Grocery Shopping??

 A VERY cranky person wrote an article about grocery items that anger him. Some of the items were worthy of condemnation, some were just rants. Here’s my take on a few of them, whether I disagree with him, am neutral or I’m standing right by his side.

Like:

Vegan, gluten free dessert hummus. Made for dipping fruit, grahams crackers, etc. in. It actually sounds pretty good to me and I would be willing to try it, depending on the cost.

Cartoon juice bottles with Iron Man, the Hulk, Princess, etc. The reason I put this in the “like” section is I would totally buy a 3 pack of these to use for putting my own juice, water or milk in for the future. Gives your little one something cute to drink out of. But I would only buy them ONCE. Then use the bottles over and over.

K-cups or other coffee pods. OK, I admit they are an unnecessary luxury and they cost way more than putting your own ground coffee in a reusable pod, but doggone it! I LOVE ‘em! I love being able to have a vast variety of flavors to brew up. If I was a straight no-flavor coffee kind of gal, then yes, I would do my own. But I’m not, so I won’t, so there! (stamping foot)

Bottled lemon and lime juice. I grew up with the cute little lemon shaped bottle of juice that was always in the fridge. I’ve never used lime juice, and I only use the lemon for fish sticks, fish patties or shrimp. MAYBE a little squirt in hot tea or booze drinks. A real lemon would go to waste.

Water enhancers. Totally fine with this. If it helps to get you to drink more water, what the hey. If you’re doing this for nutrition or vitamins, just take the supplements. Washed down with lots of water, of course.

Instant mashed potatoes. I grew up with this. I used this product a lot in the beginning of my marriage. I liked the taste and it was also great to thicken soups. A friend of mine would make fried chicken with instant spuds as the coating. Then they started “improving” it and it started tasting like the box it came in. The only kind I get now are the flavored ones like garlic, chicken, etc.

Neutral:

Monster energy drinks. The only time I tried part of an energy drink (and it was a small part) I didn’t sleep AT ALL that night. And I’d had it mid-morning. So I don’t really use this product and don’t know a whole lot about it.

Bottled water. Who’da EVER thought we’d be BUYING water??? I don’t care, though. Do it if you wanna. And in my case, whenever I go down to Fresno, I NEED bottled water because Fresno water DOES NOT agree with me and I don’t want to spend my week with Lia in the bathroom. But I get the water in gallon jugs. All other times, I have my Bubba Kegs that I keep tap water in when I’m out and about.

Fruit flavored snacks. They’re candy. Treat them as such. Use as a dessert, not a substitute for real fruit.

Ones I also condemn:

Peeps milk. It’s basically flavored milk. Easy to do at home with Nestles flavors or syrups.

Broken Oreos in yogurt. Or really anything added to yogurt. It costs more and you know you have stuff at home you can put in your yogurt.

Pumpkin Salsa. Ugh. ‘nuf said…

Herbs in a tube. Never heard of these before reading this article. Lots of added ingredients to make the stuff squeezable. I’ll pass, thanks.

Lunchable cookie dunks. Way over priced (like all the other lunchable things).

Cup-holder cookies and crackers. Same as above.

Peanut butter to go. Same again. The dollar store has all sorts of small containers for these snack foods and you will save money. Now, for traveling, I’m all for stuff you can give the kids in the car to shut them up for a bit, but you can do better than this…

P3 Protein Snacks. These are just Lunchables for grownups. Make up your own and have them in the fridge. Put ‘em in an insulated bag and you’re good to go.

Walking Tacos. Another Lunchable product. Yes, they’re handy to just nuke in the microwave, but personally, I’d prefer something I’d made at home and taken to work or whatever.

Frozen PB&J sandwiches. I got these ONCE just to see what they were like. Yuk.

BUT…everyone’s different. Get what you want, eat what you want. Be nice to kids and animals. Don’t litter. Peace out…