The importance of being stocked

I was really in this whole cooking thing for a few weeks, wasn't I? Making everything there is to make. It was fun and healthy, and I was doing a good job of losing weight. Then this week, inertia just set in. Its not that I didn't want to cook - I love cooking. But school is back in full swing, which means late nights of finance homework and pages and pages of reading, and then my toilet broke, and then my neighbors went away and had this babysitter who did nothing but let the kids scream in the backyard for 10 hours each day...and work is busy, and the weather is crappy, and aren't those all just excuses?

Yeah, they're excuses. But I think this is how its going to go, where my love of cooking and futzing in the kitchen is going to wax and wane. This is why I am glad I went to the store this weekend and blew a big wad on stocking my kitchen.

When I get bored, I get snacky. And snacks for me are (or were) usually almost entire meals. Bowls of ramen with tuna and an egg; a turkey sandwich; half a chicken. Wow, it sounds gross when I type it out. And it is, because that's a gross amount of food for just a snack.

So I stocked up. Here's a brief and incomplete list of some of the finds I got this weekend, and that I am excited to have around the house:

- Strawberries, surprisingly fresh and juicy, on sale for $1.25 at Fresh&Easy
- Raspberries for $1.25 at F&E (it is my favorite store ever)
- Presidente brand light brie cheese (only 70 calories per serving, and it tastes great)
- Presidente brand fat-free feta cheese
- Polly-O low fat string cheese
- Fresh&Easy roast turkey slices (ridiculously lean)
- Radishes (slice and salt for a good, somewhat spicy chip replacement)
- Pickles (I love salt)
- Salad fixin's like romaine hearts. cucumbers, plum tomatoes, lemons, etc - very quick to whip up for a "big" snack if I need volume
- La Tortilla Factory high-fiber tortillas (I cannot sing the praises of these things enough. 50 calories, 7 g of fiber, no fat! THEY ARE AMAZING.)
- Sarah Lee Light white bread, enriched with fiber, and only 90 calories for 2 slices
- Thomas Light Whole Grain english muffins (100 calories, no HFCS, lots of fiber)
- Fat free cream cheese (I like better than mayonaise on a sandwich)
- Oranges
- Celery stalks
- Popcorn kernels for my new air popper, and some "I Can't Believe Its Not Butter Spray" stuff because wtf, why not - spray a little of this stuff on the popcorn, and a little sprinkle of garlic salt, and I am a happy snacker.

So I am STOCKED FOR SNACKING. It doesn't really matter that the only thing I cooked this week has been some warmed up leftover vegetable soup. Who cares. I just don't feel like cooking from scratch this week. So, having a prepared pantry has helped, and so far this week I've kept myself well within my Points limits, and haven't felt hungry.

I am going to cook Saturday night though, for the VIP and his mom (dun dun dun!!) I've got the menu planned out...I'll post about it later once its done, because a few things still need to be hammered out (like, do they have shrimp in Idaho? Because I'm going to Idaho to do this cooking and I'm not really sure what people eat there other than potatoes.) Wish me luck.