I sort of like grocery shopping. I mean on some levels it’s fun, but on the other hand, I always seem to forget something. Sure I could make a grocery list, but I usually forget to put a few things on the grocery list anyway, so what’s the point?
My two parents each had vastly different grocery shopping styles. My mom was very health conscious and would buy nutritious foods. Most of the time she’d buy Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast and it was only on rare occasions that we got the tasty kids cereals. Things like American cheese were pretty much forbidden in our house, and mom absolutely hated soda.
Of course, I have seven siblings and most of us were finicky eaters, so when my mom would find something that we would all actually eat, she’d make it over and over and over again.
I think there was a time when we had chicken breast three or four nights a week. I also remember a period where hamburgers were frequently prepared. We had hamburgers so often that people would visit our home and say, “Your house smells like hamburgers.”
But sometimes my mom got a little funny about food. I know for a while she kept trying to serve oatmeal for dinner, and only my dad would eat it. I also recall one time when she served mashed potatoes and frozen pizza for dinner. That was… weird. Oh and she loved making tomato soup – lots and lots and lots of tomato soup. Sometimes she served toast with it.
Us kids all loved it when my dad went grocery shopping. He’d come back with things like Little Debbie snack cakes, soda, ice cream sandwiches, and olive loaf. Although I never cared for olive loaf it was always exciting to see it in the fridge ‘cause that meant dad went shopping!
These days I never really know what to buy when I go shopping. In the end I usually end up with turkey burgers, sandwich meat, bagels, frozen chicken and lots and lots of pasta. But who knows, maybe someday I’ll buy olive loaf.
Or… maybe not. Yuck.
