Empty Veggie Drawer

This morning I found myself in an unhappy vegetable situation. As I wiped up the remains of an unfortunate iced coffee explosion, of an unknown source, with a splatter range of unbelievable proportions, I noticed that I was down to half a bag of spinach and one wilted carrot.

You know that I'm a vegetable lover, so you can easily imagine how unpleasant I found this situation. As a general rule, I never let my vegetable drawer get so empty. Hey, I've got to make up for my diet coke drinking, ice cream eating, chocolate loving ways somehow.


But, it gets worse.

Not only did I find myself with limited fresh vegetable options, but I also discovered that I was down to my last Diet Coke.

And even WORSE, we only had ONE carton of ice cream in the freezer.

Oh, the horror!

Because I'm a freak I like to have at least two varieties in the freezer at all times. I find comfort in the fact that running out of ice cream is highly unlikely, if I make an effort to keep our freezer properly stocked.

I don't know what I would do if we ran out. I'd probably be just fine, in fact, I know I'd be fine. But, the neurotic freak in me would hate to find out. The very idea of not having multiple dessert options is horrifying.

Horrifying.

Just a few weeks ago we had this many ice cream cartons in our freezer

Yes. I have no shame. And NO, I didn't eat it all myself. Caroline ate most of the mint chocolate chip, because it's not my favorite. I even bought that flavor JUST FOR HER. Because I'm nice like that. And it doesn't make me feels as bad about having so many flavors of my liking in our freezer.

Thanks to a good sale, plus 50 cent off coupons, I purchased two cartons, to help replenish my stash.

And suddenly all is right with the world.

My veggie drawer is stocked, too. Oh, and the fruit drawer, as well. Just so you don't think I have skewed priorities, or anything.

It's pretty easy to tell that I've run out of anything interesting to blog about when I find myself taking pictures of my grocery store purchases.

Every time I upload pictures from my camera, I'm surprised by some of the odd things I find. I used to be horrible about taking pictures, about documenting the happenings in our lives, and now I find the most peculiar photos on my camera. I suppose sometime soon I'll share my asparagus photos. They're really quite thrilling. And captivating.

As captivating as asparagus can be.

Which really isn't captivating at all.

Anyway, since I shamelessly share way too much information about myself, and some of you keep coming back for more (thanks, by the way!) I figured I'd take some pictures of some of the items I've been enjoying from the grocery store lately. Because, really? What else could you possibly expect from me?

I've always loved the Yoplait light apple turnover yogurt. Have you tried it? I'm trying very hard to limit my intake of artificially sweetened foods and drinks (except for Diet Coke, because I'm not THAT self loathing) so I've stopped buying those types of yogurts. I really like Greek yogurt, but it's pricey, so I strain plain yogurt to achieve that same sort of thickness. Never mind, that's not really the point. My point is that Smucker's fall harvest cinnamon apple preserves mixed with plain yogurt tastes just as good (even better) as the apple turnover yogurt.

The preserves do contain sugar, but it's real sugar and not high fructose corn syrup or something fake.

The preserves are good in other applications, as well, but I really like it mixed with yogurt.

Dark chocolate + coconut = happy

Pomegranate juice mixed with seltzer is a great "mocktail." I've tried pom/cherry and straight pomegranate and they're both good. This pom/nectarine caught my eye today and I can't wait to give it a try.

I found these tortillas on accident one day. I was looking for my usual tortillas, which were not in their regular spot, thanks to the on going renovation process of our commissary. They taste like corn tortillas, but are chewy and doughy like their flour counterparts. They make fabulous quesadillas.

Amen.

Chai + coconut = extra happy

Caroline likes it, too.

We had a very tearful tea situation the other evening. It was really quite dramatic, but not nearly as dramatic as the popsicle/ice cream man/one dollar meltdown we had over the weekend. That was epic.

Anyway, she likes this seasonal tea made by Bigelow, called Ginger Snappish. It's only available during Christmas time, so I try to stock up when I can. Her stash lasted until May, which is a lot longer than last year's supply. Monday night, she asked for tea. As I opened up her last ginger snappish tea bag I foolishly told her it was the last one. "Put it back!" she said. "I want to save it for later."

I told her it was too late, since I had already opened the package. "Put it in a Ziploc bag," she suggested through a PILE of tears.

Because I'm so understanding and considerate of melodramatic flair, I rolled my eyes and said "You're crying over a TEA BAG! A TEA BAG. That's silly."

It took some time, but I finally got her to drink the tea. I assured her that we'd stock up again next year. Besides, it's getting warmer out and we generally only drink tea at night when it's cold.


It was chilly on Tuesday, so Caroline requested tea. With our ginger snappish supply depleted, she happily drank the coconut chai.

And all was right with the world.

For now.

Hopefully.

And so this concludes a rather lengthy tale of my empty refrigerator and it's triumphant replenishment.

If you made it to the end of this post, I'm impressed.

No, really. Thanks.

Major kudos to you.