Ooey Gooeys

I came home from my writer's group meeting on a sugar high... having eaten too many doughnuts (one and several munchkins) and no real food. By 1:15 p.m. I was miserable, in a grumpy mood from sugar and caffeine crash. My husband made me this quick egg sandwich with lots and lots of monterey jack cheese and one of my favorite mustards (Inglehoffer Sweet Hot). Immediately, I seemed more like my usual self.

It was an ooey gooey egg sandwich. I suppose my husband did it on purpose to get extra protein into me. We like ooey gooeys in this house. Anything so full of stuffing it becomes drippy becomes an ooey gooey. We've had ooey gooey grilled cheese, ooey gooey egg sandwiches and, my daughter's favorite, ooey gooey peanut butter and jelly.

We didn't eat at home yesterday, because we spent the day with various relatives. This morning, my daughter had leftover pancakes and my husband had leftover omelette (which my daughter had ordered for dinner last night, a three-egg broccoli cheese omelette with homefries, rye toast and a side of Italian wedding soup). And somehow I ended up with the leftover doughnuts from the meeting so we each had a munchkin.

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But then I hit a "self-righteous" spell. I put that in quotes because it's my husband's favorite terms and my attitude towards food can often make us bicker. We had an episode earlier this week where too much orange juice and not enough water irritated my daughter's skin. So my husband has been hesitant to let her have OJ. We don't have any other juice. We don't have the chocolate soy milk or chocolate organic milk we often buy for our daughter. My father-in-law and my mother had both purchased bottles of chocolate syrup this week and left them here, so my husband made chocolate milk.

I gave him a dirty look. And our daughter started pointing at me and copping attitude about where the chocolate syrup came from. So, I threw it all away. My husband became irritated that I did not support his parenting decision to give her the chocolate milk. I was angry with our daughter's attitude with me and felt he was projecting his dislike of plain milk onto our daughter. And then he added that I don't ever want her to have treats. (Munchkins for breakfast, that's all I'm saying.)

While he is correct that I spend too much time on my nutrition high horse, he does not see how much chocolate milk goes into this kid on a regular basis. She spends about 20-24 hours a week with her grandparents where they give her all the chocolate milk she wants, all the prepackaged high fructose corn syrup kind. And lollipops and tastykakes.

At my dad's last night, my daughter rooted through the refrigerator and asked if she could have a carrot. My dad washed it for her and handed it to her. Unpeeled. No dip. And she chomped it just like Bugs Bunny.

Contemplations of Meals to Come

As soon as my daughter woke this morning, she ate a nice big banana. Now after her bath, I am ready for my breakfast. She normally eats breakfast #1, often a small meal, around 7 a.m. with a more significant meal around 9:30 or 10 a.m. when I get around to eating. But today she says to me: "That granola we made. It must be getting stale."

To which I reply, "No. Not even remotely."

And she says, "Well, maybe we should eat some to make sure it doesn't get stale."

So, she ends up with a small serving of granola, about 1/3 cup max, and a few ounces of milk. I dole out the milk in small portions to prevent spills and waste. I always add, "Drink this and you can have more."

That left me. Eternal mother's dilemma. Why cook a meal just for me? So I slice a piece of my homemade bread, which with my lack of cutting skills this morning becomes about the size of half a traditional store-bought sandwich slice. Although I want Nutella, I opt for the peanut butter since it has more nutritional value. And I'm trying to talk myself into a banana and a glass of water. But it's too bloody cold to drink cold water. Maybe tea...

And lunch. We will be heading to the library as soon as I see if I can get those tickets for my father-in-law, then lunch, then work. Another ice cream party. I was almost thinking leftover spinach dip and bread (or pasta) but it was so spicy for my daughter... Maybe I should reserve that for my husband and I for a packed lunch tomorrow.

Another option, as we're low on vegetables again, is to whip up one of my typical winter salads of red leaf lettuce, raisins, carrot peels and berry vinaigrette dressing... And have some sort of entree to accompany it...

After my daughter finished the granola and milk, someone was still hungry. This didn't surprise me as she hadn't had any significant protein source yet. So I offered another of my famous snacks: peanut butter and raisins on pretzels. Of course, she does all the dipping and arranging.

The chocolate milk dilemma

The total grocery expense so far for December is $66.67, thanks to the trip to the warehouse club we just made. My daughter ate her way through the samples, as usual. We went primarily for dishwasher liquid ($8.86 for almost ten pounds of liquid Cascade, 155 oz.) We also needed cat food. We have two cats, so we get cat food and litter there. The Meow Mix (21.6 lbs) cost $10.74, which I'm including that in the grocery figures event though I would normally put that in the budget as "pets." We bought the "60 count" box of Nut Lovers Nature Valley granola bars for $8.10. I use the quotations because the granola bars have two bars in each wrapper, but it's still one serving size. This works to my benefit around the house, because my daughter and I often split a pack when we're hungry a little too close to meal time. We also bought a quart of half-n-half ($1.46) and Stonyfield Farms Organic 2% milk (half gallon, $3.12). Then we bought a pack of bananas (3 lbs/$1.32) and a whole pineapple ($2.88).

Remember my earlier brie-related tangent? Well, at the store they had several varieties of real French brie between $6 and $11. The $6 hunk was about twice the size of what I'd normally pay $6 for (when splurging on brie). The $11 package got you an entire wheel of brie. I did not buy any, but I made a mental note.

I was also shocked to see that tuna (StarKist solid white, packed in water) had increased in price to about 80 cents a can. I passed. I think I can get it cheaper elsewhere.

The final and biggest dilemma came with a red box of Horizon Organic Chocolate Milk juice boxes. No refrigeration required (which scares me, what do they do to it to make it nonperishable?). 18-8 oz. servings for $10.58. That's 59 cents each serving. Or seven cents an oz. Now, in the store, I couldn't do this math in my head. But I did know that the milk in my cart cost $3.12, and that the chocolate soy milk I normally buy costs between $2.75 and $3.70 depending where I buy it. Somehow in the store, in seemed like a close call about whether it was a good deal or not. Now, of course, with a calculator, I know that the chocolate soy milk, using $3.25 as an average cost for a half gallon, costs a nickel an ounce or 40 cents per serving. If I got the half gallons instead of the individual cartons, I would have saved about $3.50, or the cost of another half gallon. So, it wasn't a horrendous miscalculation. And considering my daughter probably wastes that many ounces on a regular basis when I misjudge how much I pour and give her too much... Maybe I will break even. It's hard to tell.

We paid for everything with the credit card. And for the record, 99.9 percent of the time, I pay the bill in full every month. This month is no exception.