Food Finds

Just a couple of cool food finds that I wanted to pass on.

1. Just a couple days after Jen's post about Mormon Chocoholics Anonymous, I found out my two awesome, adult nieces, brenbot and tamrobot (you may have seen their comments around these parts) were trying to incorporate the "Ocho Diet" into their lives. It's just the kind of diet I like to hear about - especially since I'm pregnant. It's less about "going on a diet" and more about trying to incorporate better foods into your diet to "cover all your nutritional bases". And I have to say, I love eating fresh oatmeal with blueberries and walnuts every morning. Yummm. Tamrobot even put together this cool form to keep track of your "ocho eating habits".

2. Last week I had the chance to visit a brand new grocery store, Fresh & Easy. If one ever pops up in your neighborhood, you have to go. My dh says it is the perfect store for us - a family where the mom wants to eat healthy and the dad does not :). Bottom line is that I can get organice produce, fresh preprepared meals with no additives or preservatives and dh's Diet Coke all in one place (and at a good price). Princess' favorite part is the self-checkout where she can pretend she is a paid employee while scanning all our food. "Mom," she says "I love this store". To my happy children, add the super nice employees, the parking spots reserved for parents with children and their commitment to the environment and to the community and there isn't much about this "neighborhood grocery store" I don't like. Look for one opening near you.

3. Did you make a New Year's resolution to do better at meal planning? I didn't. But I am always looking for ways to make my meal planning more efficient, more fun and more good lookin'. Alice at Future Girl (an awesome craft blog) designed this great meal planning sheet that fits the bill perfectly. You can download it here. This will be so much better than the crazy little scraps of paper that I have hanging around (which usually get lost before I actually make the meals). Happy meal planning.

UPDATE:
4. I first got hooked on plain frozen yogurt at the 40 Carats cafe at Bloomingdales in NYC years ago. Then entered the wonderful world of Pinkberry which was the closest thing I could find to my Bloomies treat here in southern CA. Then I had to move away from my local Pinkberry and found nothing that could satisfy the plain frozen yogurt craving (aside from a one-time purchase from Red Mango during a Jazz game while visiting UT). But yesterday, my world changed. Our local frozen yogurt establishment, Golden Spoon, has introduced a new flavor, "Tasty Tangy" or something like that. And guess what - it's that plain/tangy/sour frozen yogurt flavor. YUMMY! Pile on some fresh strawberries, granola and carob chips and it's the dreamiest dessert in the world**.

** Actually you probably won't like it. None of my friends, family or children think that it is anything close to delicious. Good. More for me.

Feel free to share your own post-holiday food finds!