for any recipes that call for using buttermilk as one of the ingredients. It will be fun trying something new.

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Food Lion Made Me Happy Today!

Are you picky about certain brands of food? Like, I prefer Wonder Bread if I am going to make a sandwich. I’m sure the other brands of bread make a good sandwich, but I swear I can tell the difference between the pillow soft Wonder Bread and the other breads if you put a blindfold on me and had me do a taste test. I know I could pick out the sandwich made with Wonder Bread.

Well, I am picky about my peanut butter, too. I like a brand of peanut butter that is very hard to find at the local grocery stores. In fact, the only place I’ve been able to find it on the grocery shelves is at the Publix grocery stores. So when I go to Publix, I stock up on the Reese’s peanut butter jars. Even though they cost about $4 a jar now, I will buy three or four jars at once time, so I don’t have to go all the way back to Publix just for peanut butter in a couple of weeks.

Well, guess what I found on the shelves of my favorite Food Lion store today? That’s right! The Food Lion is stocking the Reese’s brand of peanut butter now! I did a happy dance all the way down the aisle after I found it there! Thank you, Food Lion!

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Rude People

Have you ever been in a situation where you have to deal with rude people? I seem to have to deal with rude people almost every time I go out of my house lately. They are rude shoppers at the grocery store, like those who abuse the quick check out lane. You are only have to supposed to have a certain number of items in your cart but there always seem to be one person in the crowd who thinks their “just 5 or 6” extra items should still give them a free pass in the quick checkout lane.

I don’t know about you but I am going to start calling out these people. I am going to loudly suggest they learn to count and learn to find the right check out lanes in the future. I might even make a fake cell phone call and loudly describe the situation. Maybe make up a story about how I would have been right home to take care of the sick baby or to pick up someone who is going to be late now because of some inconsiderate person abusing the quick check out lane.

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Hot Dogs for a Fast Meal

I wanted to buy a pack of hot dogs for this weekend. We will be busy shopping and putting up the Christmas tree and I don’t want to have to cook anything special. I have enough on my hands with a holiday decorating and gift buying list.

I thought that hot dogs, mac and cheese and then some baked beans would be a nice, quick dinner. For some reason there are a bunch of different brands of hot dogs at the grocery store and now there are regular lengths, bun lengths, turkey hot dogs, beef hot dogs and regular mixed mystery meats hot dogs.

I had a hard time deciding, but ended up getting Oscar Mayer bun length hot dogs for almost $4 a pack of 8 hot dogs. The hot dog buns were only a dollar, the mac and cheese is only $2.50 and the baked beans were $.89 – so that was a cheap and fast meal for about two bucks per person.