I love grocery shopping and grocery stores. When traveling, I always make an excuse to pop into a grocery store to see what’s on the shelves. Even with kids.
I’m a mom to two young kids and grocery delivery services are often hawked to my demographic as the magic remedy to make you forget the snotty noses, the whining, the sibling bickering, the “Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!” and all the other things that make grocery shopping with kids not so enjoyable. But, you know what my magic remedy is?
Junk food.
Nooooo, not for them. For me.
I love discovering new products and squirreling them away to enjoy later.
For the most part, I’m into healthy food and preparing nourishing food for my family. I cook most meals from scratch, making a roux for casseroles instead of using canned mushroom soup or my own pizza dough. We have a garden where we grow turmeric for our smoothies and shiitake mushrooms for our stir-fry.
Growing up, though, my parents didn’t cook meals from scratch or garden or do anything like that. They were masters of the microwave. But, while we always had food on the table, it’s never what I pine away for these days. Instead, it’s grocery store junk food that brings back all those warm and fuzzy childhood memories. It’s my comfort food.
So, tucked away on the top right corner shelf of my pantry, above the organic rye flour, local sorghum syrup, chia seeds, and the tub of organic cold-pressed coconut oil is my junk food stash. Sometimes the limited edition Oreo cookies don’t even make it inside, but rather stay under the front seat of the car, even though I’m the only one who eats them.
My husband is a food snob and most of my friends are the type who have barely finished their Halloween candy by the time Cadbury Creme Eggs come out. They don’t understand my affinity for odd flavor combinations nor my fascination with reading nutrition and ingredient labels (it’s my party trick — read me a label and I can tell you the product).
Thank goodness I found The Impulsive Buy and my tribe of fellow junk food lovers who are not turned off by Peach Cobbler or Brazilian steak-flavored potato chips, Gingerbread Spice M&M’s, and Cotton Candy Oreos.
So, if you’re ever at my house for a locally sourced dinner of pan-fried free-range rabbit, stone-ground polenta cakes, salad made with foraged greens, and bottle-conditioned craft beer, remember that the top right shelf in my pantry is where you can find the good stuff. Help yourself. 😉