Summer Foods: What's Working and What's Not + A WI ICE CREAM TOUR

Oh, food. So delicious. So vital. SUCH A GIANT PAIN IN THE NECK. Today, I am thinking about what my family is eating: what’s working, what’s not, and what’s AWESOME. 

Not Working:

*Eating stuff at the pool. YOU GUYS. Constant garbage food to the tune of $50/trip IS NOT WORKING FOR ME. But also! It is all on me to make sure we have food around 5:30 WHEN WE HAPPEN TO BE AT THE POOL. So far, convenience and ennui has won out, but! I just downloaded my banking app, and I think checking my balances more frequently will motivate me to STOP SPENDING ALL MY FUN MONEY ON GARBAGE FOOD.

*Shopping on rote so the cabinets are full of 3 open boxes of the same food. Do your kids do this too? Just open a new box even though there is a PERFECTLY FINE half-eaten box ALREADY ON THE SAME SHELF? I think I need to wait until things run out to buy more. Novel idea, huh? It’s easy when you only order groceries for pick up to just shop your standard weekly cart, but it’s also pretty wasteful.

Working:

*Abandoning formal menu plans to have easy meals in-stock for at-will consumption. Loving lately: make-your-own mini naaan pizzas; omelets and pancakes and fruit; spaghetti with sautéed shrimp and peppers; grilled brie and apple sandwiches; burgers and bagged salad (we are really branching out burger-wise. Ben and I love Impossible frozen burgers from Costco as well as the Kirkland salmon burgers— neither of us is eating meat right now, and we’re loving it. Still doing cheese, eggs, milk, and fish, though), tacos of course (kids still like beef, but I really like Kirkland frozen cod fillets with Trader Joe’s chili lime seasoning); veggie and hummus wraps with fruit and veggies and dip.

*Online grocery shopping: worth overstocking accidentally time-wise.

*ONLY EATING WHEN I AM HUNGRY AND STOPPING WHEN I AM FULL. Wild, huh?

REALLY, REALLY WORKING

A totally ludicrous WI ice cream tour we went on for the 4th of July. We hit 4 WI-only ice cream parlors (two of the served the same kind of WI-made ice cream, but this could not be helped because 2 original originals we planned to hit were closed for the 4th) and sampled house specialities at each place. SO FUN— and we made a note to go back to one when we weren’t so full (I could only eat 3 dill pickle cheese curds and a few bites of Dorothy’s s'mores sundae in Beaver Dam, and this was tragic).

Stop 1:

Notes: YES pineapple on banana splits! WHERE do you find frozen strawberries in syrup these days? YES to pop rocks on sundaes, and WHY don’t all ice cream parlors make their own fudge?

Stop 2:

Notes: YES to the homemade candy— bonus that Minnie found a piece shaped like an airplane. Delicious coffee and popcorn. We did not LOVE the superhero ice cream and prefer superhuman from Chocolate Shoppe in Madison.

Stop 3: 

Notes: Must return! When I am hungry! SO DELICIOUS. The s’mores sundae was peeeeerfect.

Stop 4: AN OLD FAVE

Notes: The “sampler” is just 4 huge scoops in the same cup— beware what you blend together. Also, the triple cheese grilled cheese is the best food ever.

Teaching outfit 10/27:

(A TJ Maxx dress I bought before JACK was born that is black and white giraffe print)

Teaching outfit 11/27:

(Casual because I was proctoring an exam and that's it)