Day in the Suburbs

It is late on Sunday night and we just finished watching Mad Men.  Now that I have established Danny Strong was indeed on tonight’s episode (I thought he was hilarious as Paris’ boyfriend on Gilmore Girls, but then again there were few things that show could do wrong in my eyes, especially in the early seasons)  I wanted to stop by and finish up my post on at least part of yesterday.  As I mentioned, yesterday we headed to a wedding in Baltimore, and of course, we rented a Zipcar.  I heart Zipcar.  Zipcar is the reason we can live in downtown Washington without a car.  When we do need one, we can just book a car for the number of hours needed, and pick it up.  We are lucky in that we literally have a Zipcar across the street from our building, and over a hundred within a quick walk.

Because I knew we would be running errands and didn’t want to have to plan our day around where I could find gluten-free and vegan options, I packed a lunch of quinoa and peppers and leftover tofu, along with some chocolatey overnight oats.  Here is the cooler with my packed lunch, and some snacks:

I have talked before how I avoid Lara bars on a day-to-day basis because they are high in sugar (even if it is natural sugars) – that said, I do save them for travel and days like yesterday when a portable snack is a good back-up.  

We always hit Target or Costco for bulky products when we have a Zipcar, but neither husband or I were feeling the energy for Costco on  a Saturday afternoon. So we decided on Target, but first I was on a mission.  I wanted to go to MOM‘s:

I have been wanting to go to this store for a while, as I was hoping for large selection of low-glycemic sweeteners and nut butters. While I love living near a  Whole Foods and  Yes! Market, I find both to have a dearth of selections in brands I like.  Yes, I can always order online, but I still love the idea of finding those things at a store, especially when shipping is either expensive or free shipping minimums are high.  Specifically, I was hoping for a big wall of nut butters with the whole Artisana line, perhaps some Naturally Nutty butters, which I recently read about, and the flavored Madhava agave nectars. I am stocked up in Coconut Secret sweeteners, but I would love to see those in stores more. The sweetener selection did not disappoint. I found the vanilla-flavored agave I had been wanting to try:

Sadly, no amazing wall of Artisana nut butters. In fact, most of the other nut butter brands were nut butters available at the Whole Foods I shop at. But, MOM’s did not disappoint, because on the Artisana front, I was able to pick up some Artisana favorites, as you can see from my purchases below:

Yay for finding a gluten-free dairy-free dark chocolate that is not loaded with sugar. It is sweetened with evaporated cane juice so I only bought the chocolate bar, though I eyed the chocolate chips too. I was psyched to find fun things for chocolate fixes, including a new-to-me chocolate coconut spread from Love Street Living Foods. I wonder how it compares to the Cacao Bliss I love so much:

I was also excited to find baking extracts actually labeled gluten-free – I need to do a bit more research on this brand:

Overall, I loved MOM’s because I found many things on my wishlist and the store also had a greater selection of Eden Organics products than Whole Foods or Yes! Market.  If you have gluten intolerances, Eden Organics is very thorough in its product listings.  I called them once for clarification, and they were super helpful and even had information on what is manufactured on what product lines readily available at customer service .  I was psyched to find these products.  I have been looking forever for a gluten-free mustard made with apple cider vinegar (I find avoiding distilled vinegar in condiments makes a world of difference for me) and the Eden mustards fit the bill:

Overall MOM’s had some things at better prices than Whole Foods, including the Bionaturae tomatoes for like 30% less than Whole Foods, so I picked that up as well:

I did pass on these kale chips, as they were pricy compared to making them myself at home, but it was fun to see them at a store:

After MOM’s, we drove to Target and, in the same shopping plaza, I spied this:

Which means my lunch, which I was already looking forward to, was upgraded from this:

To this:

Guacamole makes everything better, doesn’t it?

  Incidentally, had I known a Chipotle was going to be on our route I might not have packed a lunch, because I find them a good option – I usually get a veggie bowl with no rice, black beans, veggies and salsa and guacamole, but I also love just being able to pick up guacamole to supplement an already yummy lunch.

After lunch it was time for:

We picked up paper towels and the like, and I stopped by the beauty aisle for this:

I keep saying I will have more beauty posts (since I did initially, a long time ago, write mainly a beauty blog) so now I have some new products to review. Incidentally, I can’t believe that I finally ran out of shower wash from my beauty blogging days, or that my skin is now in need of anti-acne products.

I hope everyone has a great start to the week. I will stop by again soon with a summery salad, pictures of Baltimore, my take on vegan overnight oats, the recipe for Friday night’s tofu and many other fun things.

And with that, goodnight!