Friday

Discovery of the day: Triangles of crunchy brown rice-y goodness

I went to the fancy-pants grocery at lunchtime today. In honor of my Summer of Frugality I have been successfully limiting myself to one trip per week, and there have even been a couple of weeks I haven't gone at all because I didn't have anything specific to buy.

But today is Friday and I was at loose ends for lunch so I decided I needed some soba noodles. Actually, I guessed I might need some soba noodles, since I may well have a package at home. But let's not argue over details.

One cannot go to the fancy-pants grocery to buy just one item. I found my preferred brand of soba and decided to look for dashi soup mix. Found that. Wandering by the bulk foods, I realized we were just about out of quinoa. Got that. Walking by the card aisle I remembered I needed to buy a wedding card and decided to get a 'test card' for my daughter, who just moved. I want to mail her a box but want to be sure the address she gave me actually works first. (Don't laugh -- it's happened.)

Then I remembered I wanted to get some pesto from the deli. I procured that, and as I turned around, I spied the chip aisle. Apropos of nothing, it popped into my head that what I really wanted was a bag of brown rice chips. They're like tortilla chips made from brown rice. Don't make that face -- they're really good! It took some searching but I finally added a bag of sesame seaweed flavor chips to my basket.

Tore them open at the stoplight on the way back to work and managed to limit myself to one at a time, maybe 3 in all before the light changed. Back at my desk, I checked the serving size and meticulously counted them out. It took longer to count them than to eat them. The rest of the bag is sitting in my purse, daring me to leave it unmolested for the rest of the day.

Only 2 hours and 53 minutes to go....