Food Rant

I'm sick of this!!!!!

I was just listening to an episode of the Manic Mommies podcast. On it, Kristin mentioned that she was going to eat at McDonald's, and one of her friends had said "ewww! Do you know what's IN that?" She had told the person that no, she didn't know, and she didn't WANT to know.

I think I'm the same way. I'm sick of hearing about which foods are "healthy" and which are not. I feed my kids Lunchables. There. I said it. I feed them Lunchables and feel good about it. Why? Because when I was growing up, we had meat, cheese, and crackers as meals all the time! What's so wrong with that? Oh, yea. The meat is processed. Processed = bad.

Then there are the naysayers about school lunches. People say the federal government is feeding our kids junk and that we could pack much healthier meals on our own. To that I say, codswallop!!! My girls have been eating school meals for years now. They get a vegetable every day. They'll even get SALAD! If I'm packing a lunch, it's not gonna be salad, that's for sure. (See paragraph above re: Lunchables.)

Then there's the health nuts. First, salt was bad. Bad bad bad! So everything became "salt free" or "low salt", etc. Wait, wait, no. The REAL culprit is cholesterol. Cholesterol-free is the only way to go!!! What's that? It's really FAT? FAT is the real bad guy here? Oh, ok. Well, um, actually, it's just trans-fat. Wait, no. Story on the nightly news. It's salt again. Or maybe high fructose corn syrup. Bad! Evil!

So maybe we should buy and eat organic. Won't THAT be healthier? Maybe, but have you seen the price of that stuff???? Geez. It's enough to make me want to just buy a package of ramen noodles and call it a day. (oh wait....salt....)

Speaking of organic, do you know where your food comes from? Now it's not enough to just eat "healthy" and organic, but now I must eat food that's only been grown in my local town. That I got at a Farmer's Market or food co-op. Shipping food = bad.

That's why I'm sick of this. In deciding what to feed your family, you are damned if you do, and damned if you don't. (and yes, I meant to cuss. Sorry.)

When I was starting to write this, I showed it to Jim. His idea is that it doesn't really matter what we eat. We all should just eat less of it. Good idea! And start exercising, too. I'll get started on that, um, right away. :)

Facebook

I've found a new way to do Facebook. I turned off all the email notifications except those commenting on my own status or writing on my wall. Then, when I'm in Facebook, I click on the Notifications icon in the upper left-hand corner. It'll show who else commented on things that I commented on. If I want, I can then click on the statuses to see what other people said, but I don't have my inbox filling up with comments from people I don't know. This way makes me feel like I'm in control of Facebook instead of the other way around.

My bargain guardian angel returns! In reverse, this time.

While shopping, I have been known to stumble upon some really good deals every now and then. When this happens, I refer to it as my "bargain guardian angel." Well, she's back!

Since the weather is warming up, I've been pulling out the sandals. I still own a pair of crocs, but they are starting to look old. Plus, they look more like shoes you should garden in rather than go to the mall in. So last Sunday, I headed to JC Penney's shoe department with a $10 off coupon. I looked and looked and finally found some white sandals that fit. (the ones in the link aren't the exact ones but they are close) They look very nice for church or work. They were originally $40, on sale for $24.99. I had the $10 off coupon so that made them $14.99, and then Penney's was running a special where they would "pay your sales tax." So I got them for around $14 total.

BUT WAIT!!!! THERE'S MORE!!!!

That was a good deal, but that's not where my angel came into play. I wanted some sandals to just wear around town, and these look too fancy for that. I wanted to keep looking, but my shopping buddy was hungry. :) Fast forward to yesterday. My summer shoes are crowding out my winter shoes so I started putting the winter shoes away and getting the rest of the summer ones out. Lo and behold, there was a pair of brown sandals with a comfy sole. Perfect for wearing around town and not too dressy! I must have had the same thoughts last year and actually had the time to shop.

So this time, my bargain guardian angel SAVED me about $25! How cool is that?