Grocery Store "Finds"

As a wife and mother it seems as though I find myself cruising the isles of the grocery store pretty often. I don't mind it at all as a diversion tactic with the twins who are now getting close to eight months old. Before having children my husband and I would linger in the isles of the original Whole Foods Market in Austin (before the monster world-headquarters was born) and spend Saturday afternoons deciding what we wanted to eat for the week.

In Austin it seemed as though anything and everything was at our fingertips ... and we took it for granted. :) Now, in Houston, it's most certainly more work to get the products we have gotten used to having in our daily lives. That said, we live in North Houston (Tomball technically) so Whole Foods (or Central Market for that matter) is a "trip" rather than a jaunt around the corner. Of course I am just whining and as a "responsible Vegetarian" I need to be eating at home more and learning to cook basic foods with items available at the regular old grocery store. :)

Not all Vegetarian/Vegan foods are healthy nor do I feel the need to eat certain foods just because they are Vegan. My biggest guilty pleasure lately was Sweet Chili Doritos ... MSG and all ! ! ! I didn't let my oldest son even try them because I knew they were "bad" but now they have DISAPPEARED off of the shelves ... everywhere. Has this happened all over the country or were they just not popular here ? ? ? Were my husband and I the only ones eating them ? ? ? Who knows ? On a positive note I don't NEED the Sweet Chili Doritos and my waistline will appreciate a more figure friendly snack. :)

I am excited when I see "normal" foods that just happen to be Vegan. In one of my favorite magazines (VegNews) they have a blurb every month that highlights such products. I smile every time I can go to a movie (not very often these days) and have Twizzlers. :) No, they are not health food but they are a nostalgic part of movie-going for me ... memories of going to see Arachnophobia and using Twizzlers to tickle my Aunt's leg and freak her out ! LOL

In closing, here's to finding the extraordinary in the every day items we encounter !