Saturday, April 28, 2007

Zipp-edy Doo Dah

It is a lovely day with lots of sunshine. A perfect day to eat raw!

This morning I lazed in bed with my dear husband.

At about 10:30, I ate a banana, about a cup and a half of romaine, a few cucumber slices and some leftover salad that I made last night that contained purple cabbage, celery, shredded carrot, and a dressing of soaked raisins, hempseed and a little grapefruit juice.

I had a fun grocery shopping experience, despite our super-limited budget this week. I tried dumpster diving behind Aldi for the first time and hit the jackpot. Loads of green onions, several packages of multi-colored peppers, a dozen or so packages of button mushrooms, a cucumber, 4 heads of romaine, and some pork roast for the Bartimaeas, our cat and a couple of loaves of bread for a friend.

The pork roast reminds me to feel guilty about the diet of our poor cat. See, we're really too poor to have a cat and care for him properly. But we like him a lot and so we keep him. We were buying him the cheapest generic dry food we could get, but I always felt bad about it. I know all about the horrors of the pet food industry. So imagine how frightened I was when my son started eating the cat's food. Although I explained how horrible it was and tried many behavior modification tactics, nothing worked and he kept sneaking it.

What's a mother to do?

I started buying the cat canned tuna and chicken breast. At least if the boy was gonna sneak that into his mouth it wouldn't have melamine or euthanized animals in it!

I wanted Bart (the cat) to go raw, but he wouldn't eat the raw fish I bought him. (At least my son wouldn't eat that.)

I really hate to handle meat. I also don't have much money to spend on feeding a damn cat. The kids have to eat first, you know?

So now, I got three free pork roasts from a dumpster and hopefully Bart will eat roast pork, because I held my nose and roasted it and cut it up for the little furball. Sigh.

After I got back from grocery shopping and dumpster diving, I made myself a salad with about 3 cups romaine, a 12 oz. bag of thawed frozen raspberries, some chopped red pepper and green onions, a small sprinkle of soaked dehydrated sunflower seeds, and an ounce or so of raisins.

The evening involved a big production... helping my husband chaperone his high school's prom. I was a bit concerned that there wouldn't be much to eat. My husband said at least there would be a green salad, so I brought along lentil sprouts and my own dressing--made with soaked almonds, cashews, and sunflower seeds, lemon juice, onion powder, dried oregano, and sea salt. I also brought two Gala apples, but we ended up eating them on the drive over.

As I feared, nothing for me to eat. The salad was liberally sprinkled with American cheese shreds. I mean really, does American cheese make a salad more fancy?!? Ugh. I dug out the lettuce from the bottom and then picked out the leftover bits with my fingers. So annoying. I tried to be quick and subtle about it. The dressing and the lentil sprouts made the salad so sooooooo good. I really enjoyed my dinner.

I was hungry later on in the evening, and there was sheet cake and cookies to tempt me. But I stayed away.

And I had a great time watching the kids dance and joking around with my husband and the other teachers there.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Greenmama! I just found your blog -- I love it!

I have a "funny" question -- how exactly did you go about yoru dumpster-diving? I want to, always have, but my husband really thinks it is illegal and that I will be arrested! lol!

greenmama! said...

I don't believe it is illegal. The only legal issue may be trespassing, but if it is not posted, you will probably not be prosecuted.

Here is an informative article that you might find useful:

http://www.wikihow.com/Dumpster-Dive

Unfortunately, the number of places that compact their garbage is increasing and so there are relatively few places where you can even access the dumpsters. All of the large chains here compact, so the only place I can "dive" is Aldi, a small regional chain.

I don't go with my husband because he's too embarrassed. LOL!