Craving tomatoes

Last week I signed up for a new campaign through BzzAgent. This one is for Ristorante Pizza by Dr. Oetker, the #1 frozen pizza in Italy. I will probably get a coupon to try the product free, and hopefully some coupons to pass on to friends. I love pizza but ordering delivery is both expensive and unhealthy. I always order too much and have greasy pizza in my apartment that I eat because I don't want to waste food and money. By buying frozen pizza I can cut down on the cost and also enjoy pizza in a healthier way by limiting how much pizza I eat and serving it with fresh vegetables. I've had a craving for tomatoes lately and have been eating tomatoes in everything - salsa, pasta with sauce, fresh tomatoes in salad, fresh tomatoes used in casserole, roasted, on sandwiches, yum! But I've been staying away from pizza because I don't want to order in and sabotage myself. I hope my Bzz Kit gets here soon!

Have ever mentioned that I'm a Bzz Agent? I get the chance to try out and review products for free. I usually even get some samples to pass out to my friends - it's a great program! The past few campaigns I have participated in are:

Burt's Bees Natural Skin Solutions for Sensitive Skin - loved it! This was for a new product line. I received two full size products, lots of samples and coupons. I've now started using the moisturizer as part of my routine

Fekkai Shampoo and Conditioner - I didn't like their product at all. I received two full size bottles - 1 each of shampoo and conditioner. I had samples but couldn't get any of my friends to try the product.

Werther's CaramelFest - New types of candies that I hadn't seen in stores. I received full sized bags of 3 kinds of candy, and coupons. I had a great time sharing these with friends and trying all the candies together as a taste test.

Mmm. Nothing like a grilled cheese on whole wheat with tomato and avocado. For breakfast. After a meeting with my nutritionst. Did I mention it's Muenster cheese? Mmmmmm.

Grocery shopping

Thursday after work I went grocery shopping. While I was sitting at my desk at work, I wrote out a perfunctory list. I realized at the end of my struggle in the frozen food aisle that I had pretty much stuck to my list. I did buy a few extra items, but I also didn't get two things. I NEVER stick to my list. This is a milestone!

Here's what I bought:

*items that were on my list

*Yogurt
*Cheese sticks
*Dubliner cheese
*Cottage cheese
*Cheese (yes, after all that, I needed to write down just "cheese" because I didn't have enough. Yes, I bought 4 distinct kinds of cheese. No, I was not having a wine and cheese party. Shush)
*Zucchini
*Spinach
*Broccoli
*Tomato sauce
Mushrooms
Frozen smoothie stuff
*Grapes
*Melon
*Triscuits
*Beans
Bananas
Sweet Potato
Bagged lettuce (I've been craving salad and figured, why not?)
Carrots
Croutons
Skinny Cow single serve Cookies and Cream ice cream
Thin Crust Margherita Pizza (It was on sale!)
Still, my purchases came to more than I thought they would. I even bought lot of things on sale or in their natural state, and tried to stick to my list.
Total spent - $64.95
11 out of 23 items on sale
Total saved - $9.26
Most expensive item - 24 pack of low fat string cheese
Least expensive item - bananas, $.69/lb., got 2 for $.50
 
I'm just so irked at the cost of decent food. Ugh. Sure, I could have only bought sale items and store brand, and trekked around the city from store to store cashing in on the bargains. I don't have a car. The grocery store I go to is in the city and has a high mark up. I am however able to walk home from the store and eliminate the need for a taxi or long bus ride and total exhaustion, thought I do tend to collapse once I get home from the sheer irritation factor of having to go to the store at all.

I'm also kind of shocked at how healthy this list is and the fact that there's no chocolate (unless you count the tiny single serving of Skinny Cow and let's face it, it's probably not 'real' anything. My eating has really changed for the better!

Taking time for breath

During my lunch break today I must have heated and reheated my lunch 3 separate times while poking through emails, printing out invoices, poking around the internet, and playing on Facebook. And squirming around in my chair, hunched with stress and back pain.

I decided to try one of Kripalu's Audio Yoga Breaks for a little mindfulness to break up the day. How do I feel? Is this how I want to feel? I listened to Yoga Taps with Danny Arguetty. It was about 4 and a half minutes long, and guided me through a standing sort of soft pummeling of my body, working through the limbs, belly, butt, back, etc. as a way to increase circulation, stretch a little, and just step out of the stress of the day for a few minutes. It was great! I felt calmer, less tense, more awake, and more present in my day. I think I might start doing that when I hit my 2pm slump.

Kripalu has about a dozen of these 'breaks' posted on their site. Try one and let me know what you think.

I've been trying to get more produce at the farmer's market and I keep meaning to keep a tally on here of what I purchase, but as you probably have noticed I haven't been posting much.

Last week at the Harvard Square Farmers Market I bought 4 zucchini, fava beans (yum!), and Narragansett Creamery Angelito Herb & Garlic Spread.

This week I went looking for more fava beans, but there were none to be found. Maybe I got them at the Davis Square market? That happens tonight. Yesterday at the Harvard Square Farmers Market I picked up Tomatoes, Broccoli,  and of course, Narragansett Creamery Angelito Herb & Garlic Spread.

It's been very stormy here, with sudden thunderstorms in the afternoon accompanied by small flash floods. I haven't looked at my garden since Sunday because I don't want to see what's been flattened until the rain is done. maybe I'll take a look tonight, just to see if I should stake anything up.

Fidgety people drive me nuts. It's bad enough that I'm on a train that is not moving, escaping the rain that has soaked through my pants and knee-high socks, but now I also cannot enjoy my wonderful book because I can see you fussing in my peripheral vision. With your bag. Your wallet. Your scarf and how it rings your neck. Yes, you are straddling two open seats and mange to KEEP bumping into me. I want my space. I position myself in every situation so that I will not have to put up with unnecessary touching. Yes, put your headphones in NOW, after we've been on the train for 15 minutes. Can you hear me screaming in my head? And now the woman on my left is poking me with her bony arm. How many times do you need to adjust your iPod?

--updated 2/28/2010--
Um, yes, I was ranting a bit, but really people. Be aware of your body. PLEASE!

and that photo above is from when my big sister and I stopped at the cafe at the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum and had amazing coffee, divine mushroom soup, and some unspeakable dark chocolate bread pudding.

6.365.2009 Checking the curd

6.365.2009 Checking the curd
Originally uploaded by bareblueskin

I'm checking to see if the curd is set for the mozzarella cheese I'm making. I would have liked to post a shot where I'm stretching the curd, but it was too hard to get a decent shot and stretch the curd at the same time. This is my third try at making mozzarella, and made pizza with it.

Lunch

2 carrots chopped up and cooked for a bit in the microwave
1/2 can kidney beans
1/2 zucchini, steamed, leftover from last night (from farmers market)
chunk of sharp cheddar leftover in fridge
1 thick slice corn bread from weird loaf purchased at farmers market
maybe some goat cheese and another slice of bread (from farmers market)

Sounds pretty healthy actually, but will I be full? I think I might have to supplement this with Oreos. Lots of Oreos.

Eating Fresh

The farmers market in my neighborhood started at the beginning of June, and my goal is to buy some or all of my produce each week at the farmers market instead of buying it at the grocery store. I know selection will depend on what is ripe that week, but that's how everyone used to do it, certainly I can try it out.

June 10 - 4 kale plants, 6 basil plants, 1 head of bibb lettuce

June 17 - Garlic and Basil goat cheese from Crystal Brook Farm, 'Flute' bread from Hi-Rise Bakey, and kale from the first stand on the corner (I have their name somewhere). The bread is long like French bread, but holier and sort of like sourdough.


June 24 - kale, zucchini, carrots, and corn bread. No, not like regular corn bread, but yes, corn bread.


My new issue of the Cross Stitcher came today, and for once I thought I would stitch the kit that came with the magazine. It's vry cute and I think I could use it for a welcome baby card, if I actually stitch the thing. It says the the magazine that it takes 10 hours. Here is my progress after 1 hour. Can you tell what it is yet?

New grocery baskets

Kristin, I thought you would get a kick out of this-

I went grocery shopping for the first time in a month(!) and discovered that there are new hand baskets. These have two kinds of handles, the standard middle basket handle, but they have this new long handle, and wheels at one end of the basket, so you can drag the basket behind you at the store. Too cute! I think kids would have fun with these, and I'm sure it helps the elderly while they are shopping.

My friend Andrea (featured in the horrible photo above taken wtih my cell phone) commented that these new baskets are double the size of the old, so her old gauge of when to stop buying won't work anymore.