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 !

No, I am not a "Hippie" !

Recently a friend of mine said I came up in a convo with someone I don't know based on lifestyle choices that are seemingly unconventional. After a complete stranger has queried as to whether or not I am a "hippie" I decided to post this to my blog. :)

No I am not a Hippie.
Yes I am 100% Vegetarian (aka Vegan)
Yes I get enough protein
Yes I intend for my children to be Vegetarian (while I support their right to choose later in life)
Yes I gave birth to twins at home
Yes I take my children to the pediatrician when appropriate
No it's not your business whether or not I choose to vaccinate my children
Yes I have breastfed all three of my children
No I do not have a problem with those who cannot breastfeed

My lovely hubbie (and children) gave me a laptop for Mother's Day ! ! ! I was sooooo excited.You wouldn't think that it would make such a difference but with 7+ month old twins to take care of it's a hassle to boot up a "regular old PC" ... esp. when it's connected to the living room TV and used with a mini-wireless-keyboard.

Since then I have been much more in-touch with family & friends. After hearing from the "100th" person that they did 'whatever' on facebook I decided to take the plunge and sign up. WOW ! I had no idea it would be so great ... I never did all that much with myspace and just thought it would be the same old same old. Nope.

I am doing pretty well on the "Vegan-Front" these days ... just taking it one meal at a time. I think something that helps is that I am not focusing on what I can't eat now but what I should be eating as a responsible Vegetarian ... not to mention someone with a nutrition degree. :) It's all feeling like second nature. Houston is most certainly more of a challenge than Austin (or San Marcos for that matter) to find products but then I don't live where a trip to Whole Foods is easy. This is good in that it forces me to find the "gems" among common grocery store items. :) I think my favorite find in the sweets arena is this chocolate spread made by a Kosher food company (Bright Morning I think is the name) ... it's like Nutella without the hazelnuts or dairy. Yummmy.

I am so bad at keeping a blog ! :)

Okay so it has been over a year since my last post and what I did not know at that time was that it wasn't my second child but my second and third ... TWINS ! I don't have time to post more than that right now but needless to say life is crazy as usual. :)