Friesencold

You know how the very hungry caterpillar ate all that junk, but then on Sunday he ate through one nice big green leaf?

Well, I kind of did that through my shopping experience today at Meijer.

Here are the fruits and veggies I bought:

24 Fuji apples
39 bananas
5 Bosc pears
1 Asian pear (tastes like candy, but because they cost $1 each, I only bought one)

2 one-pound clamshells of organic spinach
1 head of celery, or is it stalk?
6 cucumbers
3-lb bag of yellow onions
5-lb bag of organic russet potatoes
3 one-pound bags of organic baby carrots (on sale for $1 each!)
8 avocadoes
1 head of cauliflower
1 head of broccoli
1 yellow pepper
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 bunch of kale

And here’s the other (non-produce) stuff I bought:

2 jars of mild salsa
4 large cans of diced tomatoes
1 loaf of whole wheat bread
1 pack of whole wheat hamburger buns
1 package raw walnuts

The thing I spent the longest time deciding on at Meijer was what bread to buy. I’ve noticed that I’ve done the same thing during several recent shopping trips. I just stand there on the bread aisle, looking at all the options, looking at all the prices, looking at all the ingredient lists, trying to pick the best overall. We used to always buy the Pepperidge Farm 100% Whole Wheat Hearty Texture, but when the regular price of this loaf went up and held at $3.69, I started looking to substitute with cheaper, yet similar loaves of bread.

Now I’m starting to think I might try to make some homemade bread. Maybe I will make that my project for March. We recently were given a loaf of bread from Panera and TJ really enjoyed slicing the bread himself for thick pieces of toast. I liked the idea of it, and how it seemed healthier somehow. There was no label on it, so I don’t know what the ingredients were or how much fiber or sugar or protein were in each slice. But just having that loaf of bread made homemade bread seem more achievable somehow.

During the same week as the bread from Panera, I read this article on a website that my friend Gretchen from Texas told me about and it made me feel part-inspired, part-overwhelmed. I know it’s supposed to be simple, but when you’ve never used a packet of yeast or kneaded a lump of dough in your life, well, it’s a little scary. I know the best way to start is to start small, so for the rest of February, I’m just going to think about making homemade bread. I’m not going to do it yet.

But what I am going to do this month is try to make some homemade Larabars. I searched online this past week for some recipes and found a few that look to be good copies of the real thing. I will let you know how it goes. My first kind to make will be the Cinnamon Roll kind. TJ will thank me.