Tuesday, November 2, 2010

A day in the life, brought to you by Trader Joe’s

I typically post 3-5 times per week, so posting more frequently in honor of MoFo is indeed more about food, but probably more about me too. I’ll share with you my day in food. Be warned, though. Today really wasn’t a good day.

I’ll admit it: I drink coffee. Pretty much every day. And I have one favorite mug that I like to use. I’m also in the habit of drinking Trader Joe’s Bolivian Blend. At least the mornings, I like my routine. I usually add some soymilk, but sometimes when I’m feeling extravagant I like to use So Delicious coconut milk creamer. Breakfast is often some fruit, and lately it’s been an apple, which I’ve been buying by the peck from a local orchard.

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I don’t eat much for breakfast because lunch is really early, and usually I eat leftovers. However, after being out of town I didn’t have any leftovers so I had some packaged food, also from Trader Joe’s.

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Vegetable gyoza (from the freezer) and a just-add-boiling-water noodle bowl. Yes, I ate from the plastic bowl. These are some of my current favorite packaged TJ’s foods. I don’t like that the soup bowl has so much packaging, but I do take my #5 plastics to Whole Foods for Gimme 5 and I buy Preserve toothbrushes (guess where? Trader Joe’s).

For dinner, I had a meeting at Max & Erma’s. I did not take pictures, so please use your imagination. If the food in your imagination looks good, you are not imagining correctly. First, let me tell you that Max & Erma’s is not a place I would choose to go, but it is a really popular chain in the area along the lines of Applebee’s, I guess. There is nothing vegan on the menu, although they do have a black bean burger that is vegetarian. (Vegan Eating Out is a great resource for info on chain restaurants.)

I ordered a salad and a baked potato. I asked the waiter for no bacon, no cheese. I told him I did not want any meat. So he brought me a plain baked potato and a salad with bacon. Bacon that I could not see. Bacon that I found with my mouth. The bacon was mixed in with the slivered almonds and underneath the tomatoes on the salad. He told me he thought I just didn’t want bacon on the potato. What? I could tell from the look on his face that he just didn’t get it and wanted to tell me I ordered incorrectly.

After the dinner meeting ended, I headed across the parking lot to Whole Foods to pick up some groceries and see if Alex wanted me to bring him any food. He was upset because someone had egged his truck. The truck was parked at the airport over actual Halloween, so this must have happened last night. Let me tell you, getting egged is no fun even if you like eggs. The paint is damaged, the inside stinks, and he had to spend hours working on cleaning up only three or four eggs.

Let’s end on a happy note. Our black cats stayed safe through Halloween. I wasn’t worried about them as they are indoor-only, but now I am. You can see the shadow of my hand holding up his little mouse, and Twinkie sitting on his hind legs like a prairie dog? He loves to do this, especially in the morning. He was doing this while I was photographing my coffee.

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And I brought Alex a vegan Philly cheesesteak from Whole Foods and he really enjoyed it. He told me he wasn’t hungry but he plowed through this sandwich.

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10 comments:

  1. i love seeing what other people enjoy throughout the day. it's always fascinated me. i eat leftovers for lunch as well, and my breakfast is usually fruit or a salad or something. man, your post makes me want to get off my butt and make another Trader Joe's run (i got every couple of months as it's a 30 minute drive and i feel bad wasting gas because it's in a place where i don't usually visit and so it's outta the way)! our kittehs are indoor only as well. makes us all happyfaced & relaxed knowing they're out of harm's way. i am a sucker for black kitthes, although oddly enough none of our three cats are black. ah ha ha! Twinkie is absolutely adorable - i love his little prarie dog stance! i can't believe people still egg cars - what the fizzle?! idiots. but i bet the vegan philly cheeze steak made things suck a lot less Alex. thanks for sharing your day with us, Jessica!

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  2. Absolutely adorable cat picture. Thank you for sharing it.

    BTW it is fun to see what you eat during the day since you usually get to see my food. It made me giggle that you started posting it as I stopped so I could get more posts in. ;-)

    Hidden bacon is the worst. The waiter clearly missed out on the common sense gene. *shakes head*

    have good evening,
    Ali

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  3. Ew, condolences on the bacon...

    I throw my 5's away so good to know!

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  4. Twinkie is a cutie! Glad the cats got through Halloween safely.

    Sorry to hear about Alex's truck; I can imagine what a horrible mess that would be, and damaging too! :( People should stop and think before they do mean things like that.

    Nothing worse than finding some sort of meat in your mouth! My sympathies!

    That vegan cheesecake sandwich looks extremely plowable..I'm going to see whether my WF makes those!

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  5. Ack! I had a horrible "vegan" experience at Max & Erma's once too, so I can totally relate. It was the first and last time I'll ever go there!

    Sorry about Alex's truck, that's so terrible...

    On a better note - I like those TJ's garlic noodle bowls, too. And I'm all about eating out of the plastic bowl :)

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  6. That's horrible about Alex's truck--seriously, who the heck eggs anything anymore? And stink about Max & Erma's--I had no idea that was around anymore. We had one in ATL when I was in elementary school or something, but it disappeared off the scene years ago. Ugh about bacon and stupid waiters. Seriously, how hard is it to make something *without* bacon?

    But yay yay yay for awesome Trader Joes and Whole Foods eats!!

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  7. I never heard of a Max & Erma's but they sound horrible. Whole Foods is always like a paradise after an experience at one of those gross restaurants.

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  8. Ahhh, I drink coffee every morning too. I can't do with out it!
    Oh no..that is terrible about the bacon! Other people just don't get it. I have given up on trying to explain it to them. Sounds like Alex had a better supper than you...sorry!

    My husband used to own a body shop, and has told me how bad eggs are for the paint. That stinks..sorry that happened to Alex.

    Awwww...Twinkie is adorable! :o)

    Oh...that TJ's soup bowl looks very tasty. I've never been to a TJ's. I think the closest one is about 2 1/2 hours away in Nashville.

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  9. Hidden bacon - how horrible! Sorry you've been having some less-than-amazing experiences lately, although I think you missed out on an excellent opportunity to title this post "Bacon and Eggs." Har har har.

    Thanks for the link to the Preserve toothbrush/products page - I've been thinkin' about/lookin' for something like that lately! And also thanks for the recommendation on the TJ's coffee. I only make my own coffee on the weekends, but I'm not totally satisfied with the blend I have now, and I've been curious about TJ's blends.

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  10. What a great name suggestion! I was a little upset last night polishing this up, and cute titles aren't usually my thing.

    Thanks for the commiseration, folks! I don't think I'd want to live too far away from a TJ's.

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